name	Mel Allen
birth date	February 14, 1913
birth place	Birmingham, Alabama
death date	June 16, 1996
alma mater	University of Alabama
occupation	American sportscaster
nationality	American }}

Mel Allen (Hebrew name: Mordechai ben Yehuda Elya; February 14, 1913 – June 16, 1996) was an American sportscaster, best known for his long tenure as the primary play-by-play announcer for the New York Yankees. During the peak of his career in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Allen was arguably the most prominent member of his profession, his voice familiar to millions. Years after his death, he is still promoted as having been the "Voice of the New York Yankees." In his later years, he gained a second professional life as the first host of ''This Week in Baseball''.

Early life and career

Allen was born Melvin Allen Israel in Birmingham, Alabama. (Biographer Stephen Borelli notes Allen added the middle name Avrom, to honor a grandfather of his with that name who had died.) The future sportscaster was educated as a lawyer, but a boyhood love for baseball led him to become first a sports columnist and then a radio announcer. He attended the University of Alabama where he was a member of Kappa Nu Fraternity as an undergraduate. He went on to earn a law degree from Alabama as well.

During his time at Alabama, Israel served as the public address announcer at Alabama football games. In 1933, when Birmingham's WBRC asked Alabama coach Frank Thomas to recommend a new play-by-play announcer, Thomas suggested Israel. His first broadcast was Alabama's home opener that year, against Tulane.

Soon after graduating in 1937, Allen took a train to New York City for a week's vacation. As it turned out, one week became 60 years; he settled in New York and lived in the New York metro area (first New York State, then Connecticut) for the rest of his life.

While on vacation, Allen auditioned for the CBS Radio Network as a staff announcer. CBS executives already knew of Allen; the network's top sportscaster, Ted Husing, had heard many of his Crimson Tide broadcasts. Allen was hired at $45 a week. He often did non-sports announcing such as big band remotes or game show announcements. Among the game shows, he did ''Truth or Consequences''. He would serve as an understudy to both sportscaster Husing and newscaster Bob Trout.

In his first year at CBS, he announced the crash of the ''Hindenburg'', interrupting Kate Smith to do so. He first became a national celebrity when he ad libbed for a half-hour during the rain-delayed Vanderbilt Cup from an airplane.

In 1939, he appeared as the announcer in the Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film musical short-subject, "On the Air", with Leith Stevens and the Saturday Night Swing Club.

Broadcasting career

Baseball

In 1938, Allen landed his first major baseball assignment, as color commentator for the World Series. This led Wheaties to tap him to replace Arch McDonald as the voice of the Washington Senators for the 1939 season; McDonald was moving to New York as the first full-time radio voice of the Yankees and New York Giants. However, Wheaties gave in to owner Clark Griffith's desire to have Walter Johnson behind the mike.

Allen didn't have to wait long for a break, however. In June 1939, Garnett Marks, McDonald's partner on Yankee broadcasts, twice mispronounced Ivory soap, the Yankees' sponsor at the time, as "Ovary Soap." He was fired, and Allen was tapped to replace him. McDonald himself went back to Washington after only one season, and Allen became the Yankees' and Giants' lead announcer. Allen was able to do double duty for both teams because only the home games were being broadcast.

In Stephen Borelli's biography ''How About That!'', the author states that it was at CBS's suggestion in 1937, the year Melvin Israel joined the network, that Israel go by a different on-air last name. He chose Allen, his father's middle name. He legally changed his name to Allen in 1943.

Allen periodically recounted an anecdote that occurred during his first full season as the announcer of the Yankees. Lou Gehrig had been forced to retire the previous year due to what would be a fatal illness. Speaking with Allen in the team's dugout, Gehrig told him "Mel, I never got a chance to listen to your games before, because I was playing every day. But I want you to know they're the only thing that keeps me going." Allen waited until Gehrig left, then broke down in tears.

Allen's stint with the Yankees and Giants was interrupted in 1941, when no sponsor could be found and both teams went off the air. The radio broadcasts resumed in 1942. Allen was the voice of both the Yankees and the Giants until 1943, when he entered the United States Army during World War II. While in the service, he broadcast on ''The Army Hour'' and Armed Forces Radio.

After the war, Allen began doing Yankees games exclusively. By this time, the team's road games were also part of the broadcast schedule. Before long, Allen and the Yankees were fused in the public consciousness, in part because of the Yankees' frequent World Series appearances. Allen eventually called 22 World Series on radio and television—including 18 in a row from 1946 to 1963. Even when the Yankees didn't appear in the Series (which only happened four times in 18 years), Allen's popularity was such that he was always tapped as the play-by-play man. He also called 24 All-Star Games.

Indicative of his popularity during the 1950s, he was one of the first three celebrities spoofed in the just-created ''Mad'' comic book. In the second issue, Allen, Leo Durocher and Yogi Berra were all caricatured in a baseball story, "Hex!", illustrated by Jack Davis.

After Russ Hodges departed from the Yankees booth for the New York Giants, a young Curt Gowdy was a broadcast partner for two seasons 1949-50, brought in from Oklahoma City after winning a national audition. Gowdy, originally from Wyoming, credited Mel Allen's mentoring as a big factor in his own success as a broadcaster. Gowdy became the play-by-play announcer for the Boston Red Sox in 1951.

Among Allen's many catchphrases were "Hello there, everybody!" to start a game, "How a-''bout'' that?!" or "Going, going, gone!" on home runs and "Three and two. What'll he do?" But Allen famously lost his voice during the 1963 World Series, in which the Dodgers defeated the Yankees in a four-game sweep.

Other sports

Fittingly for a man who got his first breaks in Alabama and New York calling college football, Allen did a number of bowl games: 14 Rose Bowls, 2 Orange Bowls, and 2 Sugar Bowls.

In the National Football League, Allen served as play-by-play announcer for the Washington Redskins in 1952-53 and for the New York Football Giants on WCBS-AM in 1960 - with some of the latter broadcasts also being carried nationally by the CBS Radio Network. Allen was behind the WCBS mike when Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Chuck Bednarik levelled Giants running back Frank Gifford during a clash at Yankee Stadium. He also did radio play-by-play for the Miami Dolphins' inaugural season in 1966, and University of Miami football the following year.

Allen hosted ''Jackpot Bowling'' on NBC in 1959. He became host after Leo Durocher quit to return to coaching. Allen's lack of bowling knowledge made him an unpopular host, and that April, Bud Palmer replaced him as the show's host.

Non-sports work

In the early 1960s, Allen hosted the three-hour Saturday morning segment of the weekend NBC Radio program ''Monitor''. He also contributed sportscasts to the program until the late 1960s. Allen also provided voiceover narration for Fox Movietone newsreels for many years.

Fired by the Yankees

In 1964, the Yankees made the World Series for the 15th time in 19 years—but Allen wasn't there. Back in September, before the end of the season, the Yankees informed Allen that his contract with the team would not be renewed. In those days, the main announcers for the Series participants always called the World Series on NBC. Although Allen was thus technically eligible to call the Series, Baseball Commissioner Ford Frick honored the Yankees' request to have Phil Rizzuto join the Series crew instead. It was the first time Allen had missed a World Series for which the Yankees were eligible since 1943, and only the second World Series (not counting those missed during World War II) that he'd missed since he began calling baseball games in 1938.

On December 17, after much media speculation and many letters to the Yankees from fans disgruntled at Allen's absence from the Series, the Yankees issued a terse press release announcing Allen's firing; he was replaced by Joe Garagiola. NBC and Movietone dropped him soon afterward. To this day, the Yankees have never given an explanation for Allen's sudden firing, and rumors abounded. Depending on the rumor, Allen was either homosexual, an alcoholic, a drug addict, or had a nervous breakdown. Allen's sexuality was sometimes a target in those more conservative days because he hadn't married (and never did).

Years later, Allen told author Curt Smith that the Yankees had fired him under pressure from the team's longtime sponsor, Ballantine Beer. According to Allen, he was fired as a cost-cutting move by Ballantine, which had been experiencing poor sales for years (it would eventually be sold in 1969). Smith, in his book ''Voices of Summer,'' also indicated that the medications Allen took in order to maintain his busy schedule may have affected his on-air performance. (Stephen Borelli, another biographer, has also pointed out that Allen's heavy workload didn't allow him time to take care of his health.)

Allen became Merle Harmon's partner for Milwaukee Braves games in 1965, and worked Cleveland Indians games on television in 1968. But he would not commit to either team full-time, nor to the Oakland Athletics, who also wanted to hire him after the team's move from Kansas City. Despite the firing in 1964, Allen remained loyal to the Yankees for the remainder of his life, and to this day—years after his death—he is still popularly known as the "Voice of the Yankees."

Eventually, the Yankees allowed him to again perform as a speaker at special Yankee Stadium ceremonies, including Old Timers' Day, which Allen had originally handled when he was lead announcer. Though Yankees broadcaster Frank Messer (who joined the club in 1968) assumed the emcee's slot for Old Timers' Day and special events like Mickey Mantle Day from the 1960s onward, the Yankees made sure to also invite Allen to call the actual exhibition game between the Old Timers, and to take part in players' number-retirement ceremonies.

Return to the Yankees

Allen was brought back to the Yankees' on-air team in 1976 as a pre/post-game host for the cable telecasts with John Sterling, and also started calling play-by-play again. He announced Yankees cable telecasts on SportsChannel New York (now MSG Plus) with Phil Rizzuto, Bill White, Frank Messer, and occasionally, Fran Healy.

Allen remained with the Yankees' play-by-play crew until 1985 and made occasional appearances on Yankee telecasts and commercials into the late 1980s. In 1990, Allen called play-by-play for a WPIX Yankees game to officially make him baseball's first seven-decade announcer. Among the memorable moments Allen called in his latter stretch were Yankee outfielder Reggie Jackson's 400th home run in 1980, and Yankee pitcher Dave Righetti's no-hitter on July 4, 1983.

''This Week in Baseball''

In his later years, Allen was exposed to a new audience as the host of the syndicated highlights show ''This Week in Baseball'', which he hosted from its inception in 1977 until his death. When FOX relaunched ''TWIB'' in 2000 (after a one-year hiatus), it used a claymation version of Allen to open and close the show until 2002.

Computer games

Mel Allen reached another generation of fans in 1994 when he recorded the play-by-play for two computer baseball games, ''Tony La Russa Baseball'' and ''Old Time Baseball'', which were published by Stormfront Studios. The games included his signature ''"How about that?!"'' home run call. Allen also used that catch phrase during his cameo appearances in the films ''The Naked Gun'' (1988) and ''Needful Things'' (1993).

Although he completed the work only about a year before his death, producer Don Daglow said in a 1995 interview with ''Computer Gaming World'' that

Awards

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association inducted Allen into its Hall of Fame in 1972. In 1978, he was one of the first two winners of the Baseball Hall of Fame's Ford C. Frick Award for broadcasting. (The other was his old colleague Red Barber, who for some time served alongside Allen as the Yankees' announcer after making his name with the Brooklyn Dodgers.) In 1985, Allen was inducted into the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame along with the Voice of the Red Sox Curt Gowdy and Chicago legend Jack Brickhouse. Allen was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1988.

Death and legacy

Allen died on June 16, 1996 of heart failure (he had had open-heart surgery in 1989) at the age of 83. He was buried at Temple Beth El Cemetery in Stamford, Connecticut. On July 25, 1998, the Yankees dedicated a plaque in his memory for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The plaque calls him ''"A Yankee institution, a national treasure"'' and includes his much-spoken line, ''"How about that?"''

References

External links

Mel Allen's biography (''How About That! The Life of Mel Allen''), a book by Stephen Borelli

Alabama Communication Hall of Fame page on Mel Allen

Baseball Hall of Fame page on Mel Allen

Mel Allen, legendary Yankees voice, dies at 83

The Baseball Biography Project - Mel Allen

Monitor Tribute Pages, Mel Allen was a host in 1960s

Category:1913 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Alabama Crimson Tide football broadcasters Category:American game show hosts Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American radio sports announcers Category:American television sports announcers Category:Bowling broadcasters Category:Cleveland Indians broadcasters Category:College basketball announcers in the United States Category:College football announcers Category:Jewish American sportspeople Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:Miami Dolphins broadcasters Category:Milwaukee Braves broadcasters Category:National Football League announcers Category:New York Giants broadcasters Category:New York Giants (NL) broadcasters Category:New York Yankees broadcasters Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Birmingham, Alabama Category:Washington Redskins broadcasters

ca:Mel Allen es:Mel Allen fr:Mel Allen fi:Mel Allen

name	Red Barber
birth date	February 17, 1908
birth place	Columbus, Mississippi
death date	October 22, 1992
death place	Tallahassee, Florida
alma mater	University of Florida
occupation	American sportscaster
nationality	American }}

Walter Lanier "Red" Barber (February 17, 1908 – October 22, 1992) was an American sportscaster.

Barber, nicknamed "The Ol' Redhead", was primarily identified with radio broadcasts of Major League Baseball, calling play-by-play across four decades with the Cincinnati Reds (1934–38), Brooklyn Dodgers (1939–1953), and New York Yankees (1954–1966). Like his fellow sports pioneer Mel Allen, Barber also gained a niche calling college and professional football in his primary market of New York City.

