How Fast Was Mickey Mantle?

[andyfox]

In his three MVP years (1956-1957), plus his great 1961 season, he grounded into a grand total of 15 double plays: 4 in 1956, 5 in 1957, 4 in 1962, and just 2 in 1961. And he stole 47 bases in 52 attempts.

[Francis Dollarhyde]

He was fast ... about a beer a minute fast.

[Nick_Foxx]

well from what ive read, during the early 50s he was one of the fastest players in the american league

mike

[andyfox]

I'm with Bill James when he says that far too much attention has been paid to his drinking and not enough to his .421 lifetime on base percentage.

[Francis Dollarhyde]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm with Bill James when he says that far too much attention has been paid to his drinking and not enough to his .421 lifetime on base percentage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, maybe if Mickey paid more attention to his drinking, he'd be alive today. It was probably fans like you that always bought Mickey a pitcher of beer so you could talk to him about his .421 lifetime on base percentage.

[Toro]

In the recent unflattering book about Joe Dimaggio, the author blamea Joe D. for the beginning of Mantle's physical problems.

When Mantle broke in, instead of playing CF as he could have, they had to put him in RF in deferrence to DiMaggio. The problem was that DiMaggio had bad ankles and couldn't cover the ground he once did.

But the CF is the quarterback of the OF and balls between fielders are theirs, generally. On the particular play in question, Mantle went after a fly ball that he didn't think DiMaggio could get, only to be called off at the last second.

He had to change direction quickly to avoid a collision and stepped on a field drain, wrecking his knee. His wheels were never the same after this unfortunate accident. The book went to great lengths to blame it on DiMaggio but I thought it was a cheap shot as was a lot of other stuff in the book.

[andyfox]

He was indeed an alcoholic. But as idolized as he was as a baseball player, he was even greater than the perception.

Mantle was aware of how his drinking probably led to his death and, in the weeks before he died, told people to not be like him.

[andyfox]

Willie Mays hit that ball in the 1951 series and Mays has backed up the claim.

[Clarkmeister]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm with Bill James when he says that far too much attention has been paid to his drinking and not enough to his .421 lifetime on base percentage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, maybe if Mickey paid more attention to his drinking, he'd be alive today. It was probably fans like you that always bought Mickey a pitcher of beer so you could talk to him about his .421 lifetime on base percentage.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bitter, party of 1, your table is ready. Seems like someone woke up on the grouchy side of the bed today.

[adios]

To be repetitive, Mickey Mantle IMO was the most talented baseball player I've ever seen and it's not even close FWIW.

[nolanfan34]

[ QUOTE ]
To be repetitive, Mickey Mantle IMO was the most talented baseball player I've ever seen and it's not even close FWIW.

[/ QUOTE ]

And one of the most popular ever as well. There's a reason this (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=16271&item=5130927 584&rd=1) is the Holy Grail of post-WWII baseball cards.

I am far too young to have seen Mantle play, but my dad saw him a lot, growing up going to games in Tiger Stadium, and he would agree that Mantle was amazing. Not as good as Al Kaline was, but my dad is a little biased there. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[andyfox]

I saw him play in the early '60s when he wasn't quite the player he was in the mid '50s, but still impressive. I saw him hit a line drive batting left handed that cleared the 467 sign in left-center field in Yankee Stadium. (Yes, it was 467 in those days and the monuments were on the field, in play.) Next at bat, he bunted for a single with two strikes on him.

I must have had close to 50 Mickey Mantle baseball cards, which my mom threw away when we moved to California in 1966. Oh well.

[adios]

I attended my first major league baseball game in 1957 with my Dad in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium to watch the Indiams play the Tigers. I remember it to this day. I remember emerging from underneath the stands and being amazed at how green the grass was on the field. Nobody ever hit a home run on the fly into the bleachers at Municipal statdium. I remember watching the Indians playing the Yankees while sitting in the bleachers and seeing Mantle hit a home run from the left side of the plate that would have easily carried into the bleachers as it hit about half way up in the runway separating the bleachers and the rest of the stadium. That was a loonnnng home run.

