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.
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