Biography

Early years

Barber was born 1908 in Columbus, Mississippi. He was a distant relative of poet Sidney Lanier and writer Thomas Lanier Williams. The family moved to Sanford, Florida in 1918 and, at the age of 21, he hitchhiked to Gainesville and enrolled at the University of Florida, majoring in education. During his first year he worked at various jobs including part-time janitor at the University Club. There in January 1930 Barber got his start in broadcasting.

An agriculture professor had been scheduled to appear on WRUF, the university radio station, to read a scholarly paper over the air. When the professor's absence was discovered minutes before the broadcast was to begin, janitor Barber was called in as a substitute. Thus the future sportscaster's first gig was reading "Certain Aspects of Bovine Obstetrics". After those few minutes in front of a microphone, Barber decided to switch careers. He became WRUF's director and chief announcer and covered Florida football games that autumn. Then he dropped out of school to focus on his radio work. After four more years at WRUF he landed a job broadcasting the Cincinnati Reds on WLW and WSAI when Powel Crosley, Jr., purchased the team in 1934.

On Opening Day 1934 (April 17), Barber attended his first major league game and broadcast its play-by-play, as the Reds lost to the Chicago Cubs 6-0. He called games from the stands of Cincinnati's renamed Crosley Field for the next five seasons.

Brooklyn Dodgers

Barber had been hired by Larry MacPhail, then president of the Reds. When MacPhail moved on to be president of the Dodgers for the 1939 season, he took the play-by-play man along. In Brooklyn, Barber became an institution, widely admired for his folksy style. He was also appreciated by people concerned about Brooklyn's reputation as a land of "dees" and "dems".

Barber became famous for his signature catchphrases, including these:

''"They're tearin' up the pea patch"'' – used for a team on a winning streak.

''"The bases are F.O.B. (full of Brooklyns)"'' – indicating the Dodgers had loaded the bases.

''"Can of corn"'' – describing a softly hit, easily caught fly ball.

''"Rhubarb"'' – any kind of heated on-field dispute or altercation.

''"Sittin' in the catbird seat"'' – used when a player or team was performing exceptionally well. This expression was the title of a well-known story by James Thurber. According to a character in Thurber's story, the expression came from Red Barber, but according to Barber's daughter, her father did not begin using the expression until after he had read the story.

''"Walkin' in the tall cotton"'' – also used to describe success.

''"Slicker than boiled okra"'' – describing a ball that a fielder was unable to get a grip on.

''"Easy as a bank of fog"'' – describing the graceful movement of a fielder.

''"Tighter than a new pair of shoes on a rainy day"'' – describing a closely-contested game.

''"Tied up in a croker sack"'' – describing a one-sided game where the outcome was all but decided.

To further his image as a Southern gentleman, Barber would often identify players as "Mister", "big fella", or "old" (regardless of the player's age):

''"Now, Mister Reiser steps to the plate, batting at .344."''

''"Big fella Hatten pitches, it's in there for strike one."''

''"Old number 13, Ralph Branca, coming in to pitch."''

A number of play-by-play announcers including Chris Berman have adopted his use of "back, back, back" to describe a long fly ball with potential to be a home run. Those other announcers are describing the flight of the ball but Barber was describing the outfielder in this famous call from Game 6 of the 1947 World Series. Joe DiMaggio was the batter:

''"Here's the pitch, swung on, belted ... it's a long one ... back goes Gionfriddo, back, back, back, back, back, back ... heeee makes a one-handed catch against the bullpen! Oh, Doctor!"''

The phrase "Oh, Doctor" was also picked up by some later sportscasters, most notably Jerry Coleman, who was a New York Yankee infielder during the 1940s and 50s and later worked alongside Barber in the Yankees' radio and TV booths.

In Game 4 of that same 1947 Series, Barber memorably described Cookie Lavagetto's ninth-inning hit to break up Bill Bevens' no-hitter and win the game at once:

''"Wait a minute ... Stanky is being called back from the plate and Lavagetto goes up to hit ... Gionfriddo walks off second ... Miksis off first ... They're both ready to go on anything ... Two men out, last of the ninth ... the pitch ... swung on, there's a drive hit out toward the right field corner. Henrich is going back. He can't get it! It's off the wall for a base hit! Here comes the tying run, and here comes the winning run! ... Well, I'll be a suck-egg mule!"''

In 1939 Barber broadcast the first major-league game on television, on experimental NBC station W2XBS. In 1946 he added to his Brooklyn duties a job as sports director of the CBS Radio Network, succeeding Ted Husing and continuing through 1955. There his greatest contribution was to conceive and host the ''CBS Football Roundup'', which switched listeners back and forth between broadcasts of different regional college games each week.

For most of Barber's run with the Dodgers, the team was broadcast over radio station WMGM (later WHN) at 1050 on the AM dial. From the start of regular television broadcasts until their move to Los Angeles, the Dodgers were on WOR-TV, New York's Channel 9. Barber's most frequent broadcasting partner in Brooklyn was Connie Desmond.

Barber developed a severe bleeding ulcer in 1948 and had to take a leave of absence from broadcasting for several weeks. Dodgers president Branch Rickey arranged for Ernie Harwell, the announcer for the minor-league Atlanta Crackers, to be sent to Brooklyn as Barber's substitute in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper.

While running CBS Sports, Barber became the mentor of another redheaded announcer. He recruited the Fordham University graduate Vin Scully for CBS football coverage, and eventually invited him into the Dodgers' broadcast booth to succeed Harwell in 1950 (after the latter's departure for the crosstown New York Giants).

Barber was the first person outside the team's board of directors to be told by Branch Rickey that the Dodgers had begun the process of racial desegregation in baseball, which led to signing Jackie Robinson as the first black player in the major leagues after the 1880s. As a Southerner, having lived with racial segregation as a fact of life written into law, Barber told Rickey that he wasn't sure he could broadcast the games, but he said he would try. Observing Robinson's skill on the field and the way Robinson held up to the vicious abuse from opposing fans, Barber became an ardent supporter of him and the black players who followed, including Dodger stars Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe. (This story is told in Barber's 1982 book, ''1947: When All Hell Broke Loose in Baseball''.)

During this period, Barber also broadcast numerous World Series for Mutual radio and in 1948 and 1952 for NBC television, frequently teaming with Yankees announcer Mel Allen. He also called New York Giants football from 1942 to 1946, as well as several professional and college football games on network radio and TV, including the NFL Championship Game, Army-Navy Game, and Orange Bowl.

New York Yankees

Barber wanted a higher fee from Gillette, sponsor of the 1953 World Series on television, than was originally offered. When Dodgers owner Walter O'Malley refused to back him, Barber declined Gillette's fee and Vin Scully partnered with the Yankees' Mel Allen during the series. According to baseball historian Curt Smith, it was O'Malley's lack of support that led to Barber resigning from the Dodgers later that October.

Soon afterward the crosstown Yankees hired Barber. Just before the start of the 1954 season, surgery resulted in permanent deafness in one ear. In 1955 he took his long-running television program ''Red Barber's Corner'' from CBS to NBC. It ran from 1949 until 1958.

With the Yankees, Barber strove to adopt a strictly neutral, dispassionately reportorial broadcast style, avoiding not only partisanship but also any emotional surges that would match the excitement of the fans. He'd already had a reputation as a "fair" announcer while with the Dodgers, as opposed to a "homer" who openly rooted for his team from the booth. Some fans and critics found this later, more restrained Barber to be dull, especially in contrast with Mel Allen's dramatic, emotive style.

Barber described the ways they covered long fly balls as one of the central differences between Allen and himself. Allen would watch the ball. Thus his signature call, "That ball is going, going, it is GONE!", sometimes turned into, "It is going ... to be caught!" or "It is going ... foul!" Barber would watch the outfielder, his movements and his eyes, and would thus be a better judge whether the ball would be caught. This is evident in his famous call of Gionfriddo's catch (quoted above). Many announcers say "back, back, back" describing the ball's flight. On the Gionfriddo call Barber is describing the action of the outfielder, not the ball.

Curt Smith, in his book ''Voices of Summer'', summarized the difference between Barber and Allen in these words: "Barber was white wine, crepes suzette, and bluegrass music. Allen was hot dogs, beer, and the U.S. Marine Corps Band. Like Millay, Barber was a poet. Like Sinatra, Allen was a balladeer. Detached, Red reported. Involved, Mel roared."

Under the ownership of CBS in 1966, the Yankees finished tenth and last, their first time at the bottom of the standings since 1912 and after more than 40 years of dominating the American League. On September 22, paid attendance of 413 was announced at the 65,000-seat Yankee Stadium. Barber asked the TV cameras to pan the empty stands as he commented on the low attendance. Although denied the camera shots on orders from the Yankees' head of media relations, he said, "I don't know what the paid attendance is today, but whatever it is, it is the smallest crowd in the history of Yankee Stadium, and this crowd is the story, not the game." By a horrible stroke of luck, that game was the first for CBS executive Mike Burke as team president. A week later, Barber was invited to breakfast where Burke told him that his contract wouldn't be renewed.

Later life

After his dismissal by the Yankees in 1966, Barber retired from baseball broadcasting. He wrote several books, including his autobiography, ''Rhubarb in the Catbird Seat''; contributed to occasional sports documentary programs on radio and television; and from 1981 until his death made weekly contributions to National Public Radio's ''Morning Edition'' program. He would talk to host Bob Edwards about sports or about other topics including the flora at his home in Tallahassee, Florida. Barber would call Edwards "Colonel Bob", referring to the Kentucky Colonel award to Edwards by his native state.

Red Barber died in 1992 in Tallahassee, Florida. In 1993, Edwards' book ''Fridays with Red: A Radio Friendship'' (ISBN 0-671-87013-0), based on his ''Morning Edition'' segments with Barber, was published.

Honors

The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association inducted Barber into its Hall of Fame in 1973. In 1978, Barber joined former colleague Mel Allen to become the first broadcasters to receive the Ford C. Frick Award from the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1979, he was recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Florida, given a Gold Award by the Florida Association of Broadcasters, and inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. In 1984, Barber was part of the American Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame’s inaugural class which included sportscasting legends Don Dunphy, Ted Husing, Bill Stern and Graham McNamee. Barber was given a George Polk Award in 1985 and a Peabody Award in 1990 for his NPR broadcasts, and in 1995 he was posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

The Red Barber Radio Scholarship is awarded each year by the University of Florida's College of Journalism and Communications to a student studying sports broadcasting.

A WRUF microphone used by Barber during the 1930s is part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum's collection. It has been displayed in the museum's "Scribes and Mikemen" exhibit, and from 2002-2006 it was featured as part of the "Baseball as America" traveling exhibition.

See also

List of University of Florida honorary degree recipients

Bibliography

References

External links

Fan essay on Red Barber

Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient

Red Barber Collection at University of Florida's George A. Smathers Libraries

Red Barber Radio Scholarship

Baseball as America Traveling Exhibition

Red on the Phil Silvers Show

Audio: Barber calls Cookie Lavagetto's base hit in Game 4 of the 1947 World Series

Audio: Barber calls Al Gionfriddo's catch in Game 6 of the 1947 World Series

Category:1908 births Category:1992 deaths Category:American radio sports announcers Category:American television sports announcers Category:Brooklyn Dodgers announcers Category:Cincinnati Reds broadcasters Category:College football announcers Category:George Polk Award recipients Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:National Football League announcers Category:New York Giants broadcasters Category:New York Yankees broadcasters Category:Peabody Award winners Category:National Radio Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Columbus, Mississippi Category:University of Florida alumni

fr:Red Barber fi:Red Barber

Name	Babe Ruth
Width	256
Position	Outfielder / Pitcher
Bats	Left
Throws	Left
Birth date	February 06, 1895
Birth place	Baltimore, Maryland
Death date	August 16, 1948
Death place	New York, New York
Debutdate	July 11
Debutyear	1914
Debutteam	Boston Red Sox
Finaldate	May 30
Finalyear	1935
Finalteam	Boston Braves
Stat1label	Batting average
Stat1value	.342
Stat2label	Home runs
Stat2value	714
Stat3label	Hits
Stat3value	2,873
Stat4label	Runs batted in
Stat4value	2,217
Stat5label	Win–loss record
Stat5value	94–46
Stat6label	Earned run average
Stat6value	2.28
Teams	Boston Red Sox (–) New York Yankees (–) Boston Braves ()
Highlights	2× All-Star selection (1933, 1934) 7× World Series champion (, , , , , , ) 1923 AL MVP New York Yankees #3 retired Major League Baseball All-Century Team Ranks in the top 10 of numerous career statistics MLB Records .690 career slugging % 1.164 career OPS
Hofdate
Hofvote	95.13% }}

George Herman Ruth, Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948), best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935. Ruth originally broke into the major leagues with the Boston Red Sox as a starting pitcher, but after he was sold to the New York Yankees in 1919, he converted to a full-time right fielder and subsequently became one of the league's most prolific hitters. Ruth was a mainstay in the Yankees' lineup that won seven pennants and four World Series titles during his tenure with the team. After a short stint with the Boston Braves in 1935, Ruth retired. In 1936, Ruth became one of the first five players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ruth has since become regarded as one of the greatest sports heroes in American culture. He has been named the greatest baseball player in history in various surveys and rankings, and his home run hitting prowess and charismatic personality made him a larger than life figure in the "Roaring Twenties". Off the field he was famous for his charity, but also was noted for his often reckless lifestyle. Ruth is credited with changing baseball itself. The popularity of the game exploded in the 1920s, largely due to his influence. Ruth ushered in the "live-ball era", as his big swing led to escalating home run totals that not only excited fans, but helped baseball evolve from a low-scoring, speed-dominated game to a high-scoring power game.

