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Originally Posted by the 'stache
Very well said! 
I just can't believe that some people are trying to besmirch Mantle now in 2013. Maybe he did use a corked bat, maybe he didn't. Maybe it helped him, maybe it didn't.
Does anybody who has seen Mantle play, be it in person, on television, or for my generation, on tape, seriously think that Mick needed help hitting the ball out of the park? If a corked bat helped him (and that is a big if to me), how much distance did he really get from it? Or how much additional bat speed did he realize from a lighter bat weight? The guy nearly hit the ball out of Yankee stadium. Let me repeat that. He nearly hit the damned ball out of Yankee Stadium. He also hit the facade of the upper deck in right field. Before I hurt my back, I was a pretty damned good hitter. I could have hit the ball three times, and the combined distance of the three fly balls wouldn't have gotten the ball up there.
I don't care who you are. The average man, hell, the best baseball players today couldn't hit it that far. Load them up with every steroid on the planet. Work them out until their biceps are the size of Minnie Minoso. Give them a brand spanking new Louisville Slugger. They're not hitting the ball up there.
While I respect the Yankee legacy, I am not a Yankee fan per se. But anybody suggesting that Mantle somehow achieved his home run prowess from a corked bat is a few playing cards short of a deck. As far as pure power goes, Mantle is top 5 to ever play the game. If he'd been healthy during his career, and didn't play with the thought of "hey, you'll be dead by 45" floating around in the back of his head, Bonds, Aaron, Mays et all would be looking at a pretty much unattainable career home run record.
I love Hank Aaron. He remains one of my favorite human beings. But he would be the first to tell you that for pure home run power, he couldn't have competed with Mantle. Hitting the ball out of the park is one thing. Hitting a moon shot that could come down in Brooklyn is an altogether different thing. |
Bill,
Very well said!! Even during the Mick's rookie pre-season in '51 when he only weighed between 165-175 lbs, he was crushing the ball from both sides of the plate with a frequency and distance that no one had ever seen before. For example, in the Yankees vs USC game, Mickey hit 2 tape measure HRs (one estimated to travel between 645-660 ft the other well over 500 ft) and also had a triple, single and 7 RBIs and he left the California tour batting .432. I don't believe that the combination of his natural power from both sides of the plate with his world class speed, at least as a rookie (2.9 sec to first from the left-side and 3.1 sec from the right-side) has ever been seen before or since.
Anyone who saw Mickey in his prime would place him as one of the 10 best players (non-pitchers) of all time. His power numbers elevate that to the top 4 or 5. And remember, he essentially played his entire career with one crippling injury after another.
Any assertion that these natural abilities and pure talent were enhanced by corking bats is absurd. As a player, Mantle was basically very shy and self-effacing. He never talked about himself over the team and ran out HRs with his head down.
Did he ever use a corked bat during his prime - I would suggest absolutely not. Is there any evidence that he did - no. Might he have tried a corked bat in his later years when many of his physical advantages had waned - maybe.
But my guess is that he would have only used these in batting practice, as many players did at the time. To date, I have not seen any evidence that the auction bat was in Mickey's hands during a regular season game. Moreover, the few and light ball marks on this bat suggest it was not used regularly as most documented Mantle gamers are covered with deep seam imprints all over the barrel. In addition, the Mick broke a huge number of bats during his career and I have never heard of one being found to be corked.
So what is the truth? I do not know from the analysis if there are any indications of when this bat was corked. Considering the current state of the Hobby it would not surprise me if this was done after Mantle's playing days for profit. What if future research indicates that the Mick did in fact use this bat in a regularly scheduled game or games. So far there is absolutely no evidence that this is the case and even if it were found to be true I do not believe it would tarnish in any way the remarkable career that Mickey had nor what he meant to all of us growing up.
Craig