Casey Stengel places crown on Mickey Mantle's head in display of his Triple Crown Award winning season in 1956.
(Heritage Auction entitled: 1956 Mickey Mantle Home Run Baseball That Nearly Escaped Yankee Stadium from February 23, 2013)
The #iconic fabled ball (pictured above) almost reached the moon had it not first struck the top of the right field facade in #YankeesStadium on Memorial Day, May 30, 1956 (tongue in cheek, depending on who was telling the story). Of course, the event is famously associated with the #NewYorkYankees centerfielder, #MickeyMantle and the epic blast that shook the baseball world at that time and emphatically remembered to this day nearly 66 years later! Sports Writers had coined the phrase "tape-measured" home run to describe the monumental blasts coming off Mantle's bat during the historic "Golden-Era" of baseball. And this particular majestic homer more so than any others.
The 1956 season for Mickey would become perhaps his finest as a player, filled with great games, historic accomplishments and career awards by year's end, including this one early season game with the Washington Senators would be remembered far longer by every baseball writer and every fan that was at the game and the throngs that would follow through the years as bloggers recount the details of that connecting swing.
Mickey Mantle's Home Run Shot Off The Right Field Facade hit at New York's Yankee Stadium (Photo used for illustrative purposes and not for commercial use. Corbis-BE050015)
Mickey Mantle hit his famous home run off Pedro Ramos in the bottom of the fifth inning of the 1st game of a Memorial Day doubleheader against the Washington Senators. Ramos started the game against the league leading Yankees and would wind up getting the loss. The historical blast would become Mickey's 19th round-tripper of the season in 1956 and spark such a debate in the news media as to how far the ball would have traveled had it not struck the facade full force and bounced back onto the field. The home run ball was then retrieved by one of the players and later given to Mantle. "According to the New York Times the next day, a check of the Stadium’s blueprint indicated that the ball hit a point 370 feet away 117 feet above the ground, just 18 inches from leaving the ballpark, hitting off the roof’s facade. Mantle said, “it was the best I ever hit a ball left-handed.” And by time the second game of the doubleheader had ended, Mickey had hit a second home run giving him 20 for an early season start and with it Mantle became "the first player in MLB history to hit 20 home runs by the end of May." Mickey was on a record pace to possibly surpass Babe's 60 home run record and be crowned as the next single-season home run king. And by the end of this now famed doubleheader, Mickey would lead the American League in 6 offensive categories.
1956 Baseball Box Score courtesy of Baseball Almanac depicting the official box score reflecting Mickey Mantle's home run and performance against Pedro Ramos and the Washington Senators in the first game of the famed doubleheader.
(Len Morton Talks to Mickey About His 1956 MVP, Triple Crown Season, Shared From YouTube)