In 1998, ''The Sporting News'' ranked Ruth number one on the list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". In 1999, baseball fans named Ruth to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 1969, he was named baseball's Greatest Player Ever in a ballot commemorating the 100th anniversary of professional baseball. In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Muhammad Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athletes, out of over 800 dead or alive athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. According to ESPN, he was the first true American sports celebrity superstar whose fame transcended baseball. In a 1999 ESPN poll, he was ranked as the third-greatest US athlete of the century, behind Michael Jordan and Muhammad Ali.

Ruth was the first player to hit 60 home runs in one season (1927), setting the season record which stood until broken by Roger Maris in 1961. Ruth's lifetime total of runs at his retirement in 1935 was a record, until first surpassed by Hank Aaron in 1974. Unlike many power hitters, Ruth also hit for average: his .342 lifetime batting is tenth highest in baseball history, and in one season (1923) he hit .393, a Yankee record. His .690 career slugging percentage and 1.164 career on-base plus slugging (OPS) remain the Major League records. Ruth dominated the era in which he played. He led the league in home runs during a season twelve times, slugging percentage and OPS thirteen times each, runs scored eight times, and runs batted in (RBIs) six times. Each of those totals represents a modern record (as well as the all-time record, except for RBIs).

Early years

Ruth was born at 216 Emory Street in Pigtown, a rough neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Ruth's German-American parents, Kate Schamberger-Ruth and George Herman Ruth, Sr., owned a succession of saloons and sold lightning rods. Only one of Ruth's seven siblings, his sister Mamie, survived past infancy.

Not much is known about Ruth's early childhood. His mother was constantly ill (she later died of tuberculosis while Ruth was still a teenager). Ruth later described his early life as "rough". When he was seven years old, his father sent him to St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage, and signed custody over to the Catholic missionaries who ran the school (the site of St. Mary's was occupied by Cardinal Gibbons School). Ruth remained at St. Mary's for the next 12 years, only visiting with his family for special occasions. Brother Matthias Boutlier, the Head of Discipline at St. Mary's, first introduced Ruth to the game of baseball. He became a father figure in Ruth's life, teaching him how to read and write, and worked with Ruth on hitting, fielding and as his skills progressed, pitching. During his time in St. Mary's, Ruth was also taught tailoring, where he became a qualified shirtmaker and was a part of both the school band and the drama club.

Baltimore Orioles

In 1913, St. Mary's Industrial School was playing a game against Mount St. Mary's University (then college) in Emmitsburg, Maryland. That day, the game was attended by Joe Engel, a former Mount St. Mary's student who was now a pitcher for the Washington Senators. Impressed with Ruth's pitching abilities, Engel, along with a teacher at St. Mary's, Brother Gilbert, brought Ruth to the attention of Jack Dunn, owner and manager of the then minor-league Baltimore Orioles. After watching Ruth pitch in a workout for half an hour, Dunn signed Ruth to a contract for $250 ($}} in current dollar terms) a month on February 14, 1914. Since Ruth was only 19 years old, Dunn had to become Ruth's legal guardian as well; at that time, the age of majority was 25. When the other players on the Orioles caught sight of Ruth, they nicknamed him "Jack's newest babe". The reference stayed with Ruth the rest of his life, and he was most commonly referred to as Babe Ruth from then on. "Babe" was not a unique nickname (see e.g., Babe Adams). His teammates eschewed the public nickname "Babe", and instead called him "George"; or "Jidge" (a nickname for George); or "The Big Fellow"; or just "Bam".

On July 7, 1914, Dunn offered to trade Ruth, along with Ernie Shore and Ben Egan, to Connie Mack of the Philadelphia Athletics. Dunn asked $10,000 ($}} in current dollar terms) for the trio, but Mack refused the offer. The Cincinnati Reds, who had an agreement with the Orioles, also passed on Ruth. Instead, the team elected to take George Twombley and Claud Derrick. Two days later, on July 9, Dunn sold the trio to Joe Lannin and the Boston Red Sox. The amount of money exchanged in the transaction is disputed.

Major League career

Red Sox Years

Ruth appeared in five games for the Red Sox in 1914, pitching in four of them. He picked up the victory in his major league debut on July 11. The Red Sox had many star players in 1914, so Ruth was soon optioned to the minor league Providence Grays of Providence, Rhode Island for most of the remaining season. Behind Ruth and Carl Mays, the Grays won the International League pennant. Shortly after the season, in which he'd finished with a 2–1 record, Ruth proposed to Helen Woodford, a waitress whom he had met in Boston. They were married in Ellicott City, Maryland, on October 17, 1914.

During spring training in 1915, Ruth secured a spot in the Red Sox starting rotation. He joined a pitching staff that included Rube Foster, Dutch Leonard, and Smokey Joe Wood. Ruth won 18 games, lost eight, and helped himself by hitting .315. He also hit his first four home runs. The Red Sox won 101 games that year on their way to a victory in the World Series. Ruth did not pitch in the series, and grounded out in his only at-bat.

In 1916, after a slightly shaky spring, he went 23–12, with a 1.75 ERA and nine shutouts, both of which led the league. On June 27, he struck out ten Philadelphia A's, a career high. On July 11, he started both games of a doubleheader, but the feat was not what it seemed; he only pitched one-third of an inning in the opener because the scheduled starter, Foster, had trouble getting loose. Ruth then pitched a complete-game victory in the nightcap. Ruth had unusual success against Washington Senators star pitcher Walter Johnson, beating him four times in 1916 alone, by scores of 5–1, 1–0, 1–0 in 13 innings, and 2–1. Johnson finally outlasted Ruth for an extra-inning 4–3 victory on September 12; in the years to come, Ruth would hit ten home runs off Johnson, including the only two Johnson would allow in 1918–1919. Ruth's nine shutouts in 1916 set an AL record for left-handers which would remain unmatched until Ron Guidry tied it in 1978.

Despite a weak offense, hurt by the sale of Tris Speaker to the Indians, the Red Sox made it to the World Series. They defeated the Brooklyn Robins four games to one. This time Ruth made a major contribution, pitching a 14-inning complete-game victory in Game Two.

Ruth went 24–13 with a 2.01 ERA and six shutouts in 1917, and hit .325, but the Sox finished second, nine games behind the Chicago White Sox. On June 23 against the Washington Senators, after walking the leadoff hitter, Ruth erupted in anger, was ejected, and threw a punch at the umpire, which would result in a ten-game suspension. Ernie Shore came into the game in relief, the baserunner was out stealing, and Shore retired all twenty-six batters he faced, for which he was credited with a perfect game until the 1990s. Ruth's outburst was an example of self-discipline problems that plagued Ruth throughout his career, and is regarded as the primary reason (other than financial) that then-owner Harry Frazee was willing to sell him to the Yankees two years later.

The left-hander was pitching a no-hitter in a 0–0 game against the Detroit Tigers on July 11, before a single deflected off his glove in the eighth inning. Boston finally pushed across a run in the ninth, and Ruth held onto his 1–0 victory by striking out Ty Cobb. In 1942, Ruth called this game his greatest thrill on the field.

In 1918, Ruth pitched in 20 games, posting a 13–7 record with a 2.22 ERA. He was mostly used as an outfielder, and hit a league-leading eleven home runs. His statistics were curtailed slightly when he walked off the team in July following an argument with Boston's manager.

Ruth threw a 1–0 shutout in the opener of the 1918 World Series, then won Game Four in what would be his final World Series appearance as a pitcher. Ruth won both his starts, allowing two runs (both earned) in seventeen innings for an ERA of 1.06. Ruth extended his World Series consecutive scoreless inning streak to 29⅔ innings, a record that would last until Whitey Ford broke it in 1961.

Emergence as a hitter

In the years 1915–1917, Ruth had been used in just 44 games in which he had not pitched. After the 1917 season, in which he hit .325, albeit with limited at bats, teammate Harry Hooper suggested that Ruth might be more valuable in the lineup as an everyday player.

In 1918, he began playing in the outfield more and pitching less, making 75 hitting-only appearances. Former teammate Tris Speaker speculated that the move would shorten Ruth's career, though Ruth himself wanted to hit more and pitch less. In 1918, Ruth batted .300 and led the A.L. in home runs with eleven despite having only 317 at-bats, well below the total for an everyday player.

During the 1919 season, Ruth pitched in only 17 of his 130 games. He also set his first single-season home run record that year with 29 (passing Ned Williamson's 27 in 1884), including a game-winning homer on a September "Babe Ruth Day" promotion. It was Babe Ruth's last season with the Red Sox.

Sold to New York

On December 26, 1919, Frazee sold Ruth to the New York Yankees. Popular legend has it that Frazee sold Ruth and several other of his best players to finance a Broadway play, ''No, No, Nanette'' (which, though it actually didn't debut until 1925, did have origins in a December 1919 play, ''My Lady Friends''). The truth is not so simple, as Frazee had another financial concern: Babe Ruth.

After the 1919 season, Ruth demanded a raise to $20,000 ($}} in current dollar terms)—double his previous salary. However, Frazee refused, and Ruth responded by letting it be known he wouldn't play until he got his raise, suggesting that he may retire to undertake other profitable ventures.

Frazee finally lost patience with Ruth, and decided to trade him. However, he was effectively limited to two trading partners—the Chicago White Sox and the then-moribund Yankees. The other five clubs rejected his deals out of hand under pressure from American League president Ban Johnson, who never liked Frazee and was actively trying to remove him from ownership of the Red Sox. The White Sox offered Shoeless Joe Jackson $60,000 ($}} in current dollar terms), but Yankees owners Jacob Ruppert and Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston offered an all-cash deal—$100,000 ($}} in current dollar terms).

Frazee, Ruppert and Huston quickly agreed to a deal. In exchange for Ruth, the Red Sox would get $125,000 ($}} million in current dollar terms) in cash and three $25,000 ($}} in current dollar terms) notes payable every year at 6 percent interest. Ruppert and Huston also loaned Frazee $300,000 ($}} million in current dollar terms), with the mortgage on Fenway Park as collateral. The deal was contingent on Ruth signing a new contract, which was quickly agreed to, and Ruth officially became property of the Yankees on December 26. The deal was announced ten days later.

In the January 6, 1920 edition of ''The Boston Globe'', Frazee described the transaction: : "I should have preferred to take players in exchange for Ruth, but no club could have given me the equivalent in men without wrecking itself, and so the deal had to be made on a cash basis. No other club could afford to give me the amount the Yankees have paid for him, and I don't mind saying I think they are taking a gamble. With this money the Boston club can now go into the market and buy other players and have a stronger and better team in all respects than we would have had if Ruth had remained with us."

However, the January 6, 1920 ''The New York Times'' was more prescient: : "The short right field wall at the Polo Grounds should prove an easy target for Ruth next season and, playing seventy-seven games at home, it would not be surprising if Ruth surpassed his home run record of twenty-nine circuit clouts next Summer."

The Yankee Years

1920–1925

After moving to the Yankees, Ruth's transition from a pitcher to a power-hitting outfielder became complete. In his fifteen year Yankee career, consisting of over 2,000 games, Ruth re-wrote the record books in terms of his hitting achievements, while making only five widely-scattered token appearances on the mound, winning all of them.

In 1920, his first year with the Yankees, Ruth hit 54 home runs and batted .376. His .847 slugging average was a Major League record until 2001. Aside from the Yankees, only the Philadelphia Phillies managed to hit more home runs as a team than Ruth did as an individual, slugging 64 in hitter-friendly Baker Bowl.

In 1921, Ruth improved to arguably the best year of his career, hitting 59 home runs, batting .378 and slugging .846 (the highest with 500+ at-bats in an MLB season) while leading the Yankees to their first league championship. On July 18, 1921, Babe Ruth hit career home run #139, breaking Roger Connor's record of 138 in just the eighth year of his career. (This was not recognized at the time, as Connor's correct career total was not accurately documented until the 1970s. Even if the record had been celebrated, it would have been on an earlier date, as Connor's total was at one time thought to be only 131.)

Ruth's name quickly became synonymous with the home run, as he led the transformation of baseball strategy from the "inside game" to the "power game", and because of the style and manner in which he hit them. His ability to drive a significant number of his home runs in the 450–500 foot range and beyond resulted in the lasting adjective "Ruthian", to describe any long home run hit by any player. Probably his deepest hit in official game play (and perhaps the longest home run by ''any'' player), occurred on July 18, at Detroit's Navin Field, in which he hit one to straightaway center, over the wall of the then-single-deck bleachers, and to the intersection, some from home plate.

