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Mickey Mantle On Why He Wasn’t Manager Material And The Strangest Way A Player Ever Got Released
The baseball legend was a great player but knew he wouldn’t be good leading an MLB team
As one of the greatest players in baseball history, it might be natural to assume Mickey Mantle would have made an excellent manager as well. However, he never took a skipper job and was very up front about why he believed he would be lousy in that role; once even explaining the worst way he knew of a player being notified that they had been released from a team.
An amazing athlete who could hit, hit for power, throw and run, Mantle was a starter on the powerful Yankees when he was still a teenager. He took over for the irreplaceable Joe DiMaggio in center field, as the veteran retired immediately following the youngster’s rookie season. As far as following legends go, the team couldn’t have dreamed of a better transition, as Mantle was as good or better than the player he followed.
His career would have likely been even more substantial if not for injuries that prematurely aged his legs, and a propensity for drinking and nightlife that contributed to him sometimes playing games at less than full strength. However, he still racked up the accomplishments, winning a Triple Crown (1956), and…
