Why The Yankees Are The Greatest: Part Seven

As a young player, no one had ever seen anyone quite like him.

He hit the ball a mile from both sides of the plate.

He ran like a rabbit, once clocked from the left-side of the batter's box to first base in 3.1 seconds.

His father was a semi-pro player known as Mutt, who made a living working in the zinc mines of a small town in northeast Oklahoma.

Somehow his father had the foresight to know what baseball would become and he insisted that his young son learn to hit from both sides of the plate.

Mutt would pitch to him right-handed so the kid could hit lefty and his grandfather would throw left-handed while the boy swung from the right.

The kid was a star athlete in several sports in high school. The Oklahoma football team sought him for their running back.

But all the kid ever really wanted to do was play baseball. So when a big league scout illegally courted him while he was still in high school, he signed on graduation day for a bonus of $1,100 and a first-year salary of $400.

This was at a time when other prospects were getting a hundred times this money. It seemed that Tom Greenwade, the scout, had conned the kid and his poor family into signing for peanuts. Greenwade said this kid was the best talent he had ever seen.

But in time the boy would have the chance to make-up the money while so many of the bonus babies of that era would flounder and fail in the big leagues.

The kid from Oklahoma played his first minor league season in Class D ball in Independence, Kansas and later in Joplin, Missouri, not far from his rural home town.

He set the minor leagues on fire.

In the spring of 1951, the team's manager tried something new, an instructional league in Arizona before spring training started.

No one in Arizona could believe what this kid, who just turned 19-years old, could do. He was so fast and had so much power that everyone looked twice to make sure they really saw what he was doing before their eyes.

After spring training the youngster made the team and assigned No.6 for his uniform. He was stationed in right field beside an aging and injured centerfielder. The manager told the kid to get anything he could run down.

The Oklahoman started with a bang and seemed better than expected. But soon he was slumping at the plate and was sent to Kansas City, the top farm club, to get his swing back.

In Kansas City he was ready to quit and didn't think he could play in the majors. He called his dad crying. The old man rushed from his home in Commerce, Oklahoma to set things right and rushed to his son's motel room and started packing the kid's bags.

The teenager was shocked, thinking his father had come to comfort him. Instead the man said, "I thought I raised a man, you ain't nothing but a cry baby."

The shock turn the kid around. Before long he was back with the big club.

The club house manager believed he had jinxed the young man by giving him No. 6. So when the kid came back, he was given No. 7.

That number would become possibly the most famous and recognizable number any major league player has ever worn.

In his second season he finished third in the league in voting for most valuable player. He would eventually win three MVP awards and finish second in the balloting three other times.

In 1956, while still only 24-years old, he won the triple crown. He finished the season with a .353 batting average with 52 home runs and 130 RBI. He followed that by hitting .365 the following year.

By the end of his career, when he was still only 37-years old. He had hit 536 home runs. He struck out 1,710 times. He never got cheated at bat saying that he tried to hit a home run every time he came to the plate.

He accumulated 1,733 base on balls in his 17-year career. At one point he joked about the fact that if you added his strike outs and walks, he played seven full seasons without hitting the ball.

But injuries would plague him continually. Beginning with his first World Series in 1951, he tore up his knee when his back spike caught in a drain cover in the outfield. He pulled up suddenly to avoid running into the star centerfielder who retired at the end of the year.

After that he did not complete a full season.

Baseball fans have wondered what this player could have been if he had been able to play at full-strength and full-speed.

He also suffered through seasons when the fans at home booed him because they wanted him to always produce like he had in 1956 and 1957. They didn't understand his physical limitations.

And he also suffered because he believed he would not live long. His father died soon after his rookie season and he never got over it. He failed to rehab his injuries, drank too much, and stayed out late partying during the season.

But he would come to win the fans over and become possibly the most beloved player in baseball history.

His baseball memorabilia, including his coveted rookie card, are the most sought after by collectors.

From birth, when he was named after his father's favorite player, until his early death in 1995, this player was all about baseball.

Before his injuries, it can be argued whether he had the most raw talent to ever step on a baseball field.

But it is unquestionable that Mickey Mantle helped make the New York Yankees the greatest team ever.