As impressive as Ruth's 1921 numbers were, they could have been more so under modern conditions. Bill Jenkinson's 2006 book, ''The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs,'' attempts to examine each of Ruth's 714 career home runs, plus several hundred long inside-the-park drives and "fair-foul" balls. Until 1931 in the AL, balls that hit the foul pole were considered ground-rule doubles, and balls that went over the wall in fair territory but hooked foul were ruled foul. Many fields, including Ruth's home Polo Grounds, had exceptionally deep center fields—in the Polo Grounds' case, nearly five hundred feet. The author concluded that Ruth would have been credited with 104 home runs in 1921, if modern rules and field dimensions were in place. However, these claims ignore the extreme short distances down the left and right field lines, which were 279 and 258 feet respectively. In addition, the 21 foot overhang in left field often intercepted fly balls which would otherwise have been catchable and turned them into home runs. In either case, Ruth set major league records in total bases (457), extra base hits (119) and times on base (379), all of which stand to this day.

The Yankees had high expectations when they met the New York Giants in the 1921 World Series, and the Yankees won the first two games with Ruth in the lineup. However, Ruth badly scraped his elbow during Game 2, sliding into third base (he had walked and stolen both second and third). After the game, he was told by the team physician not to play the rest of the series. Although he did play in Games 3, 4 and 5, and pinch-hit in Game 8 of the best-of-9 Series, his productivity was diminished, and the Yankees lost the series. Ruth hit .316, drove in five runs and hit his first World Series home run. (Although the Yankees won the fifth game, Ruth wrenched his knee and did not return to the Series until the eighth [last] game.)

Ruth's appearance in the 1921 World Series also led to a problem and triggered another disciplinary action. After the series, Ruth played in a barnstorming tour. A rule then in force prohibited World Series participants from playing in exhibition games during the off-season, the purpose of which was to prevent Series participants from "restaging" the Series and undermining its value. Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis suspended Ruth for the first six weeks of the 1922 season. Landis had made his point about adhering to the letter of the rules, but he also recognized that the rule was no longer needed, and rescinded it.

Despite his suspension, Ruth started his 1922 season on May 20 as the Yankees' new on-field captain. But five days later, he was ejected from a game for throwing dirt on an umpire, and then climbed into the stands to confront a heckler; Ruth was subsequently stripped of the captaincy. In his shortened season, Ruth appeared in 110 games, batted .315, with 35 home runs and drove in 99 runs, but compared to his previous two dominating seasons, the 1922 season was a disappointment for Ruth. Despite Ruth's off-year, Yankees managed to win the pennant to face the New York Giants for the second straight year in the World Series. In the series, Giants manager John McGraw instructed his pitchers to throw Ruth nothing but curveballs, and Ruth never adjusted. Ruth had just two hits in seventeen at-bats, and the Yankees lost to the Giants for the second straight year by 4–0 (with one tie game).

In 1923, the Yankees moved from the Polo Grounds, where they had sublet from the Giants, to their new Yankee Stadium, which was quickly dubbed "The House That Ruth Built". Ruth hit the stadium's first home run on the way to a Yankees victory over the Red Sox. Ruth finished the 1923 season with a career-high .393 batting average and major-league leading 41 home runs. For the third straight year, the Yankees faced the Giants in the World Series. Rebounding from his struggles in the previous two World Series, Ruth dominated the 1923 World Series. He batted .368, walked eight times, scored eight runs, hit three home runs and slugged 1.000 during the series, as the Yankees won their first World Series title, four games to two.

thumb|Ruth after being knocked unconscious from running into a wall at Griffith Stadium on July 5, 1924. On July 5, 1924, Ruth was knocked unconscious after running into a wall during a game at Griffith Stadium against the Washington Senators. Despite evident pain and a bruised pelvic bone, Ruth insisted on staying in the game and hit a double in his next at-bat. Ruth narrowly missed winning the Triple Crown in 1924. He hit .378 for his only American League batting title, led the major leagues with 46 home runs, and batted in 121 runs to finish second to Goose Goslin's 129. Ruth's on-base percentage was .513, the fourth of five years in which his OBP exceeded .500. However, the Yankees finished second, two games behind the Washington Senators, who went on to win their only World Series while based in D.C. During that same year, Ruth served in the New York national Guard 104th Field Artillery.

During spring training in 1925 Ruth's ailment was dubbed "the bellyache heard round the world," when one writer wrote that Ruth's illness was caused by binging on hot dogs and soda pop before a game. Venereal disease and alcohol poisoning (caused by tainted liquor, a major health problem during the Prohibition) have also been speculated to be the causes of his illness. However, the exact nature of his ailment has never been confirmed and remains a mystery. Playing just 98 games, Ruth had what would be his worst season as a Yankee as he finished the season with a .290 average and 25 home runs. The Yankees team finished next to last in the American League with a 69–85 mark, their last season with a losing record until 1965.

1926–1928

Babe Ruth performed at a much higher level during 1926, batting .372 with 47 home runs and 146 RBIs. The Yankees won the AL pennant and advanced to the World Series, where they were defeated by Rogers Hornsby and the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. In Game 4, he hit three home runs, the first time any player achieved this in a World Series game. Despite his batting heroics, he is also remembered for a costly baserunning blunder. Ruth had a reputation as a good but overaggressive baserunner (he had 123 stolen bases, including ten steals of home, but only a 51% career percentage). With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive seventh game, with the Yankees trailing 3–2, Ruth tried to steal second base. However, he was thrown out by ten feet, ending the game and the Series. Barrow later called this the only on-field boner Ruth ever made in his career.

This remains the only time that the final out of a World Series was a "caught stealing." The 1926 series was also known for Ruth's promise to Johnny Sylvester, a seriously ill 11-year old, that he would hit a home run on his behalf.

Ruth was the leader of the famous 1927 Yankees, also known as Murderer's Row because of the strength of its hitting lineup. The team won a then AL-record 110 games, a mark for a 154-game season surpassed by the 1954 Cleveland Indians (the 2001 Seattle Mariners now hold the record with 116 wins, though they played eight more games), took the AL pennant by 19 games, and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series.

With the race long since decided, the nation's attention turned to Ruth's pursuit of his own home run mark of 59. Early in the season, Ruth expressed doubts about his chances: "I don't suppose I'll ever break that 1921 record. To do that, you've got to start early, and the pitchers have got to pitch to you. I don't start early, and the pitchers haven't really pitched to me in four seasons. I get more bad balls to hit than any other six men...and fewer good ones." Ruth was also being challenged for his slugger's crown by teammate Lou Gehrig, who nudged ahead of Ruth's total in midseason, prompting the ''New York World-Telegram'' to anoint Gehrig the favorite. But Ruth caught Gehrig (who would finish with 47), and then had a remarkable last leg of the season, hitting 17 home runs in September. His 60th came on September 30, in the Yankees' next-to-last game. Ruth was exultant, shouting after the game, "Sixty, count 'em, sixty! Let's see some son-of-a-bitch match that!" In later years, he would give Gehrig some credit: "Pitchers began pitching to me because if they passed me they still had Lou to contend with." In addition to his career-high 60 home runs, Ruth batted .356, drove in 164 runs and slugged .772.

The following season started off well for the Yankees, who led the AL by 13 games in July. But the Yankees were soon plagued by some key injuries, erratic pitching and inconsistent play. The Philadelphia Athletics, rebuilding after some lean years, erased the Yankees' big lead and even took over first place briefly in early September. The Yankees, however, took over first place for good when they beat the A's three out of four games in a pivotal series at Yankee Stadium later that month.

Ruth's play in 1928 mirrored his team's performance. He got off to a hot start and on August 1, he had 42 home runs. This put him ahead of his 60 home run pace from the previous season. But Ruth was hobbled by a bad ankle the latter part of the season, and he hit just twelve home runs in the last two months of the regular season. His batting average also fell to .323, well below his career average. Nevertheless, he ended the season with 54 home runs, which would be the fourth (and last) time he hit 50 home runs in a season.

The Yankees had a 1928 World Series rematch with the St. Louis Cardinals, who had upset them in the 1926 series. The Cardinals had the same core players as the 1926 team, except for Rogers Hornsby, who was traded for Frankie Frisch after the 1926 season. Ruth batted .625 (the second highest average in World Series history), including another three-home run game (in game 4), Gehrig batted .545, and the Yankees demolished the Cardinals in four games. The Yankees thus became the first major league team to sweep their opponents in consecutive World Series.

Decline and end with Yankees

In 1929, the Yankees failed to make the World Series for the first time in four years, and it would be another three years before they returned. Although the Yankees had slipped, Ruth led or tied for the league lead in home runs each year during 1929–1931. At one point during the 1930 season, as a stunt, Ruth was called upon to pitch for the first time since 1921, and he pitched a complete-game victory. (He had often pitched in exhibitions in the intervening years).

Also in 1929, the Yankees became the first team to use uniform numbers regularly (the Cleveland Indians had used them briefly in 1916). Since Ruth normally batted third in the order (ahead of Gehrig), he was assigned number 3 (to Gehrig's 4). The Yankees retired Ruth's number on June 13, 1948; however, it was kept in circulation prior to that.

In 1930, which was not a pennant year for the Yankees, Ruth was asked by a reporter what he thought of his yearly salary of $80,000 ($}} million in current dollar terms) being more than President Hoover's $75,000. His response: "I know, but I had a better year than Hoover." That quote has also been rendered as, "How many home runs did ''he'' hit last year?" (Ruth had supported Al Smith in the 1928 Presidential election, and snubbed an appearance with president Hoover.) Three years later, Ruth would make a public appearance with the ex-President at a Stanford – USC football game.

In the 1932 season, the Yankees went 107–47 and won the pennant under manager Joe McCarthy, as Ruth hit .341, with 41 home runs and 137 RBIs.

The Yankees faced Gabby Hartnett's Chicago Cubs in the 1932 World Series. The Yankees swept the Cubs and batted .313 as a team. During Game 3 of the series, after having already homered, Ruth hit what has now become known as Babe Ruth's Called Shot. During the at-bat, Ruth supposedly gestured to the deepest part of the park in center-field, predicting a home run. The ball he hit traveled past the flagpole to the right of the scoreboard and ended up in temporary bleachers just outside Wrigley Field's outer wall. The center field corner was 440 feet away, and at age 37, Ruth had hit a straightaway center home run that was perhaps a 490 foot blow. It was Ruth's last Series homer (and his last Series hit), and it became one of the legendary moments of baseball history.

Ruth remained productive in 1933, as he batted .301, with 34 home runs, 103 RBIs, and a league-leading 114 walks. Elected to play in the first All-Star game, he hit the first home run in the game's history on July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. His two-run home run helped the AL to a 4–2 victory over the NL, and Ruth made a fine catch in the game. Film footage of his All-Star game home run revealed the 38-year-old Ruth had become noticeably overweight.

Late in the 1933 season, he was called upon to pitch in one game and pitched a complete game victory, his final appearance as a pitcher. For the most part, his Yankee pitching appearances (five in fifteen years) were widely-advertised attempts to boost attendance. Despite unremarkable pitching numbers, Ruth had a 5–0 record in those five games, raising his career totals to 94–46.

In 1934, Babe Ruth recorded a .288 average, 22 home runs, and made the All-Star team for the second consecutive year. During the game, Ruth was the first of five consecutive strikeout victims (all of whom were future Hall of Fame players) of Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell, perhaps the most famous pitching feat in All-Star game history. In what turned out to be his last game at Yankee Stadium, only about 2,000 fans attended. By this time, Ruth had reached a personal milestone of 700 home runs and was about ready to retire.

After the 1934 season, Ruth went on a baseball barnstorming tour in the Far East. Players such as Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Gomez, Earl Averill, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig were among fourteen players who played a series of 22 games, with many of the games played in Japan. Ruth was popular in Japan, as baseball had been popular in Japan for decades. Riding in a motorcade, Ruth was greeted by thousands of cheering Japanese. The tour was considered a great success for further increasing the popularity of baseball in Japan, and in 1936 Japan organized its first professional baseball league.

Sold to the Braves

By this time, Ruth knew he had little left as a player. His heart was set on managing the Yankees, and he made no secret of his desire to replace McCarthy. However, Ruppert would not consider dumping McCarthy. The slugger and manager had never got along and Ruth's managerial ambitions further chilled their relations. Just before the 1934 season, Ruppert offered to make Ruth manager of the Yankees' top minor-league team, the Newark Bears. However, Ruth's wife, Claire Merritt Hodgson and business manager advised him to reject the offer.

After the 1934 season, the only teams that seriously considered hiring Ruth were the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. A's owner/manager Connie Mack gave some thought to stepping down as manager in favor of Ruth, but later dropped the idea, saying that Ruth's wife would be running the team in a month if Ruth ever took over. Ruth was in serious negotiations with Tigers owner Frank Navin, but missed a scheduled interview in late 1934. Meanwhile, Ruppert negotiated with other major-league clubs, seeking one that would take Ruth either as a manager or player.

Boston Braves owner Emil Fuchs finally agreed to take Ruth. Even though the Braves had fielded fairly competitive teams in the last three seasons, Fuchs was sinking in debt and couldn't afford the rent on Braves Field. Fuchs thought Ruth was just what the Braves needed, both on and off the field.

