Mantle
I was in bagel store in Armonk, which is a Yankees stronghold in upper Westchester, New York. The pleasant young man who waited on me took my $6.11 and told me that the store’s owner had another, more expansive shop in Chappaqua, which is only a few miles away. Trying not to dampen any enthusiasm, I simply said that I avoided Chappaqua the way I avoided Shea Stadium. The young man immediately linked the two. He perceptively said, “I guess you aren’t a fan of Hillary or of the Mets” How right he is.
We started talking about the Yankees, which naturally led to Yankees or former Yankees who live in Westchester. I mentioned Joe Torre, Mariano Rivera and Paul O’Neill. He added Bernie Williams, told me he went to school in the same district as Bernie’s son, and then related how Jeff Nelson had shopped at the store. With great pride, he said that Michael Jordan had actually visited the store.
I asked my new friend who he thought was the greatest athlete of all time and he said it had to be Babe Ruth. Then we got to Barry Bonds. Larry said he thought Bonds was good but that many of the players from long ago and far away were better, including Mantle, Mays, Aaron, and Williams (Ted, not Bernie). I then asked Larry what he thought of Stan Musial. He had never heard of Stan Musial.
That really upset me, but not because I like the Cardinals. I actually have it for them because they lead us in head to head World Series competition, 3-2. Despite that fact, with the passage of time I have come to appreciate Stan Musial more and more, possibly because the fans who saw him play are decreasing in number, the fans who never saw him play are increasing in number, and the latter are not afforded the opportunity to be exposed to his greatness.
There has been a tremendous amount of hyperbole about Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire. According to recently, self-anointed baseball talent authorities, the three rank among the better baseball players of all time, but it is ridiculous for sportscasters, writers, and fans to unequivocally rate their talent above other baseball greats whom the fans may not have seen, read about, or even heard of.
This brings us to Mickey Mantle. The Yankees and the YES network will not allow New York fans to forget Mantle, but baseball fans, whose opinions are shaped by the media, rarely mention Mantle when talking about the greatest outfielders who ever played the game. Even the New York media do Mantle an injustice because films and videotapes cannot transmit the subtleties that made Mantle better than most, if not all of his contemporaries.
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