Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 341

moment, the latter called for the ball. In attempting to stay out of DiMaggio's way, Mantle's spikes got caught over an exposed drain pipe. His knee twisted awkwardly and he fell instantly, his right knee injured severely. Mantle had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. This was the first of numerous injuries that were to plague his eighteen year career with the Yankees. He was to play the rest of his career with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Accompanying his son to the hospital after the game, Mantle's father collapsed onto the sidewalk while trying to help his son

into a taxi. The two were given hospital beds in the same room and watched the remainder of the World Series together. Mutt Mantle was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. He died a few months later at the age of 40, on May 7, 1952. Mantle, at the time away with the Yankees, was informed by manager Stengel of his father's death and was inconsolable.

Following the 1951 World Series, DiMaggio retired from baseball. As a result, Mantle moved to center field before the start of the 1952 season. He would play that position full time for the Yankees until 1965, when he was moved to left field and first base near the end of his career. That year, Mantle was selected

as an All-Star for the first time. The Yankees won the pennant and faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Mantle