Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Damn Yankees
Page 233
became the only player to strike out fewer than fifty times while hitting fifty home runs. Mize's 1947 totals in runs, home runs and RBI were all career highs. In 1948, Mize and Kiner again tied for the league home run championship with 40 each. Mize was traded to the New York Yankees late in the 1949 season after expressing discontent with his playing time.
Mize spent the last five years of his career, ages 36 through 40, with the Yankees, mostly as a part-time player, ending in 1953. He was, however, considered a valuable contributor to their winning five consecutive American League pennants and World
Series titles. Despite spending part of the 1950 season on minor league rehab, he hit 25 home runs to become the second player to have a 25 home run season in both leagues. In the 1952 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers, he hit three home runs, one as a pinch hitter, and was robbed of a fourth by Dodger right
fielder Carl Furillo, who made a leaping catch above the fence in the 11th inning to preserve a win for the Dodgers.
In October 1953, Mize announced his retirement. He said that he would rather retire while he was still popular with fans than to "hang around until they start to boo.”
After his 1953 retirement, Mize worked as a radio commentator, scout and a hitting coach for the New York / San Francisco