Why Baseball Icon Mickey Mantle Lied About Joe DiMaggio And Didn’t Like George Steinbrenner
The Hall-of-Famer was candid about a couple of anomalies with his beloved New York Yankees
When it comes to associating a particular athlete with a team, there are few matches more successful and renowned than Mickey Mantle and the New York Yankees. The former outfielder became one of the best players in baseball history starring for the most famous team in the sport. However, after he retired, he revealed why he disliked the Yankees’ owner, George Steinbrenner, and how the franchise told him to lie when he came up as a youngster about how he felt about the team.
An astonishing multi-faceted athlete who could do it all, Mantle was a regular with the powerful Yankees when he was still just a teenager. He replaced the irreplaceable Joe DiMaggio in center field, as the veteran retired following the youngster’s rookie season. The team couldn’t have hoped for a better transition between superstars, as the successor was arguably as good or better than the man he followed.
Mantle went on to have a storied career. In 2,401 games, the switch hitter batted a combined .298 with 536 home runs and 1,509 RBIs. His numbers would almost certainly have been even grander if not for injuries that…