After a series of phone calls, letters and meetings, the Yankees traded Ruth to the Braves on February 26, 1935. It was announced that in addition to remaining as a player, Ruth would become team vice president and would be consulted on all club transactions. He was also made assistant manager to Braves skipper Bill McKechnie. In a long letter to Ruth a few days before the press conference, Fuchs promised Ruth a share in the Braves' profits, with the possibility of becoming co-owner of the team. Fuchs also raised the possibility of Ruth becoming the Braves' manager, perhaps as early as 1936.

Amid much media hoopla, Ruth played his first home game in Boston in over 16 years. Before an opening-day crowd of over 25,000, Ruth accounted for all of the Braves' runs in a 4–2 defeat of the New York Giants. The Braves had long played second fiddle to the Red Sox in Boston, but Ruth's arrival spiked interest in the Braves to levels not seen since their stunning win in the 1914 World Series.

That win proved to be the only time the Braves were over .500 that year. By May 20, they were 7–17, and their season was effectively over. While Ruth could still hit, he could do little else, and soon stopped hitting as well. His conditioning had deteriorated so much that he could do little more than trot around the bases. His fielding was dreadful; at one point, three of the Braves' pitchers threatened not to take the mound if Ruth was in the lineup. Ruth was also annoyed that McKechnie ignored most of his managerial advice (McKechnie later said that Ruth's presence made enforcing discipline nearly impossible). He soon discovered that he was vice president and assistant manager in name only, and Fuchs' promise of a share of team profits was also hot air. In fact, Fuchs expected Ruth to invest some of ''his'' money in the team.

On May 25, at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Ruth went 4-for-4, drove in 6 runs and hit 3 home runs in an 11–7 loss to the Pirates. These were the last three home runs of his career. His last home run cleared the roof at the old Forbes Field—he became the first player to accomplish that feat. Five days later, in Philadelphia, Ruth played in his last Major League game. He struck out in the first inning and, while playing the field in the same inning, hurt his knee and left the game. In the 1948 film The Babe Ruth Story there was a more dramatic recounting of Ruth's last game. The Braves were depicted as winning the game against the Pirates and learning he had been fired for walking off the field during the game, while still in the locker room.

Two days after that, Ruth summoned reporters to the locker room after a game against the Giants and announced he was retiring. He had wanted to retire as early as May 12, but Fuchs persuaded him to stay on because the Braves hadn't played in every National League park yet. That season, he hit just .181 with six home runs in 72 at-bats. The Braves season went as badly as Ruth's short season. They finished 38–115, the fourth-worst record in Major League history, just a few percentage points fewer than the infamous 1962 New York Mets.

Personal life

Ruth married Helen Woodford in 1914. Owing to his infidelities, they were reportedly separated around 1926. Helen died in a fire in Watertown, Massachusetts on January 11, 1929 in a house owned by Edward Kinder, a dentist whom she had been living with as "Mrs. Kinder". Kinder identified her body as being that of his wife, then went into hiding after Helen's true identity was revealed; Ruth himself had to get authorities to issue a new death certificate in her legal name, Margaret Helen Woodford Ruth.

Ruth had two daughters. Dorothy Ruth was adopted by Babe and Helen. Decades later, she wrote a book, ''My Dad, the Babe'', claiming that she was Ruth's biological child by a girlfriend named Juanita Jennings.

Ruth adopted Julia Hodgson when he married her mother, actress and model Claire Merritt Hodgson. Julia currently resides in Arizona, and threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the final game in the original Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008.

Ruth and Claire regularly wintered in Florida, frequently playing golf during the off-season and while the Yankees were spring training in Tampa, Florida. After retirement, he had a winter beachfront home in Treasure Island, Florida, near St. Petersburg.

Radio and films

Ruth made many forays into various popular media. He was heard often on radio in the 1930s and 1940s, both as a guest and on his own programs with various titles: ''The Adventures of Babe Ruth'' was a 15-minute Blue Network show heard three times a week from April 16 to July 13, 1934. Three years later, he was on CBS twice a week in ''Here's Babe Ruth'' which was broadcast from April 14 to July 9, 1937. That same year he portrayed himself in "Alibi Ike" on ''Lux Radio Theater''. His ''Baseball Quiz'' was first heard Saturdays on NBC June 5 to July 10, 1943 and then later that year from August 28 to November 20 on NBC, followed by another NBC run from July 8 to October 21, 1944.

His film roles included a cameo appearance as himself in the Harold Lloyd film ''Speedy'' (1928). His first film appearance occurred in 1920, in the silent movie ''Headin' Home''. He made numerous other film appearances in the silent era, usually either playing himself or playing a ballplayer similar to himself.

Ruth's voice was said by some biographers to be similar to that of film star Clark Gable, although that was obviously not evident in the silent film era. He had an appropriate role as himself in ''Pride of the Yankees'' (1942), the story of his ill-fated teammate Lou Gehrig. Ruth had three scenes in the film, including one in which he appeared with a straw hat. He said, "If I see anyone touch it, I'll knock his teeth in!" The teammates convinced young Gehrig (Gary Cooper) to chew up the hat; he got away with it. In the second scene, the players go to a restaurant, where Babe sees a side of beef cooking and jokes, "Well, I'll have one of those..." and, the dramatic scene near the end, where Gehrig makes his speech at Yankee Stadium ending with "I consider myself the luckiest man..."

Retirement and post-playing days

In 1936, Ruth was one of the first five players elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Two years later, Larry MacPhail, the Brooklyn Dodgers general manager, offered him a first base coaching job in June. Ruth took the job but quit at the end of the season. The coaching position was his last job in Major League Baseball. His baseball career finally came to an end in 1943. In a charity game at Yankee Stadium, he pinch hit and drew a walk. In 1947, he became director of the American Legion's youth baseball program.

Baby Ruth candy bar controversy

For decades, the Baby Ruth candy bar was believed to be named after Babe Ruth and some sports marketing practitioners used this example of one of the first forms of sports marketing. However, while the name of the candy bar sounds nearly identical to the Babe's name, the Curtiss Candy Company has steadfastly claimed that Baby Ruth was named after President Grover Cleveland's daughter, Ruth Cleveland. Nonetheless, the bar first appeared in 1921, as Babe Ruth's fame was on the rise and long after Cleveland had left the White House and 15 years after his daughter had died. The company failed to negotiate an endorsement deal with Ruth, and many saw the company's story about the origin of the name of the bar as merely a ploy to avoid having to pay the baseball player any royalties. Ironically, Curtiss successfully shut down a rival bar that was approved by, and named for, Ruth, on the grounds that the names were too similar in the case of George H. Ruth Candy Co. v. Curtiss Candy Co, 49 F.2d 1033 (1931). Sports marketing experts now believe that the Curtiss Candy Company employed the first successful use of an ambush sports marketing campaign, capitalizing on the Babe's name, fame, and popularity.

The ''New York Times'' supports the evidence of the ambush marketing campaign when it wrote "For 85 years, Babe Ruth, the slugger, and Baby Ruth, the candy bar, have lived parallel lives in which it has been widely assumed that the latter was named for the former. The confection's creator, the Curtiss Candy Company, never admitted to what looks like an obvious connection – especially since Ruth hit 54 home runs the year before the first Baby Ruth was devoured. Had it done so, Curtiss would have had to compensate Ruth. Instead, it eventually insisted the inspiration was "Baby Ruth" Cleveland, the daughter of President Grover Cleveland. But it is an odd connection that makes one wonder at the marketing savvy of Otto Schnering, the company's founder."

Thus, in 1995, a company representing the Ruth estate brought the Baby Ruth candy bar into sponsorship officialdom when it licensed the Babe's name and likeness for use in a Baby Ruth marketing campaign. On page 34 of the spring, 2007, edition of the Chicago Cubs game program, there is a full-page ad showing a partially-unwrapped Baby Ruth in front of the Wrigley ivy, with the caption, "The official candy bar of Major League Baseball, and proud sponsor of the Chicago Cubs." Continuing the baseball-oriented theme, during the summer and post-season of the 2007 season, a TV ad for the candy bar showed an entire stadium (played by Dodger Stadium) filled with people munching Baby Ruths, and thus having to hum rather than singing along with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch.

Illness

In 1946, he began experiencing severe pain over his left eye. In November 1946, a visit to French Hospital in New York revealed Ruth had a malignant tumor in his neck that had encircled his left carotid artery. He received post-operative radiation therapy. Before leaving the hospital in February 1947, he lost approximately .

Around this time, developments in chemotherapy offered some hope. Teropterin, a folic acid derivative, was developed by Dr. Brian Hutchings of the Lederle Laboratories. It had been shown to cause significant remissions in children with leukemia. Ruth was administered this new drug in June 1947. He was suffering from headaches, hoarseness and had difficulty swallowing. He agreed to use this new medicine but did not want to know any details about it. All the while he was receiving this experimental medication, he did not know it was for cancer. On June 29, 1947, he began receiving injections and he responded with dramatic improvement. He gained over and had resolution of his headaches. On September 6, 1947, his case was presented anonymously at the 4th Annual Internal cancer Research Congress in St. Louis. Teropterin ended up being a precursor for methotrexate, a now commonly used chemotherapeutic agent.

It is now known that Ruth suffered from nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPCA), a relatively rare tumor located in the back of the nose near the eustachian tube. Contemporary management for NPCA includes concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

On April 27, 1947, the Yankees held a ceremony at Yankee Stadium. Despite his health problems, Ruth was able to attend "Babe Ruth Day". Ruth spoke to a capacity crowd of more than 60,000, including many American Legion youth baseball players. Although lacking a specific memorable comment like Gehrig's "Luckiest man" speech, Ruth spoke from the heart, of his enthusiasm for the game of baseball and in support of the youth playing the game. (''Babe Ruth speaking at Yankee Stadium'')

Later, Ruth started the Babe Ruth Foundation, a charity for disadvantaged children. Another Babe Ruth Day held at Yankee Stadium in September 1947 helped to raise money for this charity.

After the cancer returned, Ruth attended the 25th anniversary celebration of the opening of Yankee Stadium on June 13, 1948. He was reunited with old teammates from the 1923 Yankee team and posed for photographs. The photo of Ruth taken from behind, using a bat as a cane, standing apart from the other players, and facing "Ruthville" (right field) became one of baseball's most famous and widely circulated photographs. The photo won the Pulitzer Prize.

Death

Shortly after he attended the Yankee Stadium anniversary event, Ruth was back in the hospital. He received hundreds of well-wishing letters and messages. This included a phone call from President Harry Truman. Claire helped him respond to the letters.

On July 26, 1948, Ruth attended the premiere of the film ''The Babe Ruth Story'', a biopic about his own life. William Bendix portrayed Ruth. Shortly thereafter, Ruth returned to the hospital for the final time. He was barely able to speak. Ruth's condition gradually became worse, and in his last days, scores of reporters and photographers hovered around the hospital. Only a few visitors were allowed to see him, one of whom was National League president and future Commissioner of Baseball, Ford Frick. "Ruth was so thin it was unbelievable. He had been such a big man and his arms were just skinny little bones, and his face was so haggard," Frick said years later.

On August 16, the day after Frick's visit, Babe Ruth died at age 53 due to pneumonia. An autopsy showed the cancer Ruth died from began in the nose and mouth and spread widely throughout his body from there. His body lay in repose in Yankee Stadium. His funeral was two days later at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Ruth was then buried in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York. At his death, the New York ''Times'' called Babe Ruth, "a figure unprecedented in American life. A born showman off the field and a marvelous performer on it, he had an amazing flair for doing the spectacular at the most dramatic moment."

Legacy

Ruth's impact on American culture still commands attention. Top performers in other sports are often referred to as "The Babe Ruth of ______." He is widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball players in history. Many polls place him as the number one player of all time.

Ruth was mentioned in the poem ''"Line-Up for Yesterday"'' by Ogden Nash:

Films have been made featuring Ruth, or a Ruth-like figure ("The Whammer" in ''The Natural'', for example).

During World War II, Japanese soldiers would yell in English, "To hell with Babe Ruth", in order to anger American soldiers. An episode of Hawaii Five-O would be named "To Hell With Babe Ruth" because of that.

As a sidelight to his prominent role in changing the game to the power game, the frequency and popularity of Ruth's home runs eventually led to a rule change pertaining to those hit in sudden-death mode (bottom of the ninth or later inning). Prior to 1931, as soon as the first necessary run to win the game scored, the play was over, and the batter was credited only with the number of bases needed to drive in the winning run. Thus, if the score was 3–2 with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and the batter smacked an "over the fence home run", the game would end at 4–3, with the batter only allowed a double, and the runners officially stopped on 2nd and 3rd (since they weren't needed to win the game). The new rule allowed the entire play to complete, justified on the grounds that the ball was dead and that all runners could freely advance, thus granting the full allotment of HR and RBI to the batter, as we know it today. Several players lost home runs that way, including Ruth. As noted in the inaugural edition of ''The Baseball Encyclopedia'' (MacMillan, 1969), Ruth's career total would have been changed to 715 if historians during the 1960s had been successful in pursuing this matter. Major League Baseball elected not to retrofit the records to the modern rules, and Ruth's total stayed at 714.

