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Mickey Mantle Retires: Today in Sports History

On March 1st, 1969, Yankees legend Mickey Mantle announced his retirement just as Spring Training was getting started. Struck with leg and knee injuries throughout his career, Mantle ultimately decided his time was up after seeing a decline in his play over his previous two seasons. Mantle's batting average dipped below .250 for both of his final two seasons, something that never occurred beforehand. Despite this, Mantle still put up seasons of 150 and 143 OPS+, showing that while he was no longer otherworldly, the superstar was still ridiculously good at playing baseball. “For the first time in nearly 50 years there is no Yankee superstar,” Robert Markus of the Chicago Tribune wrote at the time. “It all started with Babe Ruth and then the Babe was joined by Lou Gehrig, While Lou was still there along came Joe DiMaggio. In Joe’s final year in the majors Mickey Mantle came along and so the chain was unbroken. Until Saturday when Mantle hung ‘em up.” With 3 MVP's, 20 All-Star selections, 7 World Series rings, a Triple Crown, a Gold Glove and a Batting Title, Mickey Mantle was inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot, securing 88.2% of the vote in 1974.

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The Streak Begins

On May 15, 1941, Joe DiMaggio singled off Chicago White Sox left-hander Eddie Smith in the first inning at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees lost the game 13-1. DiMaggio went 1-for-4. Nobody noticed. It was the first hit in a 56-game hitting streak that would consume the country for the next two months — and is still considered the most unbreakable record in baseball history. DiMaggio would hit safely in every game until July 17, when Cleveland's Al Smith and Jim Bagby (with two great defensive plays by third baseman Ken Keltner) finally shut him down. Across those 56 games he hit .408, scored 56 runs, drove in 55, and hit 15 home runs. The next day he started a 16-game streak, meaning he hit safely in 72 of 73 games. Pete Rose's 44-game streak in 1978 is the closest anyone has come in the 85 years since. Nobody else has cleared 40. "Joltin' Joe" remains the only player in MLB history with a streak even half as long.

@Landon

Put It On The Mantle: Today In Sports History

On May 14th, 1967. It was Mother’s Day at Yankee Stadium and the Orioles were in town. Mickey Mantle stood at the plate sitting at 499 career home runs. As you could have guessed, he hit his 500th home run. Mantle would play for 18 season from 1951-1968. He was one of the most powerful hitters of his time and also was a switch hitter. He had 536 home runs, 372 from the left batters box and 162 from the right batters box. He received a Triple Crown in 1956 when he lead the league with 52 home runs.

@bleachcreetch

Three from the Mick

On May 13, 1955, Mickey Mantle hit three home runs in a single game at Yankee Stadium — and did it from both sides of the plate. The 23-year-old switch-hitting center fielder homered batting right-handed against Detroit's Steve Gromek in the first, again right-handed in the fifth, then crushed a third one batting left-handed off Bob Miller in the eighth. Yankees won 5-2. It was the first time any switch-hitter in MLB history had homered from both sides of the plate three times in a single game. Mantle would do it 10 times total in his career — still the most ever, with no one else in double digits. 1955 was Mantle's first season carrying the offensive load post-DiMaggio. He'd hit 37 home runs that summer, the first of nine seasons with 30+. The Yankees would lose the World Series to the Brooklyn Dodgers — Brooklyn's only championship — but the Mick had announced himself as a transcendent star, and a May afternoon against the Tigers became Exhibit A.