A Number 7 Special: Four Yankee Stadium Celebrations of Mickey Mantle
This article was written by Scott Pitoniak
This article was published in Yankee Stadium 1923-2008: America’s First Modern Ballpark
Mickey Mantle’s wife, Merlyn, and eldest son Mickey, Jr. attended the first Mickey Mantle Day on September 18, 1965. (SABR-Rucker Archive)
Mickey Mantle stepped up to the microphone not far from where he had stepped up to the plate for 18 seasons, but it was no use. The 60,096 adoring spectators who had gathered at Yankee Stadium to celebrate his jersey retirement on June 8, 1969, were not going to let him speak until they had their say. For nearly 10 minutes, they were in full throat, cheering the legendary Yankees slugger who had retired before the start of spring training three months earlier.1
“It was a love-fest,” recalled longtime Yankees public-relations director, historian, and author Marty Appel. “There wasn’t a great deal of excitement about that year’s team. Attendance was way down. But that day there was plenty of buzz with the biggest crowd of the season on hand. And it was all because of the affection the fans had for Mickey.”2
The Yankees pulled out all the stops for the 40-minute ceremony, which took place between games of a doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox. Joe DiMaggio, Mantle’s pinstriped predecessor in center field, presented him with a plaque to be hung on the outfield wall. Whitey Ford, the legendary Yankees pitcher, handed his former teammate a flannel uniform with the navy blue number 7 on the back.3
Banners from each of Mantle’s 12 American League pennant-winning teams were spread on the outfield grass. Standing next to each banner was a former Mantle teammate representing a specific championship club: Eddie Lopat (1951), Gene Woodling (1952), Joe Collins (1953), Phil Rizzuto (1955), Jerry Coleman (1956), Gil McDougald (1957), Ford (1958), Bobby Richardson (1960), Elston Howard (1961), Tom Tresh (1962), Joe Pepitone (1963), and Mel Stottlemyre (1964).4
Also on the field were Tom Greenwade, the scout who signed Mantle, as well as Mickey’s minor-league managers, Harry Craft and George Selkirk.5
Each fan received a special souvenir foldout that included a color photo of Mantle by Sport magazine photographer Ozzie Sweet. Mayor John Lindsay issued a proclamation declaring Mickey Mantle Day in New York City.6
Frank Messer, one of the Yankees’ radio and television announcers, served as the master of ceremonies. Mel Allen, the longtime Voice of the Yankees, was brought back to introduce Mantle, calling him from the dugout with the words, “The great number 7, the magnificent Yankee, Mickey Mantle.”7
Appel, who was a Yankees PR assistant at the time, remembered the ground shaking from the ovation as Allen completed his intro.
“It would have registered on a Richter scale,” Appel joked. “We thought the cheering would never end. A few times, Mickey motioned to quiet the crowd, but each time he raised his arms, the fans roared even louder.”8
After the ovation finally began to peter out, Mantle addressed the throng.
“When I walked into this stadium 18 years ago, I felt much the same way I do right now,” he began. “I don’t have words to describe how I felt then or how I feel now, but I’ll tell you one thing: Baseball was real good to me, and playing 18 years in Yankee Stadium is the best thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer.”
“And now,” he continued, after still more applause, “to think the Yankees are retiring my number seven with numbers three [Babe Ruth], four [Lou Gehrig] and five [DiMaggio] tops off everything I could ever have wished for.”
