Anybody else ever look at the Chicago Bulls' logo upside down? A friend pointed this out to me. Once you see the robot and the crab, you can't unsee it.
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Your post reminded me of when Mickey Mantle passed away. My mind thought back to a moment in 1956 during the world series when he made a catch that saved Don Larsen no hitter and eventual Perfect Game.
We had a large pasture next to where I lived and there was a very long, high barn with a steep roof. After the catch I figured out the perfect angle where I could throw a rubber ball off of the roof and catch it in full stride the way Mantle did in that game. I would run from one end of the barn to the other (and for a boy it was a long run) and catch it just like Mantle. did in this video
I was a little young to appreciate Mantle at his best. But he was my father's favorite player. Dad's dream was for me to be a major leaguer, so when I was 4-5 years old, we'd practice together, and then he'd give me a pep talk: "You are better than Mickey Mantle was at your age. All you have to do is keep working and improving a little every day."
I can't remember what age I was when he gave up on saying that, certainly by the summer my eyesight went bad and I couldn't hit the curve ball...Took me a long time to stop feeling like I let dad down...
Well for Starchief, Don, Bert and people like myself there is always hope. Here is one of my daddy's favorite players hitting a home run deep into the seats off of Warren Spahn. Spannnie was a pretty good picture in his day. Appling hit the home run when he was 75 years old. SEVENTY FIVE. Few people can swing a bat at 75 much less hit one out of the park.
I've long been a fan of baseball history and could spend hours searching youtube for all sorts of fun stuff to watch on the all-time greats. From all the players I've studied, Mickey Mantle (at least my opinion) is one of the top 5 most talented players ever to play the game. It's a shame that he didn't take better care of himself, otherwise, he would stand alone with many, many offensive category records. Even with the abusive lifestyle, he still ranks 11th all-time in OPS, which is a stat that measures all-around offense output. I'm glad to know that Mantle turned it around and got right with Jesus at the end of his life with the encouragement of team mate Bobby Richardson.
I know Sawnee Cat has seen all this, but for those that haven't, If you watch some of Mantle's old films on youtube, you can see how explosive/quick he was with his body at the plate. He had super-fast reaction time and really spun his body to generate power. I believe he would have made a great kick off returner or slot receiver in football. His running speed on the basepaths was virtually the same as Deion Sanders and Bo Jackson; he had that kind of speed.
From that era, I believe that Mantle and Henry Aaron were the best hitters. If you took away all of Hank Aaron's home runs; if he never hit a single homer, he would still have over 3000 base hits.
I've seen a lamp shade with the outline of the state of Ky and a blue moon that looked like a basketball over it. Covered basketball and the song.Check the logo out below. It's from aseaofblue.com I highly doubt they pay royalties to UK on it because the commonwealth (state) outline is truly in public domain (fair use) and not licensed. However, you can bet that image, itself, below has a copyright.
Many kids in my day tried to copy Mickey's swing and mannerisms. I had it almost perfect but could never get the power and distance of Mantle. I batted right hand and my daddy left hand and he was a "power hitter" for distance. Daddy worked with me but you have to have the talent. I could never match my dad and was a mile from The Mick. Like I say talent.
I'm 69 and I have nothing I can swing anymore!!!!
Yes, remember the disaster well. I was vacationing in Florida at my mother's Orlando house at the time. Many images were horrifying.
To me, it looks like a robot giving a sermon.
Well, that is certainly the G rated version. But I can't stop seeing the robot and crab.
Old Yankees teammates of Mickey tell how strong his hands were; scary strong grip strength that Mantle had. I would love to have seen how far your dad could have hit a ball. I've heard rumors......
Here is a good interview iwth The Mick about whether he was left or right handed. I found it funny he says the only think he could do left handed was swing at a pitch. If he was batting a ball after pitching it in the air he had to do it right handed. If he swung a golf club he had to do it right handed. Yet he could hit a home run 500 feet from both sides of the plate. Some things are hard to understand.
Something similar for me, except I loved third base. Our house and garage were made of rock blocks. I'd throw a rubber ball at the garage wall to practice grounders. The rubber tore up in no time, so I switched to tennis balls. The tennis balls came at you harder, but the tennis balls only lasted a couple of weeks. Finally I switched to golf balls and those suckers came back at you hard. Never had a baseball or softball hit at me as hard as those golf balls.
Sometimes our Dads wanted to live their dreams through us. Mine wanted me to play college basketball, and I just wasn't quick enough, and at 5'10" I wasn't tall enough. I made the UK freshman team, back when they had one, but I was getting as much out of my talent as I had. Pretty good HS player, just not big or quick enough. Really good shooter. He also thought I had a chance at professional golf, and I made the UK golf team, but I never got better than scratch. To make it, you had to be +4 or +5. I needed professional instruction on a regular basis, but I couldn't afford it, got married and that was that. No regrets.
Spahnn won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart in WW2.
I can see the "key" to Mickey's power. It's how he keeps his hands/arms close to his body while maintaining the "tilt" in his upper body. He keeps on balance with the tilt while storing up the energy from having his hands close to his body until the last split second. This helps give him more "speed" throughout his swing, resulting in harder impact. So, in addition to being super strong, his technique is also great for power hitting. Ted Williams also had this feature in his swing with his hands/arms.
Cool. Was it licensed?
