World Series: Did You Know?

In his first Fall Classic that he played in that went the distance, The Mick went yard in game six and seven. In the last World Series Mickey Mantle played in that went seven, he also hit a home run in the last two contests.

Mickey Mantle saw his first Fall Classic come to an early end in 1951 due to an injury chasing a Willie Mays' flyball. It knocked him out the rest of the World Series, which Mantle's New York Yankees won over Mays' New York Giants in six games.

The Yankees were back the next year. Sans Joe DiMaggio and not against the Giants. It was against that other good team from New York. The Brooklyn Dodgers. The Yankees went into game five at Ebbets Field down 3-2. They had to win both game six and seven there or Brooklyn was going to be on top of the world in 1952. The Yankees didn't want that.

Mantle made sure that didn't happen.

The Yankees entered the top of the eighth ahead 2-1, with Yogi Berra and Duke Snider hitting some long balls of their own in the game. How about our boy? Well, Mickey didn't have a home run as he lead off the top of the top of the frame against Brooklyn's Billy Loes. Preacher Roe was throwing in the bullpen. The Dodgers might have thought it was a good idea to make the switch hitter bat from the right side.

On Loes' second pitch, Mantle went the other way to left centre. The ball landed in the seats and the Yankees were now up 3-1. It proved to be crucial, as another blast from Snider in the bottom of the frame cut into that, but did not tie the game. It was New York that ended up with a narrow 3-2 win.

In the winner-take-all game seven, the Dodger sent out Joe Black to bring it all home. For five innings, the rookie stayed right with anyone on the Yankees mound. Ed Lopat lasted just three innings for New York.

With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the sixth, Phil Rizzuto lined out to Pee Wee Reese in short. Pee Wee made a nice backhand snare. But Mantle came up next, and Black fell behind in the count 3-1. The Mick sent the next pitch onto Bedford Avenue in right. 3-2, Yankees. Mantle was not finished. His single to centre field the next inning off Roe brought home Gil McDougald. That proved to be the final score as Mantle and New York had themselves a 4-2 win and a World Championship, right there in Brooklyn.

Skip ahead 12 years and Mantle was playing in his final Fall Classic. The opposition was the St. Louis Cardinals. Although Mantle's dramatic walk-off home run in game three off Barney Schultz (Before going to bat, Mickey had told the hitter behind him, Elston Howard, that he was going to hit a home run) had given New York a 2-1 lead in the series, it was St. Louis winning the next two games. That meant New York had win both games' six and seven at Sportsman's Park (Also called Busch Stadium at that point).

Game six was a rematch of the dramatic game three, as Jim Bouton tried to keep New York alive. Curt Simmons, meanwhile, was trying to slam the door shut on the Yankees. Simmons started strong as he fanned both Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in the top of the first, back-to-back. St. Louis wasted no time in getting to Bouton. Right in the bottom of the first, it was the Cardinals scoring first. But then New York took over.

Simmons actually held The Bronx Bombers off the scoresheet through four. Bouton scored Tom Tresh with the tying run in the top of the fifth on a single. The Cards got two men on the bottom of the frame. It was the closest they'd come to winning this game.

With one out in the top of the sixth, it was Roger Maris putting the mighty Yankees up 2-1 with a solo home run that was just fair. Mantle, the next hitter, gave Simmons and company no time to recover. Batting right-handed against the left-handed pitcher, Mantle followed Maris' flight path to right. 3-1, New York.

Mantle scored another run in the top of the eighth to make it 4-1. With the bases filled, it was Joe Pepitone hitting a grand slam. St. Louis scored two meaningless runs off Bouton as New York won, 8-3.

Bob Gibson was trying to nail it down in game seven, and up 6-0 after five innings. The Yankees weren't about to just roll over and die.

Indeed. Leading off the sixth inning, Bobby Richardson didn't connect solidly, but beat out a ball hit to third base. Maris singled to right on a bouncing ball. Mantle was next up. Gibson was tiring. He was pitching under some duress. Bob was pitching on two days' rest.

The Mick cut the lead in half with a home run to left over Lou Brock's head. This seemed to wake up the team. It was 6-3, and there was plenty of time to go. Bobby Richardson collected hit thirteenth hit of the 1964 Fall Classic the next inning, and Roger Maris gave it a ride to right. But the ball was hit right to Mike Shannon. Steve Hamilton gave up a home run to Ken Boyer in the bottom of the seventh, and that made it a 7-3 ballgame.

Mantle hit it well, but could only fly to Curt Flood in centre in the eighth. The Yankees came at Gibson with everything but the kitchen sink in the ninth. With one out, Clete Boyer joined his brother in the home run trot as he nailed a 3-2 Gibson delivery to left, That made it 7-4. One out later, it was Phil Linz blasting another Gibson pitch out of the park in left. 7-5. Gibson was just getting the ball over the plate. At this point, that might not have seemed like enough.

Gibson settled down, having been given a pep talk by his manager, Johhny Keane. Richardson popped out on a 1-1 pitch, and the Cardinals had a 7-5 win.

Mickey Mantle had played in his last Fall Classic game. But in that and in game six, he'd gone out the way he should have. A home run.

References

Neft, David S., and Richard M. Cohen. The World Series: Complete Play-by-play of Every Game, 1903-1989. New York: St. Martin's, 1990. Print.

Gallagher, Mark. Explosion!: Mickey Mantle's Legendary Home Runs. New York: Arbor House, 1987. Print.

Mantle, Mickey, and Mickey Herskowitz. All My Octobers: My Memories of Twelve World Series When the Yankees Ruled Baseball. New York: HarperCollins, 1994. Print.

Halberstam, David. October 1964. New York: Villard, 1994. Print.

Golenbock, Peter. Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary, 2000. Print.

Retrosheet. www.retrosheet.org. Web. (2 Feb. 2016) 

Sports Reference LLC. Baseball-Reference.com - Major League Statistics and Information. http://www.baseball-reference.com/. Web. (2 Feb. 2016)

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Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. https://en.wikipedia.org (2 Feb. 2016)