“I often wondered how a man who knew he was going to die could stand here and say he was the luckiest man in the world, but now I think I know how Lou Gehrig felt. … It’s been a great honor. I’ll never forget it. God bless you all and thank you very much.”9
Mantle then boarded a pinstripe-painted golf cart, and groundskeeper Danny Colletti drove him around the entire length of the warning track. Off to the side, Bob Fishel, the Yankees PR director, who had planned the entire ceremony, couldn’t help but smile.10
“It was beautifully choreographed by Bob,” Appel said. “Everything was just perfect. The great Yankees who had been invited back. The pennants spread out in the outfield for all to see. Mel Allen’s intro. The ride around the park, which was an idea Fishel got from the St. Louis Cardinals when they honored Stan Musial a few years earlier. And I thought Mickey really rose to the occasion with his speech – when he finally got a chance to deliver it.”11
This was not the first time the Yankees honored Mantle with a special day. Nor would it be the last. In fact, there were three other Mantle Days at the original Stadium. The first occurred on September 18, 1965, and coincided with his 2,000th game as a Yankee. Mantle was suffering through his worst season, and that, along with his mounting injuries, increased concerns that he might soon retire, prompting the team to hastily throw together a day in his honor.12
It wasn’t the production that his jersey retirement day was. Then-Mayor Robert Wagner issued a Mickey Mantle Day proclamation, and at Mantle’s request, proceeds from that day’s game were donated to Hodgkin’s disease research in memory of his father and several other relatives who had died from the disease. Yankee broadcaster Red Barber emceed the ceremony, which included DiMaggio and US Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Mantle told reporters he was more nervous than he had been on his wedding day. After thanking the Yankees, his family and his fans, Mantle told the crowd of 51,664, “I just wish I had 15 more years with you.”13
Mantle was in the lineup that day, and when he came up in the bottom of the first, Detroit Tigers pitcher Joe Sparma walked from the mound to the batter’s box to shake his hand.14
“I’d never seen anything like that before or since,” Appel said. “I think it spoke to the admiration players throughout baseball had for Mickey. It wasn’t just teammates, but opponents, too. They respected that Mickey always played the game hard, even while being in so much pain. And he was a guy who never tried to show up his opponent. He played the game right.”15
Mantle lined out to deep left field during that at-bat and went 0-for-3 with a walk. He played three more seasons after that one. On August 4, 1968, the Yankees held Mickey Mantle Banner Appreciation Day at the Bronx ballpark. Hundreds of young fans made up signs and paraded past a beaming Mantle, who stood near the top step of the Yankees dugout. Only 20,704 fans showed up for the game, a 5-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.16
The fourth and final game honoring Mantle at the old Stadium occurred on August 25, 1996, roughly a year after the Hall of Famer’s death. On that day, in front of 50,808 fans, the Yankees unveiled a granite monument and plaque in in memory of Mantle in Monument Park, just beyond the left-center-field wall. Mantle became just the fourth person to wear a Yankees uniform honored with a monument, joining manager Miller Huggins, Ruth and Gehrig. Ford did the unveiling honors. A special commemorative baseball was used during that day’s game against Oakland. It featured Mantle’s signature and his number 7 and had blue stitching.17
“This is a great day for us – and a sad one, too,” said David Mantle, one of the slugger’s three surviving sons at the time.18
SCOTT PITONIAK is a nationally honored journalist and the author/co-author of more than 35 books. His first game at the House That Ruth Built was on September 17, 1966, Bobby Richardson Day. A Syracuse University graduate, Scott has worked as a sports columnist for the Rochester (New York) Democrat & Chronicle, USA Today, and Gannett News Service (150 newspapers nationwide), and has written scores of magazine and website articles, often focusing on the human side of sports. The recipient of more than 100 journalism awards, Scott has been named one of the nation’s top columnists by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In 2013 he was inducted into the Rochester Red Wings Hall of Fame with Mike Mussina. Scott regularly contributes articles to the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Memories & Dreams magazine. His books include Memories of Yankee Stadium and Remembrances of Swings Past: A Lifetime of Baseball Stories.
SOURCES
In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted the following:
Pitoniak, Scott. Memories of Yankee Stadium (Chicago: Triumph Books, 2008).
Additionally, the author used firsthand source material from a 30-minute phone interview with Appel on October 7, 2022.
The author also referred to audio from a 33⅓ RPM record, “A Day to Remember: June 8, 1969,” produced by CBS Records, a division of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (New York). It was a recording of that year’s Mickey Mantle Day ceremonies and was given to fans attending Old-Timers Day at Yankee Stadium on August 9, 1969.
NOTES
1 “A Day to Remember: June 8, 1969,” CBS Records, a division of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. (New York), 2014.
2 Author interview with Marty Appel, October 7, 2022.
3 “A Day to Remember.”
4 George Vecsey, “61,157 Hearts Here Throb for Mantle as No. 7 Joins 3, 4 and 5 in Retirement,” New York Times, June 9, 1969. https://www.nytimes.com/1969/06/09/archives/61157-hearts-here-throb-for-mantle-as-no-7-joins-3-4-and-5-in.html.
5 Vecsey.
6 “Yanks to Retire No. 7 and Honor Mantle Here Today,” New York Times, June 8, 1969. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/06/08/284717872.html?pageNumber=317.
7 “A Day to Remember.”
8 Author interview with Appel.
9 “A Day to Remember.”
10 Author interview with Appel.
11 Author interview with Appel.
12 Author interview with Appel.
13 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times: The Nervous Hero,” New York Times, September 18, 1965. https://www.nytimes.com/1965/09/18/archives/sports-of-the-times-the-nervous-hero.html.
14 Marty Appel, Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before The Babe to After The Boss (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020), 362.
15 Author interview with Appel.
16 Steve Contursi, “The Day Mickey Mantle Came to Life for a New York Yankee Fan,” EliteSportNY.com, December 17, 2017. https://elitesportsny.com/2017/12/17/mickey-mantle-life-new-york-yankees-fan/.
17 Ira Berkow, “A Final Sweet Ovation for Mantle,” New York Times, August 26, 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/26/sports/a-final-sweet-ovation-for-mantle.html.
18 Berkow.