Mantle said his strength in his hands and arms came from working in the mines. When dad worked in the mines after high school he played semi-pro ball for Eastern Coal Company. Back in those days corporations sponsored teams for the employees. For example the Phillips 66 Oil Co. sponsored a basketball team that had very good players on it. Stan Musial, Hall of Famer with the Cardinals, played minor league baseball in Williamson, WV and dad's team played exhibition games against Williamson. This was in the late 1930's. About 38 or 39.
Daddy had a nice swing but his power was in his forearms coming from loading coal and his quick swing. He was also very fast. He had a tall lanky frame like Ted Williams in those days, about 6 feet tall and 160 lbs. soaking wet.
![[roll]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/roll.r191677.gif "roll [roll]")
That's absolutely hilarious. I've never realized it until now.
You won the thread for today.
Don't think so, but didn't ask.
Mick hit some monster HR's left-handed, but I saw him on Home Run Derby a couple of times, and he chose to hit right-handed in all of them.
About 7 or so paragraphs down in this link it talks about Spahnn and how he won a battlefield commission to 2nd lt.
Warren Spahn – Act of Valor Award
Warren Spahn – Act of Valor Award
I'd say one-offs are fine, and may fall under fair use, but don't quote me on it. Please understand where I'm coming from on this. Institutions are usually proactive about protecting their brand. UK is a brand. UTexas (I call them that because of UT in Knoxville) is a brand. I've seen these brands come after people over intellectual property rights infringement. They usually win because they've got the $. Just be careful.
Just something I saw at a flea market.
I saw an interview with Mickey a while back, where he talked about one he hit that supposedly went 565 feet. He jokingly mentioned that it's never told that he had a 30 mph wind at his back when he hit it. Think of how many he would hit today since so many of MLB stadiums have smaller field dimensions.
He did hit some long homers and nearly hit a couple completely out of Yankee stadium's right field. I love those old homerun derby's where he competes with Henry Aaron, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, Eddie Matthews, and others. You can find most of them on Youtube. In many of those old contests, Mickey looks very "uninterested" most of the time.
That is impressive. Isn't it amazing how young men were patriotic in those days no matter what. He lost 3 years of his major league career. The same goes for Ted Williams who was a Marine fighter pilot in WWII, the prime of his career.
Williams flew 39 missions and earned an impressive array of medals and awards. They include three Air Medals for Aerial Flight Operations, Navy Unit commendation, Presidential Medal of Freedom, American and Asian Pacific Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and more
If Ted Williams had not missed nearly 5 years of baseball, I believe he would have closed in on Babe Ruth's home run record and possibly challenged the all time hits record also. As it stands, Williams is 2nd all time on the OPS list for total offense at the plate. Only the Babe is ahead of him. Those were some tough men back in those days who wouldn't hesitate for a second to serve their country.
Ever read "The Science of Hitting" by Ted Williams? The baseball equivalent of a a graduate level college text book. Fantastic book if you are into baseball technique.
I have not read that book, but will try to look for it. I believe that's the same book that Tony Gwynn credited for getting him started to being such a consistent hitter.
I remember that. Watching these videos of when baseball was king, stands were full, brings back good memories of when sports was worth watching. No politics...no political 'statements'...no wearing of a Marxist T-shirt (looking at you Cal).....just good old fashion Americana fun.
I probably did my son the same way. He was throwing 85 mph at 15 or 16 and could knock a plate out of your hand at pitching distance.
Had him doing twists using a sledge hammer as a bat. First it was with the head at his waist then he graduated to the head at the other end doing several hundred reps. Dude hit a homer over the trees past the outfield fence at his high school. Good legs too just didn't love the game as much as needed. I stopped pushing him around 17 or so but the dude was a pure stud on the diamond.
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I guess those days are gone forever. Politics were left in the locker room and you kept it to yourself. That is when sports was fun.
For you Mantle fans: I'm one of those guys whose mother did NOT throw out his baseball cards. Here are a few Mantles I saved from the late 50s and early 60s. They aren't in top condition, so not worth that much, but they do bring back memories.
I had several of those too. Who knows whatever happened to them.
Maybe used with a clothes pin on the spokes of a bicycle tire? 😊 Remember that?
Yeah, I had two shoe boxes of older cards I gave to my brother in laws brother when I joined the Army. Funny he never mentions those (We were pretty good friends, just grew apart.). I had some old cards. I know I had Al Kaline's rookie card and a few others.....
The subject never comes up for some reason. Many hundreds of cards......
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I too was an avid baseball card collector. Mostly Topps but a few Bowman. I had all of the greats. Someone gave me a baseball card collectors album and I put an entire season of cards in the album. The hundreds of others cards were in cigar boxes by team. (In those days you could get free cigar boxes from any store in town that sold cigars). I had a room full of them.
I put the album with cards in the bottom of my dresser drawer when I started college and left it there. The cigar boxes were stacked to the ceiling. After college I went straight to the Army and mother totally cleaned out my room. She knew I was never coming back to live. I never saw the cards again. Except for the album I had in the bottom of the dresser drawer. Some way it was saved and I still have it. I have some great ones in the album including a Babe Ruth my daddy had as a youngster.
I put the album with cards in the bottom of my dresser drawer when I started college and left it there. The cigar boxes were stacked to the ceiling. After college I went straight to the Army and mother totally cleaned out my room. She knew I was never coming back to live. I never saw the cards again. Except for the album I had in the bottom of the dresser drawer. Some way it was saved and I still have it. I have some great ones in the album including a Babe Ruth my daddy had as a youngster.
I sold a Nolan Ryan rookie card back in the 90's for 600 bucks. Not sure what it's worth today.