Another rules change that affected Ruth was the method used by umpires to judge potential home runs when the batted ball left the field near a foul pole. Before 1931, i.e. through most of Ruth's most productive years, the umpire called the play based on the ball's final resting place "when last seen". Thus, if a ball went over the fence fair, and curved behind the foul pole, it was ruled foul. Beginning in 1931 and continuing to the present day, the rule was changed to require the umpire to judge based on the point where the ball cleared the fence. Jenkinson's book (p. 374–375) lists 78 foul balls near the foul pole in Ruth's career, claiming that at least 50 of them were likely to have been home runs under the modern rule.

Ruth's 1919 contract that sent him from Boston to New York was sold at auction for $996,000 at Sotheby's on June 10, 2005. The most valuable memorabilia item relating to Ruth was his 1923 bat which he used to hit the first home run at Yankee Stadium on April 18, 1923. Ruth's heavy Louisville Slugger solid ash wood bat sold for $1.26 million at a Sotheby's auction in December 2004, making it the third most valuable baseball memorabilia item, behind Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball and the famous 1909 Honus Wagner baseball card.

Career batting statistics

Taken from Retrosheet.

2,174

G	! AB	! R	! H	! HR	! RBI	! BB	! SO	! Avg.	! OBP	! SLG
2,503	8,399	|	2,873	714	2,213	2,062	1,330	.342	.473	.690

All-time ranks

3rd on all-time home run list with 714

10th on all-time batting average list with .342

2nd on all-time RBI list with 2,217

1st on all-time slugging % with 0.690

2nd on all-time on-base % list with .474

1st on all-time OPS with 1.164

4th on all-time runs list with 2,174

6th on all-time total bases list with 5,793

3rd on all-time bases on balls list with 2,062

Career pitching statistics

2.28

Win (baseball)	W	Loss (baseball)>L	Earned run average>ERA	Games played>G	Games started>GS	Complete game>CG	Shutout>SHO	Save (baseball)>SV	Innings pitched>IP	Hit (baseball)>H	Run (baseball)>R	Earned run>ER	Home run>HR	Hit by pitch>HBP	Base on balls>BB	Strikeout>SO	Winning percentage>WPct	Walks plus hits per inning pitched>WHIP	Batting average>AVG	Bases on balls per 9 innings pitched>BB/9	Strikeouts per 9 innings pitched>K/9
94	46	|	163	148	107	17	4	1,221.1	974	400	309	10	29	441	488	.671	1.16	.220	3.25	3.60

Ruth was 89–46 with the Red Sox and was 5–0 with the Yankees overall. Ruth is 11th for career won-loss at 67.1%.

See also

Babe Ruth Award

Babe Ruth League

Curse of the Bambino

DHL Hometown Heroes

List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records

List of Major League Baseball RBI Records

References and notes

External links

BabeRuth.com – Official site

baberuthmuseum.com Ruth Museum

In March 2011, the VOA Special English service of the Voice of America broadcast a 15-minute program on Babe Ruth. A transcript and MP3 of the program, intended for English learners, can be found at Babe Ruth,1895-1948: America’s Greatest Baseball Player

Images

Babe Ruth: Rare and Unpublished - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Babe Ruth: Totally Random Trivia - slideshow by ''Life magazine''

Further reading

}}

Category:1895 births Category:1948 deaths Category:500 home run club Category:American League All-Stars Category:American League batting champions Category:American League ERA champions Category:American League home run champions Category:American League RBI champions Category:American people of German descent Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Baseball players from Maryland Category:Boston Braves players Category:Boston Red Sox players Category:Brooklyn Dodgers coaches Category:Burials at Gate of Heaven Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in New York Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer Category:Major League Baseball first base coaches Category:Major League Baseball left fielders Category:Major League Baseball pitchers Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers Category:Major League Baseball right fielders Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:New York Yankees players Category:Sportspeople from Baltimore, Maryland Category:Vaudeville performers Category:Baltimore Orioles (IL) players Category:Providence Grays (minor league) players

af:Babe Ruth bn:বেব রুথ zh-min-nan:Babe Ruth ca:Babe Ruth cs:Babe Ruth da:Babe Ruth de:Babe Ruth el:Μπέιμπ Ρουθ es:Babe Ruth fa:بیب روت fr:Babe Ruth ko:베이브 루스 hr:George Herman Ruth id:Babe Ruth it:Babe Ruth he:בייב רות' lv:Mazulis Rūts lt:Babe Ruth mr:जॉर्ज हर्मन रुथ, जुनियर nl:Babe Ruth ja:ベーブ・ルース no:Babe Ruth pl:George Herman Ruth pt:Babe Ruth ru:Рут, Бейб simple:Babe Ruth fi:Babe Ruth sv:Babe Ruth tl:Babe Ruth zh:貝比·魯斯

Name	Mickey Mantle
Position	Center fielder
Bats	Switch
Throws	Right
Birth date	October 20, 1931
Birth place	Spavinaw, Oklahoma
Death date	August 13, 1995
Death place	Dallas, Texas
Debutdate	April 17
Debutyear	1951
Debutteam	New York Yankees
Finaldate	September 28
Finalyear	1968
Finalteam	New York Yankees
Stat1label	Batting average
Stat1value	.298
Stat2label	Home runs
Stat2value	536
Stat3label	Hits
Stat3value	2,415
Stat4label	Runs batted in
Stat4value	1,509
Teams	New York Yankees (–)
Highlights	20× All-Star selection (1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1959², 1960, 1960², 1961, 1961², 1962, 1962², 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1968) 7× World Series champion (, , , , , , ) 3× AL MVP (1956, 1957, 1962) Gold Glove Award winner (1962) 1965 Hutch Award 1956 Triple Crown New York Yankees #7 retired Major League Baseball All-Century Team
Hofdate
Hofvote	88.2% (first ballot) }}

Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire 18-year Major League Baseball career for the New York Yankees as an outfielder and first baseman. He won 3 American League MVP titles and played in 16 All-Star games. Mantle appeared in 12 World Series, winning 7 of them. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). He is also the career leader in walk-off home runs, with a combined 13 in regular season and post-season play (12 regular, 1 postseason). He won the triple crown in 1956. He is regarded by many to be the greatest switch hitter of all time, and one of the greatest players in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

Youth

Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, the son of Elvin Charles Mantle, a coal miner, and Lovell (née Richardson) Mantle. He was named in honor of Mickey Cochrane, the Hall of Fame catcher from the Philadelphia Athletics, by his father, known as "Mutt," who was an amateur player and fervent fan. According to the book ''Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son,'' by Tony Castro, in later life, Mantle expressed relief that his father had not known Cochrane's true first name, as he would have hated to be named Gordon. Mantle always spoke warmly of his father, and said he was the bravest man he ever knew. "No boy ever loved his father more," he said. His father died of Hodgkin's disease in 1952 at the age of 39, just as his son was starting his career.

When Mantle was four years old, the family moved to the nearby town of Commerce, Oklahoma. Mantle was an all-around athlete at Commerce High School, playing basketball as well as football (he was offered a football scholarship by the University of Oklahoma) in addition to his first love, baseball. His football playing nearly ended his athletic career, and indeed his life. Kicked in the shin during a game, Mantle's leg soon became infected with osteomyelitis, a crippling disease that would have been incurable just a few years earlier. A midnight drive to Tulsa, Oklahoma, enabled Mantle to be treated with newly available penicillin, saving his leg from amputation. He suffered from the effects of the disease for the rest of his life, and it probably led to many other injuries that hampered his professional career. Additionally, Mantle's osteomyelitic condition exempted him from military service, which caused him to become very unpopular with fans early on, who doubtless reasoned that a person who was physically fit to play baseball was sufficiently fit to serve in the military, particularly when it was observed that he was selected as an All-Star in the same year that his "medical exemption" had been given. His earliest days in baseball coincided with the Korean War, a conflict in which other players fought.

Professional career

Mantle's first semi-professional team was the Baxter Springs, Kansas Whiz Kids. In 1948, Yankees' scout Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to watch Mantle's teammate, third baseman Billy Johnson. During the game Mantle switch-hit two homers into the river well beyond the ballpark. Despite Greenwade's interest – he would later call Mantle the best prospect he'd ever seen – the 16-year-old Mantle was forced to wait until his high school graduation in 1949 before inking a minor league contract with their Class-D affiliate in Independence, Kansas. Mantle signed for $400 ($}} today) to play the remainder of the season with a $1,100 ($}} today) signing bonus. His blinding speed soon earned him the nickname "The Commerce Comet," carrying him to the Joplin Miners in Joplin, Missouri. (He would later invest in a Holiday Inn motel in that city, with his name attached to it.)

Wearing #6, Mantle was called up to the majors on April 7, 1951, to play right field; by June, manager Casey Stengel, speaking to ''SPORT'', stated "He's got more natural power from both sides than anybody I ever saw." Joe DiMaggio, in his final season, called Mantle "the greatest prospect I can remember." After a brief slump, Mantle was sent down to the Yankees' top farm team, the Kansas City Blues. However, he was not able to find the power he once had in the lower minors. Out of frustration, he called his father one day and told him, "I don't think I can play baseball anymore." Mutt drove up to Kansas City that day. When he arrived, he started packing his son's clothes and (in Mickey's memory) said, "I thought I raised a man. I see I raised a coward instead. You can come back to Oklahoma and work the mines with me." Mantle immediately broke out of his slump, going on to hit .361 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs during his stay in Kansas City. After 40 games, he was called back to New York for good.

In his first World Series game, October 4, 1951, the Yankees were pitted against the Giants for what was Willie Mays's first World Series game as well.

Mantle moved to center field in 1952, replacing Joe DiMaggio, who retired at the end of the 1951 season after one year playing alongside Mantle in the Yankees outfield. Mantle played center field full-time until 1965, when he was moved to left field. His final two seasons were spent at first base. Among his many accomplishments are all-time World Series records for home runs (18), runs scored (42), and runs batted in (40).

Mantle also hit some of the longest home runs in Major League history. On September 10, 1960, he hit a ball left-handed that cleared the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium in Detroit and, based on where it was found, was estimated years later by historian Mark Gallagher to have traveled 643 feet (196 m). Another Mantle homer, hit right-handed off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1953, was measured by Yankees traveling secretary Red Patterson (hence the term "tape-measure home run") to have traveled 565 feet (172 m). Though it is apparent that they are actually the distances where the balls ended up after bouncing several times, there is no doubt that they both landed more than 500 feet (152 m) from home plate. Mantle twice hit balls off the third-deck facade at Yankee Stadium, nearly becoming the only player (along with Negro Leagues star Josh Gibson, though Gibson's home run has never been conclusively verified) to hit a fair ball out of the stadium during a game. On May 22, 1963, against Kansas City's Bill Fischer, Mantle hit a ball that fellow players and fans claimed was still rising when it hit the high facade, then caromed back onto the playing field. It was later estimated by some that the ball could have traveled had it not been blocked by the ornate and distinctive facade. While physicists might question those estimates, on August 12, 1964, he hit one whose distance was undoubted: a center field drive that cleared the batter's eye screen, beyond the marker at the Stadium.

Although he was a feared power hitter from either side of the plate, Mantle considered himself a better right-handed hitter even though he had more home runs from the left side of the plate: 372 left-handed, 164 right-handed. That was due to Mantle having batted left-handed much more often, as the large majority of pitchers are right-handed. In addition, many of his left-handed home runs were hit in Yankee Stadium, a park much friendlier to left-handed hitters than to right-handed hitters. When Mantle played for the Yankees, the distance to the right-field foul pole stood at a mere 296 feet (90 m), with markers in the power alleys of 344 and 407, while the left-field power alley ranged from 402 to 457 feet (139 m) from the plate.

In 1956, Mantle won the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. This was his "favorite summer," a year that saw him win the Triple Crown, leading the majors with a .353 batting average, 52 HR, and 130 RBI, and his first of three MVP awards. Mantle remains the last man to win the Major League Triple Crown by leading both leagues in all three categories. He is also the last player to win a single league Triple Crown as a switch hitter.

Also in 1956, Mantle made a (talking) cameo appearance in a song recorded by Teresa Brewer, "I Love Mickey," which extolled Mantle's power hitting. The song was included in one of the ''Baseball's Greatest Hits'' CDs.

Mantle may have been even more dominant in 1957, leading the league in runs and walks, batting a career-high .365 (second in the league to Ted Williams' .388), and hitting into a league-low five double plays. Mantle reached base more times than he made outs (319 to 312), one of two seasons in which he achieved the feat.

On January 16, 1961, Mantle became the highest-paid player in baseball by signing a $75,000 ($}} today) contract. DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, and Ted Williams, who had just retired, had been paid over $100,000 in a season, and Ruth had a peak salary of $80,000. But Mantle became the highest-paid active player of his time.

