Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Damn Yankees
Page 343
November 1953. The following season, Mantle recorded his first 100 RBI season while also hitting over .300 and leading the league in runs scored. He had a strong season in 1955 as well, leading the AL in home runs, triples, and walks, and recording a .306 batting average.
The 1956 season was, statistically, Mantle's greatest and was later described by him as his "favorite summer." He led the majors with a .353 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 RBIs, winning the Triple Crown, the only switch hitter to do so. This was the first of three AL MVP Awards. The Mick became only the
second Bronx Bomber to win the Triple Crown. Lou Gehrig won it first in 1934.
That year, the Yankees again faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the
World Series. In the fifth inning of Game 5, Mantle kept Don Larsen's perfect game alive by making a running catch of a deep fly ball off the bat of Gil Hodges. The inning before, he had scored the first of the Yankees' two runs with a home run off Brooklyn starter Sal Maglie. Mantle's overall performance in 1956 led to his being named Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year, and he was also awarded the Hickok Belt as the top American professional athlete of the year.