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What NY Yankee Legends Thought About Baseball HOFer Mickey Mantle When He Was A Rookie
Although the outfielder had one of the greatest careers in MLB history, his peers’ opinion of him when he was still a teenager is shocking
Hall-of-Fame outfielder Mickey Mantle was a baseball talent of such magnitude that he is often used as an unattainable measuring stick for other players. Achieving his level of skill and propensity for winning has essentially been unmatched since. Even when Mantle was a rookie with the New York Yankees in 1951, he was the topic of intense scrutiny and conversation from his teammates, who had a lot of surprising things to say about the teen-aged player.
An astonishing athlete who could hit, hit for power, throw and run like the wind (at least early in his career), Mantle was a regular with the powerful Yankees when he was just 19. He replaced the irreplaceable Joe DiMaggio in center field, as the veteran retired following the younger player’s rookie season. As far as replacing legends go, the team couldn’t have hoped for a better scenario, as the successor was arguably as good or better than the Yankee Clipper.
Mantle went on to have a storied career that culminated in his induction in the Hall of Fame. In 2,401 games, the…
