Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin Were the Real Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call?

Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle were not only best friends, but they could have been brothers in every sense of the word. 

Billy, the half-Italian, half-Portuguese man-child, grew up on the tough streets of Oakland, California.  His 95-pound grandmother had raised him and, according to many friends, was tougher than he was.

Greer Johnson, Mickey’s business manager and companion, said that Billy never asked Mickey to sign a ball, a bat, or a photo in all the years they were friends, which speaks volumes about their relationship. 

Billy would never exploit Mickey’s popularity for his own monetary gain.

The New York Yankees' brash second baseman was known for winning and fighting.  He excelled at both. 

As a player and manager he consistently drove his teams to victory with an iron hand, the nerves of a riverboat gambler, and knowledge of the game learned from Casey Stengel.

Both Martin and Mantle revered the legendary Yankees manager as a “second father.” 

Billy and Mickey reminded Tom Molito, a close friend of both, of “Call” and “Gus,” the two main characters in the Emmy-winning TV mini-series, Lonesome Dove.

They were very different in temperament, but loyal in their friendship almost to a fault.

A few years after they met, Molito gave Mickey a copy of Lonesome Dove to watch, primarily because he thought that the relationship between Tommy Lee Jones (Call) and Robert Duvall (Gus) was similar to his and Billy’s.

There is a line spoken by Call that applies to Billy both as a manager and a player.

Woodrow Call: [after handing the gun to Newt] It is better to have that and not need it, then to need it and not have it.
 
Instead of a gun, "that" could have referred to many things, including a solid pitcher or a clutch hitter in a key situation.

Mickey was much more easy going than Billy, just as Gus was much more easy going than Call.

Speaking to Jake Spoon, who put the idea of going from Texas to Montana in Call’s head, Gus expressed how he didn’t like the idea, as well as how committed Call could be to that goal.

Gus McCrae: I could kick you for givin' him all them ideas about Montana. Now we're gonna suffer for the rest of our damn lives.

Jake Spoon: Yeah, I forgot how determined he can get, once an idea takes root.

Mickey was fun loving. He could be serious but his sense of humor and reputation as a jokester is legendary.

Billy was always serious and usually too concerned about the next challenge to enjoy his successes.

Woodrow Call: We come to this place to make money. They wasn't nothin' about fun in the deal.

Gus McCrae: What are you talkin' about? You don't even like money. You like money even less than you like fun, if that's possible.

Both Billy and Mickey loved money, but for both, winning was more important than money. For Mickey, just as for Gus, fun often trumped money.

It is extremely revealing that when Tom spoke to Mickey after he had watched the mini-series, Mickey told Tom that the show had upset him.

When a surprised Tom asked Mickey why, he simply said, "Because Gus died."

Reference:

Molito, Tom and Harold Friend. Double Dating With Mickey Mantle. Unpublished manuscript. 2011.