Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 62

1952 Regular Season

DiMaggio's retirement after the 1951 season likely gave Stengel greater control over the players. Stengel moved Mantle from right to center field in DiMaggio's place. The Yankees were not the favorites to win the pennant again in 1952, with DiMaggio retired, Mantle still recovering from his injury and several Yankees in military service, deployed in the Korean War. The Indians were favored. Younger players, some of whom Stengel had helped to develop, came to the fore, with Billy Martin the regular second baseman for the first time. Mantle proved slow to

develop, but hit well towards the end of the season to finish at .311. As Lou Gehrig took the torch from Babe Ruth, as Joe DiMaggio took it from Gehrig, Mickey Mantle was now ready to take it from DiMaggio.

When the 1952 season began, it appeared that the Yankees were ripe for the taking. Sure, they were three time defending world champions, but as it always seemed with manager Casey Stengel, the job was done using mirrors. And now many believed the mirrors were starting to crack. DiMaggio had retired. Johnny Mize, another future Hall of Famer, had become bench scrap at age 39. And the US military, once again increasing its grip on

baseball talent as the Korean conflict intensified, took away starting infielders Jerry Coleman and Bobby Brown, promising