Mickey Mantle: Two Home Runs Right-Handed, One Left-Handed Total 1,300 Ft.

It was a lazy Friday afternoon in May.  The New York Yankees were hosting the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium.  The beauty of baseball is that something wonderful might occur at the least expected time. 

Whitey Ford started for the Yankees, opposed by Detroit's right-hander, Steve Gromek.  The Yankees didn't waste any time getting to the former Cleveland Indian.

With one out in the bottom of the first inning, Andy Carey pushed a bunt toward first base and beat it out, bringing up Mickey Mantle.  Gromek checked Carey at first and delivered.  So did Mantle. The ball landed in the bleachers.

In the Yankees third inning, Hank Bauer led off with a single.  Carey sacrificed him to second and Mantle followed with a ringing single to center field to score the Yankees ex-Marine with their third run.

Trailing 3-0, Gromek retired Bauer and Carey in the fifth, but once again, he couldn't get past Mantle. The switch-hitting power hitter hit another blast into the bleachers, but he wasn't finished.

Left-hander Bob Miller was on the mound in the eighth inning. Mantle led off with his third home run of the game into the bleachers.

The Yankees won, 5-2 with Mantle getting four hits in four at-bats and driving in the Yankees five runs.

He became the first switch-hitter to hit a home from each side of the plate in a game. The New York Times estimated the three home runs traveled a total distance of about 1,300 ft.

Yankees switch-hitters that have accomplished the feat include Tom Tresh, Roy White, Roy Smalley, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Mark Teixeira.

Mantle never hit home runs from each side of the plate in the World Series. 

He hit a pair of home runs in the third game of the ill-fated 1960 World Series, but one was against left-hander Fred Green and the second was against lefty Joe Gibbon.