Tales of Mickey Mantle
by Bryce Martin

The ball park at Baxter Springs did not have an outfield fence. It had a dusty road beyond the outfield area, an arc-shaped road that could have served as a pattern for a fence, except it was a long way from home plate. Well beyond the road was Spring River. As a youth there playing baseball people were telling me how Mantle hit one in the river when he was with the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. It would have been a chore to even hit one to the dusty road. I thought they meant it rolled into the river, and I didn't see even that as being believable. No, they said, it went into the river in the air. It had to be a minimum of 700 feet, I would estimate.

I mentioned this to John Hall in 2004, who at the time was working on a book about Mantle that I was helping research.

"You are right about the ballpark at Baxter," Hall said. "It was a 'mile' from home plate to Spring River. Nobody and I mean nobody ever hit one into the river in the air unless they were using a fungo and were standing in medium deep right field. There are a lot of myths and that one is right up there among them. I took Barney Barnett Jr. out there a year or so ago and remarked at the time that it would have taken Mickey three fungo shots to put a ball in the river from that distance."

Mantle didn't play in an organized baseball setting until he was 10. By then, his father Mutt had been grooming him. The idea of Mickey actually being on a team in some real games must have really excited Mutt. It was in those earliest years when Mutt was most intense. He could now see and judge his model in action. Once Mutt got used to the scene, you would think he would become less demanding and more understanding. No so, said Hall.

"I do know that Mutt was 'out of control' on a lot of occasions when he attended even some KOM League games in which Mickey played. Bob Mallon recalled that Mutt came up to Independence and after drinking too much would yell obscenties during the game at everyone. Bob recalls that Mickey was very embarrassed by his dad's antics."

Mantle's first pro season was in 1949 for Independence (Kansas) of the Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League. Mallon was a teammate.

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