Mantle's relationship with the New York press was not always friendly. During the 1961 season, Mantle and teammate Roger Maris, known as the M&M; Boys, chased Babe Ruth's single-season home run record. Five years earlier, in 1956, Mantle had challenged Ruth's record for most of the season, and the New York press had been protective of Ruth on that occasion also. When Mantle finally fell short, finishing with 52, there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from the New York traditionalists. Nor had the New York press been all that kind to Mantle in his early years with the team: he struck out frequently, was injury-prone, was a "true hick" from Oklahoma, and was perceived as being distinctly inferior to his predecessor in center field, Joe DiMaggio. Over the course of time, however, Mantle (with a little help from his teammate Whitey Ford, a native of New York's Borough of Queens) had gotten better at "schmoozing" with the New York media, and had gained the favor of the press. This was a talent that Maris, a blunt-spoken upper-Midwesterner, was never willing or able to cultivate; as a result, he wore the "surly" jacket for his duration with the Yankees. So as 1961 progressed, the Yanks were now "Mickey Mantle's team," and Maris was ostracized as the "outsider," and said to be "not a true Yankee." The press seemed to root for Mantle and to belittle Maris. But Mantle was felled by an abscessed hip late in the season, leaving Maris to break the record (he finished with 61). Mantle finished with 54 while leading the league in runs scored and walks.

In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 3 of the 1964 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Mickey Mantle blasted Barney Schultz's first pitch into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium, which won the game for the Yankees 2–1. However, the Cardinals would ultimately walk away with the World Series title.

Injuries slowed Mantle and the Yankees during the 1965 season, and they finished in 6th, 25 games behind the Minnesota Twins. Mantle hit .255 that season with only 19 home runs. After the 1966 season, he was moved to first base with Joe Pepitone taking over his place in the outfield. By this point, the Yankees were in a decline that lasted until George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973.

Mantle's last home run came on September 20, 1968 off Boston's Jim Lonborg.

Retirement

Mantle announced his retirement on March 1, 1969, and in 1974, as soon as he was eligible, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; his uniform number 7 was retired by the Yankees. (He had briefly worn uniform number 6, as a continuation of Babe Ruth's 3, Lou Gehrig's 4, and Joe DiMaggio's 5, in 1951, but his poor performance led to his temporary demotion to a minor league in mid-season. When he returned, Bobby Brown, who had worn number 6 before Mantle, had reclaimed it, so Mantle was given number 7 by Yankees longtime equipment manager Pete Sheehy.) When he retired, the Mick was third on the all-time home run list with 536.

Mantle served as a part-time color commentator on NBC's baseball coverage in 1969, teaming with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek to call some ''Game of the Week'' telecasts as well as that year's All-Star Game. In 1972 he was a part-time TV commentator for the Montreal Expos.

Despite being among the best-paid players of the pre-free agency era, Mantle was a poor businessman, having made several bad investments. His lifestyle would be restored to one of luxury, and his hold on his fans raised to an amazing level, by his position of leadership in the sports memorabilia craze that swept the USA, beginning in the 1980s. Mantle was a prized guest at any baseball card show, commanding fees far in excess of any other player for his appearances and autographs. This popularity continues long after his death, as Mantle-related items far outsell those of any other player except possibly Babe Ruth, whose items, due to the distance of years, now exist in far smaller quantities. Mantle insisted that the promoters of baseball card shows always include one of the lesser-known Yankees of his era, such as Moose Skowron or Hank Bauer so that they could earn some money from the event.

Despite the failure of Mickey Mantle's Country Cookin' restaurants in the early 1970s, Mickey Mantle's Restaurant & Sports Bar opened in New York at 42 Central Park South (59th Street) in 1988. It became one of New York's most popular restaurants, and his original Yankee Stadium Monument Park plaque is displayed at the front entrance. Mantle let others run the business operations, but made frequent appearances.

In 1983, Mantle worked at the Claridge Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a greeter and community representative. Most of his activities were representing the Claridge in golf tournaments and other charity events. But Mantle was suspended from baseball by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn on the grounds that any affiliation with gambling were grounds for being placed on the "permanently ineligible" list. Kuhn warned Mantle before he accepted the position that he would have to place him on the list if Mantle went to work there. Hall of Famer Willie Mays, who had also taken a similar position, had already had action taken against him. Mantle accepted the position, regardless, as he felt the rule was "stupid." He was placed on the list, but reinstated on March 18, 1985 by Kuhn's successor, Peter Ueberroth.

Injuries

Mickey Mantle's career was plagued with injuries. Beginning in high school, he accumulated both acute and chronic injuries to bones and cartilage in his legs. Applying thick wraps to both of his knees became a pre-game ritual, and by the end of his career, simply swinging a bat caused him to fall to one knee in pain. Baseball scholars often ponder "what if" had he not been injured, and he was able to lead a healthy career.

As a 19-year-old rookie in his first World Series, Mantle tore the cartilage in his right knee on a fly ball by Willie Mays while playing right field. Joe DiMaggio, in the last year of his career, was playing center field. Mays' fly was hit to deep right center, and as both Mantle and DiMaggio converged to make the catch, DiMaggio called for it at the last second, causing Mantle to suddenly stop short as his cleats caught a drainage cover in the outfield grass. His knee twisted awkwardly and he instantly fell. Witnesses say it looked "like he had been shot." He was carried off the field on a stretcher and watched the rest of the World Series on TV from a hospital bed. Some have speculated that Mantle may have torn his Anterior Cruciate Ligament during the incident and played the rest of his career without having it properly treated since ACLs could not be repaired with the surgical techniques available in that era. Still, Mantle still was known as the "fastest man to first base" and won the American League triple crown after these injuries. With the Korean War raging, he was drafted by the US Army but failed the physical exam and was rejected as unfit for service. During the 1957 World Series, Milwaukee Braves second baseman Red Schoendienst fell on Mantle's left shoulder in a play at the bag. Over the next decade, Mantle would experience increasing difficulty hitting from his left side.

Troubled family

On December 23, 1951, Mantle married Merlyn Johnson in Commerce, Oklahoma; they had four sons. In an autobiography, Mantle said he married Merlyn not out of love, but because he was told to by his domineering father. While his drinking became public knowledge during his lifetime, the press (per established practice at the time) kept quiet about his many marital infidelities. Mantle was not entirely discreet about them, and when he went to his retirement ceremony in 1969, he brought his mistress along with his wife. In 1980, Mickey and Merlyn separated for 15 years, but neither filed for divorce. During this time, Mantle lived with his agent, Greer Johnson.

The couple's four sons were Mickey Jr. (1953–2000), David (1955–), Billy (1957–94), whom Mickey named for Billy Martin, his best friend among his Yankee teammates, and Danny (1960–). Like Mickey, Merlyn and their sons all became alcoholics, and Billy developed Hodgkin's disease, as had several previous men in Mantle's family.

During the final years of his life, Mantle purchased a luxury condominium on Lake Oconee near Greensboro, Georgia, near Greer Johnson's home, and frequently stayed there for months at a time. He occasionally attended the local Methodist church, and sometimes ate Sunday dinner with members of the congregation. He was well liked by the citizens of Greensboro, and seemed to like them in return. This was probably because the town respected Mantle's privacy, refusing either to talk about their famous neighbor to outsiders or to direct fans to his home. In one interview, Mickey stated that the people of Greensboro had "gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, and I've found something there I haven't enjoyed since I was a kid."

Mantle's off-field behavior is the subject of the book ''The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood'', written in 2010 by sports journalist Jane Leavy. The book was based on interviews she had with Mantle. Excerpts from the book have been published in ''Sports Illustrated''.

Mickey's fourth cousin, Mary Mantle, is a member of the women's gymnastics team at the University of Oklahoma.

Illness and death

Well before he finally sought treatment for alcoholism, Mantle admitted his hard living had hurt both his playing and his family. His rationale was that the men in his family had all died young, so he expected to die young as well. His father had died in 1952 of Hodgkin's disease, and his grandfather had also died young of the same disease. "I'm not gonna be cheated," he would say. Mantle did not know at the time that most of the men in his family had inhaled lead and zinc dust in the mines, which contribute to Hodgkins' and other cancers. As the years passed, and he had outlived all the men in his family by several years, he frequently used a line popularized by football legend Bobby Layne, a Dallas neighbor and friend of Mantle's who also died in part due to alcohol abuse: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself."

Mantle's wife and sons all completed treatment for alcoholism, and told him he needed to do the same. He checked into the Betty Ford Clinic on January 7, 1994 after being told by a doctor that his liver "looked like a doorstop" and was so badly damaged that "your next drink could be your last." Also helping Mantle to make the decision to go to the Betty Ford Clinic was sportscaster Pat Summerall, who had played for the New York Giants football team while they played at Yankee Stadium, by then a recovering alcoholic and a member of the same Dallas-area country club as Mantle; Summerall himself had been treated at the clinic in 1992.

Shortly after completing treatment, his son Billy died on March 12, 1994 at age 36 of heart problems brought on by years of substance abuse. Despite the fears of those who knew him that this tragedy would send him back to drinking, he remained sober. Mickey Jr. later died of liver cancer on December 20, 2000 at age 47. Danny later battled prostate cancer.

Mantle spoke with great remorse of his drinking in a 1994 ''Sports Illustrated'' cover story. He said that he was telling the same old stories, and realizing how many of them involved himself and others being drunk - including at least one drunk-driving accident - he decided they were not funny anymore. He admitted he had often been cruel and hurtful to family, friends, and fans because of his alcoholism, and sought to make amends. He became a born-again Christian because of his former teammate Bobby Richardson, an ordained Baptist minister who shared his faith with him. After the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, he joined with fellow Oklahoman and Yankee Bobby Murcer to raise money for the victims.

Mantle received a liver transplant at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, on June 8, 1995. His liver was severely damaged by alcohol-induced cirrhosis, as well as hepatitis C. Prior to the operation doctors also discovered he had inoperable liver cancer known as an undifferentiated hepatocellular carcinoma, further facilitating the need for a transplant. In July, he had recovered enough to deliver a press conference at Baylor, and noted that many fans had looked to him as a role model. "This is a role model: Don't be like me," a frail Mantle said. He also established the Mickey Mantle Foundation to raise awareness for organ donations. Soon, he was back in the hospital, where it was found that his cancer was rapidly spreading throughout his body.

Though he was very popular, Mantle's liver transplant was a source of some controversy. Some felt that his fame had permitted him to receive a donor liver in just one day, bypassing other patients who had been waiting for much longer. Mantle's doctors insisted that the decision was based solely on medical criteria, but acknowledged that the very short wait created the appearance of favoritism. While he was recovering, Mantle made peace with his estranged wife, Merlyn, and repeated a request he made decades before for Bobby Richardson to read a poem at Mantle's funeral if he died.

Mantle died on August 13, 1995 at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas with his wife at his side. The Yankees played Cleveland that day and honored him with a moving tribute. By coincidence, Kenny Lofton, the lead off batter for the Indians, wore number 7, and the scoreboard read "At Bat: 7" from the time Yankee Stadium opened until the game started. Eddie Layton played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the Hammond organ because Mickey had once told him it was his favorite song. The team played the rest of the season with black mourning bands topped by a small number 7 on their left sleeves. Mantle was interred in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas. In eulogizing Mantle, sportscaster Bob Costas described him as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic." Costas added: "In the last year of his life, Mickey Mantle, always so hard on himself, finally came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be. And, in the end, people got it." Richardson did oblige in reading the poem at Mantle's funeral, something he described as being extremely difficult.

After Mantle's death, Greer Johnson was taken to federal court in November 1997 by the Mantle family to stop her from auctioning many of Mantle's personal items, including a lock of hair, a neck brace, and expired credit cards. Eventually, the two sides reached a settlement, ensuring the sale of some of Mickey Mantle's belongings for approximately $500,000.

Honors

thumb|right|Mantle's monument in [[Monument Park (Yankee Stadium)|Monument Park.]]On Mickey Mantle Day, June 8, 1969, in addition to the retirement of his uniform Number 7, Mantle was given a plaque that would hang on the center field wall at Yankee Stadium, near the monuments to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Miller Huggins. The plaque was given to him by Joe DiMaggio, and Mantle then gave DiMaggio a similar plaque, telling the crowd, "His should be just a little bit higher than mine." When Yankee Stadium was reopened in 1976 following its renovation, the plaques and monuments were moved to Monument Park, behind the left-center field fence. Shortly before his death, Mantle videotaped a message to be played on Old-Timers' Day, which he was too ill to attend. He said, "When I die, I wanted on my tombstone, 'A great teammate.' But I didn't think it would be this soon." The words were indeed carved on the plaque marking his resting place at the family mausoleum in Dallas. On August 25, 1996, about a year after his death, Mantle's Monument Park plaque was replaced with a monument, bearing the words "A great teammate" and keeping a phrase that had been included on the original plaque: "A magnificent Yankee who left a legacy of unequaled courage." Mantle's original plaque, along with DiMaggio's, are now on display at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, with the DiMaggio plaque still hung a few inches higher than Mantle's.

Mantle and former teammate Whitey Ford were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame together in 1974, Mantle's first year of eligibility, Ford's second.

