The Mick tonight on HBO

The tale of the rise and fall is well known now. I'll watch because Mantle is the reason I'm a Yankee fan. At some point in time in the early 60's I asked my Dad who the best baseball player was and he said Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees. I was wed to the team from that moment on. As a kid I always expected him to hit a home run. I mean just look at the short right field porch back then! I felt I could hit it out it seemed so close (296 ft. down the line). Biggest Mantle moment for me was when it hit Barney Schultz's first pitch out of the park in the bottom of the ninth for a 2-1 Yankee victory in Game 3 of the '64 World Series. That was Mantle's last big year: 35 HR, 111 RBI, .303 avg. Jim Bouton has some great Mantle stories in his book "Ball Four."