#135 Mickey Mantle - New York Yankees

Mickey Charles Mantle
New York Yankees
Outfield

Bats:  Both  Throws:  Right  Height:  5'11"  Weight:  195
Born:  October 20, 1931, Spavinaw, OK
Signed:  Signed by the New York Yankees as an amateur free agent before 1949 season
Major League Teams:  New York Yankees 1951-1968
Hall of Fame Induction:  1974
Died:  August 13, 1995, Dallas, TX (age 63)

Writing about the extremely well-known Hall of Famers in this set is way more difficult and daunting than writing about the fringe players who enjoyed a cup of coffee in the majors.  What can I write here about Mickey Mantle that isn't already well known and better written?

With that caveat out of the way . . . Mickey Mantle, the popular center fielder for the Yankees during their 1950s and early 1960s dynasty, was a three-time A.L. MVP winner, a 20-time All-Star, a triple crown winner in 1956 and a member of 7 World Champion Yankees teams.  He's regarded as one of the best switch hitters in baseball history and was a first ballot Hall of Famer in 1974.  Mantle led the league in home runs four times and in runs scored five times.  He finished his career with a .298 batting average, 2,415 hits, 536 home runs (currently 18th all-time) and 1,509 RBIs.  His #7 was retired by the Yankees upon his retirement in 1969, he ranked 17th on the 1998 Sporting News list of Baseball's 100 Greatest Players, and he was voted as one of the three outfielders on Major League Baseball's All-Century Team.

Not surprisingly, Mantle was my Dad's favorite non-Phillies baseball player.

1973 Topps purchases

Christmas morning, 1988

1956 Topps list, circa early 1989

Building the Set
December 25, 1988 from Deptford, NJ - Card #70
Relatively early into our journey collecting the 1956 Topps set, my Dad honed in with a laser focus on the biggest and most valuable card of all the 342 cards in the set - this Mantle card.  He realized this card could be a major roadblock in completing our set, and he accepted the challenge of trying to clear that roadblock as soon as possible.  In late 1988 and at this point in our set quest, we had 60-ish cards and the most we had spent on any one card was the $14 paid for Richie Ashburn's (#120) card.  At this time, the 1956 Topps Mantle card had a "book" price of $575.

On September 10, 1988, a few days into my starting high school, we attended a baseball card show at the Deptford Mall, with probably 75 to 100 tables spread out among both floors of the mall.  I was less than half-way through our 1973 Topps set, and I was focused on adding commons and maybe a few stars at the show.  My meticulous Commodore 64-curated records show I was extremely successful in my hunt, adding 134 commons for $46.50 and two star cards - Carl Yastrzemski's card for $8 and my big splurge, Hank Aaron's card for $10 (see above).  While I was adding those cards, and unknown to me at the time, my Dad was deep into negotiations for this Mantle card with a baseball card dealer whose name has been lost in the sands of time.

My Dad had been scouting the Mantle card since the Ocean City baseball card show in June, and he was very likely aware of what the card was selling for from his mail-order dealer of choice, Kit Young Cards.  I've heard him tell the tale of the Mantle Negotiations hundreds of times, and I'm not going to do it justice here.  But at some point during the talks that afternoon in Deptford, my Dad had settled on buying one of two Mantle cards this dealer had for sale.  The two cards were both in decent shape, with one slightly better than the other.  The better of the two cards, the card now shown at the top of this post, was eventually negotiated down to an agreed upon price of $300.  The way my Dad finishes the story, in his best Columbo-esque manner, as he was getting ready to pay the dealer he said, "Or how about $400 for the both of them?"  The dealer accepted and he went home with two 1956 Topps Mantle cards to be hidden away until I opened them on Christmas morning.  Shown below is that second card, currently residing in the family vault.  (It's a small vault.)

To provide some context here, my parents were not rich.  Both life-long educators, they saved their money meticulously and would spend whatever was left over on home improvements, presents for my sister and me or an annual vacation for the family somewhere on the East Coast.  I knew how much this Mantle card "booked" for and when I suddenly had two of them in my possession courtesy of a very generous Santa, the gesture and the generosity was not lost on me, nor has it ever been.

For years after adding this card to our set, we'd travel to baseball card shows together, hunting for dealers with more 1956 Topps cards for sale.  Once we found a dealer, we'd start browsing his or her wares and inevitably the dealer would ask, "Collecting the set?" followed by "That set's a beauty."  To which my Dad always and without fail casually replied, "We've already got the Mantle."  He'd wait a beat, anticipating an impressed look from the dealer and then he'd go back to browsing the stacks or the pages or the display of cards under glass.  I probably heard him say, "We've already got the Mantle," dozens of times.  I smile now remembering how proud he was to be able to give me such an incredible gift, and something I'll always cherish.

Once we added this card, it became a foregone conclusion we'd one day complete the set.  And why not?  We've already got the Mantle.

I'm scheduling this post on what would have been my Dad's 77th birthday and it's still hard for me to believe he's been gone almost 10 years.  Happy birthday Dad.

The Card / Yankees Team Set
And what can be said about the card that hasn't already been said elsewhere in more eloquent terms?  This is one of the most iconic baseball cards of the 20th Century, depicting one of the most popular baseball players ever during the prime of his career and from arguably his best season.

This card has been reprinted numerous times over the years, first appearing on a 1975 Topps MVP subset card.  More notable, the card was reproduced in 1996 when Topps reprinted its entire run of Mantle cards as an insert set for that year's flagship offering.

1956 Season

This was Mantle's triple crown season and he was the unanimous choice for A.L. MVP receiving all 24 first place votes.  At 24 years old, Mantle led the Yankees (and the league) in just about every offensive category, batting .353 with 52 home runs and 130 RBIs over 150 games.  Mantle started all but 10 games in center field for the Yankees, with Bob Cerv (#288) (9 starts) and Joe Collins (#21) (1 game) getting to start on those rare off days.  In the World Series, highlighted by Don Larsen's (#332) perfect game, Mantle hit three home runs as the Yankees downed the Dodgers in seven games.

1951 Bowman #253

1952 Topps #311

1959 Topps #10

1962 Topps #200

1969 Topps #500

Other Notable Baseball Cards
First Mainstream Card:  1951 Bowman #253
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (25):  1952-1953, 1956-1969, 1975, 1996, 2006-2012
Most Recent Mainstream Card:  2020 Panini Diamond Kings #33

5,682 - Mantle non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 1/13/21.

I have to believe Mantle has appeared on more baseball cards than any one else, ever.

Sources:  
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
National Baseball Hall of Fame
SABR
The Trading Card Database