Beginning in 1997, the Topps Baseball Card company retired the card #7 in its base sets in tribute to Mantle, whose career was taking off just as Topps began producing baseball cards. Mantle's cards, especially his 1952 Topps card, are extremely popular and valuable among card collectors. Though Topps un-retired the #7 in 2006, the number is reserved for cards of Mantle, remade with each year's design.

In 1998, "The Sporting News" placed Mantle at 17th on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, he was one of 100 nominees for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and was chosen by fan balloting as one of the team's outfielders. ESPN's ''SportsCentury'' series that ran in 1999 ranked him No. 37 on its "50 Greatest Athletes" series.

In 2006, Mantle was featured on a United States postage stamp. The stamp is one of a series of four honoring baseball sluggers, the others being Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, and Hank Greenberg.

Depictions

In 2001, the movie ''61*'', produced by Yankee fan Billy Crystal, chronicled Mantle (played by Thomas Jane) and Maris (played by Barry Pepper) chasing Babe Ruth's single season home run record. Mickey's son, Danny, and grandson, Will, appeared briefly as a father and son watching as Mickey hit a home run.

In 2003, Tom Russell's album ''Modern Art'' included the song "The Kid from Spavinaw", retelling the arc of Mantle's career. Mantle also had multiple references in the sitcom ''Seinfeld'', specifically the episodes "The Visa" where Kramer punches him while at a baseball fantasy camp and "Seven" where George Costanza wants to name his future baby as 'Seven' based on Mickey Mantle's game number. Jerry rebukes him and suggests to name the baby as just Mickey. George eventually discovers that his idea was not so bad and is upset when someone else "steals" his idea and beats him to it by naming their baby as Seven.

In the Nickelodeon cartoon ''Hey Arnold!'', there is a famous baseball player by the name of "Mickey Kaline", whose name would be a mixture of both legendary baseball players Al Kaline and Mickey Mantle.

He was also depicted in several episodes of ''The Flintstones''. In some episodes, he was called "Mickey Marble" and in others, he was called "Mickey Mantlepiece".

Career statistics

Awards and achievements

See also

My Favorite Summer 1956

Hitting for the cycle

50 home run club

500 home run club

List of Major League Baseball Home Run Records

List of top 300 Major League Baseball home run hitters

List of major league players with 2,000 hits

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs

List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI

List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases

List of Major League Baseball batting champions

List of Major League Baseball home run champions

List of Major League Baseball RBI champions

List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions

List of Major League Baseball triples champions

Major League Baseball titles leaders

Biographies

Leavy, Jane. ''THE LAST BOY: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood'', 2010, ISBN 0060883529

Castro, Tony, ''Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son'', 2002, ISBN 1-57488-384-4

Gallagher, Mark, ''Explosion! Mickey Mantle's Legendary Home Runs'', 1987, ISBN 0-87795-853-X

References

;General

SPORT magazine, June 1951

;In-line citations

External links

7: ''The Mickey Mantle Novel'' by Peter Golenbock

Downloadable audio interview with sportswriter Peter Golenbock (''Dynasty, Bats, Balls, Guidry, The Bronx Zoo'') on his controversial book ''7: The Mickey Mantle Novel''

Mantle photo Mantle with Senator Robert Kennedy on Mickey Mantle Day, September 18, 1965

Mantle-Maris photo Mantle with Roger Maris in the summer of '61.

Mickey Mantle at IMDb

Mickey Mantle at Findagrave.com

"50 Years Later, A Slide Still Confounds", New York Times, 30 September 2010

Category:1931 births Category:1995 deaths Category:500 home run club Category:Alcohol-related deaths in Texas Category:American Christians Category:American League All-Stars Category:American League batting champions Category:American League home run champions Category:American League RBI champions Category:American League Triple Crown winners Category:Baseball players from Oklahoma Category:Cancer deaths in Texas Category:Deaths from liver cancer Category:Gold Glove Award winners Category:Independence Yankees players Category:Joplin Miners players Category:Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:Major League Baseball center fielders Category:Major League Baseball players with retired numbers Category:Montreal Expos broadcasters Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Category:New York Yankees coaches Category:New York Yankees players Category:Organ transplant recipients Category:People from Dallas, Texas Category:People from Mayes County, Oklahoma Category:Sportspeople from Oklahoma

de:Mickey Mantle es:Mickey Mantle fr:Mickey Mantle ko:미키 맨틀 it:Mickey Mantle he:מיקי מנטל nl:Mickey Mantle ja:ミッキー・マントル no:Mickey Mantle pt:Mickey Mantle simple:Mickey Mantle fi:Mickey Mantle sv:Mickey Mantle th:มิกกี แมนเทิล zh:米奇·曼托

:''For this person's son, the baseball executive, see Joe Garagiola, Jr.''

Name	Joe Garagiola
Position	Catcher
Bats	Left
Throws	Right
Birth date	February 12, 1926
Birth place	St. Louis, Missouri
Debutdate	May 26
Debutyear
Debutteam	St. Louis Cardinals
Finaldate	September 26
Finalyear
Finalteam	New York Giants
Stat1label	AVG
Stat1value	.257
Stat2label	HR
Stat2value	42
Stat3label	RBI
Stat3value	255
Teams	St. Louis Cardinals (-) Pittsburgh Pirates (-) Chicago Cubs (-) New York Giants ()
Highlights	1946 World Series champion }}

Joseph Henry "Joe" Garagiola, Sr. (born February 12, 1926) is an American former catcher in Major League Baseball who later became an announcer and television host, popular for his colorful personality. He was well known for being one of the regular panelists of ''The Today Show'' on NBC for many years.

Biography

Early life

Garagiola was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He grew up on Elizabeth Avenue in an Italian-American neighborhood in St. Louis known as The Hill, just a few doors down from his childhood friend and competitor, Yogi Berra. (That block was subsequently renamed "Hall of Fame Place".)

When Berra and Garagiola were both teenagers, almost all pro scouts rated Garagiola as the better baseball prospect, although Berra had a Hall of Fame career, and Garagiola has always respected Berra's ability. About growing up living next to Berra, Garagiola once said, "Not only was I not the best catcher in the Major Leagues, I wasn't even the best catcher on my street!"

Baseball playing career

Garagiola was signed at age 16 by the St. Louis Cardinals organization. At 17 he remains the youngest player to play in Columbus Red Birds (now Columbus Clippers) history. Garagiola made his major league debut in .

As a rookie in 1946, in his only World Series appearance, Garagiola batted a 6-for-19 in five games, including a Game 4 where he went 4-for-5 with 3 RBIs. By contrast, Ted Williams went only 5-for-25 in the same series, which was also Williams' only World Series appearance. On September 11, 1947, Joe Garagiola and Jackie Robinson were involved in an incident at home plate. Garagiola stepped on Robinson’s foot and the two started arguing. Umpire Beans Reardon held back Garagiola while Robinson clapped. The incident was later part of a children’s book titled ''In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson''.

But Garagiola never quite lived up to the promise of his youth, appearing in only 676 games over 9 seasons for St. Louis, the Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Cubs and New York Giants. He was a mediocre hitter in the majors and featured that in his self-deprecating humor. He once told this story on himself: He knew that it was time to retire, when he was catching and his ex-teammate Stan Musial stepped into the batter's box, turned to Joe, and said, ''"When are you gonna quit?"''

In 1970, Garagiola observed his baseball career:

It's not a record, but being traded four times when there are only eight teams in the league tells you something. I thought I was modeling uniforms for the National League.

Books

After his retirement from baseball, Garagiola lent his name to a 1960 book, ''Baseball is a Funny Game'', which sold well upon release and helped establish Garagiola as a "personality." The (largely ghostwritten) book was a collection of humorous anecdotes surrounding his upbringing and his playing career, and showcased the folksy, humorous style that became his trademark as a broadcaster.

Garagiola also wrote ''It's Anybody's Ballgame'' (1980) and ''Just Play Ball'' (2007).

Baseball broadcasting career

Garagiola turned to broadcasting following his retirement as a player, first calling Cardinals radio broadcasts on KMOX from to .

As an announcer, Garagiola is best known for his almost 30 year association with NBC television. He began doing national baseball broadcasts for the network in (teaming with Bob Wolff). Additionally, Garagiola called several World Series on NBC Radio in the 1960s, teaming with a number of announcers including By Saam and George Kell. After a stint doing New York Yankees games from to that saw him call Mickey Mantle's 500th home run, Garagiola returned to broadcasting NBC baseball in .

Garagiola alternated play-by-play duties with Curt Gowdy on NBC until , when he assumed the role full-time. He teamed with color commentator Tony Kubek from 1976 to ; in , he shifted to color commentary as Vin Scully joined the network as lead play-by-play announcer. (Kubek joined Bob Costas to form NBC's #2 baseball announcing duo in this era.) Besides working on the Saturday ''Game of the Week'' for NBC, the team of Scully and Garagiola would call three All-Star Games (1983, 1985, and 1987), three National League Championship Series (1983, 1985, and 1987) and three World Series (1984, 1986, and 1988).

After calling the 1988 World Series with Scully, Garagiola resigned from NBC Sports. NBC was on the verge of losing the television rights to cover Major League Baseball to CBS. Garagiola claimed that NBC left him "twisting" while he was trying to renegotiate his deal. Garagiola was replaced on the NBC telecasts by Tom Seaver.

After leaving NBC Sports, Garagiola had a brief stint as a television commentator for the California Angels. In recent years, he has performed some color commentary duties for the Arizona Diamondbacks, where his son, Joe Garagiola, Jr., served as general manager.

Other broadcasting ventures

Besides calling baseball games for NBC, Garagiola served as a panelist on ''The Today Show'' from 1967 to 1973 and again from 1990 to 1992. He also occasionally guest-hosted ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', including for the only live appearances of any members of The Beatles on the program while still a group (John Lennon and Paul McCartney were the guests in May 1968).

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Garagiola also hosted the game shows ''He Said, She Said''; ''Joe Garagiola's Memory Game''; ''Sale of the Century''; ''To Tell the Truth''; and ''Strike it Rich''; as well as the ''Monday Night Baseball'' pre-game show ''The Baseball World of Joe Garagiola''. He also hosted the St. Louis area professional wrestling show, titled ''Wrestling at the Chase'' and was a regular host of The Orange Bowl Parade in Miami on New Year's Eve. Garagiola also gained a new form of fame thanks to his stints as host of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

From 1969 to 1970, Garagiola was the Saturday afternoon host of the NBC Radio Network program ''Monitor''. (A link to a sample of his hosting is found below.) During the 1960s, he also contributed commentaries to ''Monitor'' for several years and had a daily five-minute morning drivetime sports commentary program on the network.

Testimony at Curt Flood trial

In 1970, Garagiola appeared at a preliminary trial following former Cardinals outfielder Curt Flood's lawsuit against Major League Baseball challenging the game's reserve clause. Testifying before Judge Irving Ben Cooper in New York, Garagiola defended the clause, a stance he later deemed a "terrible mistake".

Politics

In the 1976 presidential election, Garagiola strongly supported the candidacy of President Gerald Ford. In the fall campaign the Republican National Committee hired Garagiola to do a series of television ads with Ford; the ads consisted of Garagiola talking to Ford in a relaxed, informal setting. Derided by critics as "The Joe and Jerry Show," the ads reinforced the perception among Ford's critics that the then-president was inept and inarticulate, and were considered by some to have negatively affected the Ford campaign. The two men became close friends, however; on Election Night 1976, President Ford invited Garagiola to be one of his guests at the White House to watch the results on television.

Advocacy against chewing tobacco

Garagiola has also been an advocate against the use of chewing tobacco. He had picked up the habit during his playing days with the Cardinals, but quit cold turkey in the late-1950s. He visits major league teams every year during spring training alongside players from his generation who have suffered from cancer related to the addiction.

Society for American Baseball Research

Garagiola was the keynote luncheon speaker July 28 at the 2007 convention of the Society for American Baseball Research held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Honors

In , he was honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford Frick Award for outstanding broadcasting accomplishments. He has also been given his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Personal

Garagiola's son, Joe Jr., went on to become the general manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks and later, senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball. His other son, Steve, is a broadcast journalist as well, serving as a reporter and anchor for WDIV-TV, the NBC affiliate in Detroit. His daughter, Gina, has also worked in TV news, as a field reporter for Arizona station KTVK, and is now a freelance writer. Garagiola, Sr. has eight grandchildren.

References

External links

Baseball Hall of Fame - Frick Award recipient

St. Louis Walk of Fame

http://appelpr.com/ARTICLES/A-funny.htm

Joe Garagiola hosting "Monitor" on the NBC Radio Network, Saturday, February 22, 1969, from 3 to 4 p.m. ET

Category:1926 births Category:Living people Category:American game show hosts Category:American people of Italian descent Category:Arizona Diamondbacks broadcasters Category:Baseball players from Missouri Category:California Angels broadcasters Category:Chicago Cubs players Category:Major League Baseball announcers Category:Major League Baseball catchers Category:NBC News Category:New York Giants (NL) players Category:New York Yankees broadcasters Category:Peabody Award winners Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:Pittsburgh Pirates players Category:Professional wrestling announcers Category:St. Louis Cardinals broadcasters Category:St. Louis Cardinals players

fr:Joe Garagiola, Sr.