[JTG51]

I can't imagine the stat is kept all that accurately, but didn't Mantle have the record for fastest time from home plate to first as a right handed batter until Bo Jackson came along?

As for how strong Mantle was, I heard a very interesting interview on the radio a few months back. The guy being interviewed charted the distances of nearly every home run hit by all of the great sluggers. For older players he only used HRs that were covered by more than one newspaper report. That included almost all of Ruth's HRs.

Anyway, his claim was that even with modern weight lifting and steroids, Ruth hit the ball harder than any player that's ever lived, and Mantle was second.

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
Anyway, his claim was that even with modern weight lifting and steroids, Ruth hit the ball harder than any player that's ever lived, and Mantle was second.

[/ QUOTE ] Probably, when you consider how massive the parks were back then, you had to hit the ball hard to hit HR's. Now, 30-40 is easy for sluggers today.

[Nick_Foxx]

mantle supposedly hit a ball 582 ft in dc

[M2d]

I may be on crack or may have the wrong guy in mind, but the number 3.5 from the left hand batter's box comes to mind.

[JTG51]

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I may be on crack or may have the wrong guy in mind, but the number 3.5 from the left hand batter's box comes to mind.

[/ QUOTE ]

That may be it. Or maybe he had the record from both sides of the plate? Either way, I doubt that's a stat that's kept very accurately so it's just an interesting anecdote.

[BeerMoney]

My dad said he was the fastest in the history of the game down the first base line..

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]


My dad said he was the fastest in the history of the game down the first base line..

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh yeah, well my dad said Lou Brock was faster!

[Phat Mack]

I watched Mantle play in the 50's and 60's. If anyone is suggesting that he wasn't fast, it might be that they're comparing him to Mays. For all I know, they ran at the same speed, but Mantle ran like a halfback going through the line and Mays seemed to glide over the ground effortlessly.

The first time I went to the Polo Grounds we got to the ball game late--in the bottom of the first. The first thing I saw when I got to the top of the ramp was Mays running between first and third. I was dumbfounded that a human could move like that. It might be that anyone who saw Mays assumed no one else could run.

[Glenn]

From memory, I believe Mantle set the home plate to 1st base record of 3.1 seconds when he came up in 1951. This was later tied by Vince Coleman.

[M2d]

I knew it was something insane like that. 3.5 is still damn fast, but 3.1 is out of this world..

[fsuplayer]

From memory, I believe Mantle set the home plate to 1st base record of 3.1 seconds when he came up in 1951. This was later tied by Vince Coleman.

this is the same # I remember from when i was obsessed about baseball and baseball cards.

fwiw i second the notion that he was the most talented baseball player of all time.

fsuplayer

[M2d]

Willie (though you're not giving much up going with the Mick).

[fsuplayer]

Willie (though you're not giving much up going with the Mick).

my dad's love for the yankees and my hate for the giants force me to disagree with you here. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[M2d]

That I'm a dodger fan whose first adult book was Kahn's "Boys of Summer" should lend extra weight to my choice.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I could not find any numbers on how fast Mantle was down the line, but I did find something interesting that I had forgotten about.

Cool Pappa Bell is purported by many to be the fastest man to ever play baseball. It's to bad he never got a chance to showcase it in the major league.

[Ray Zee]

mantle and mays were both very fast. the amazing thing is that in those days most pro athletes smoked and drank all the time. you always saw mantle, rutn, niclaus palmer and the like smoking and with a drink in their hands. plus many were overweight,yet set records that may never really be broken given the conditions they played under.

[andyfox]

565 off of Chuck Stobbs in 1953.

Later, in the early '60s, he hit one that hit the lights above the facade above the third deck in Yankee Stadium that was described as still going up when it hit.

[andyfox]

I saw Mays, towards the tail end of his career (maybe 1967 or 1968) airmail a throw from medium center field about twenty feet over home plate to the screen trying to nail a runner at the plate. An inaccurate throw, but what an arm.

[andyfox]

Good point. Imagine what Babe Ruth would've done if he took care of himself. Not that he did badly as it was.