Mickey Mantle

Baxter Springs Whiz Kids, Junior League, 1948

This is a photograph of the Whiz Kids, the 1948 Cardinal Junior League championship team from Baxter Springs, Kansas. People in the photograph are (left to right): Rex Heavin (utility player), Jim Kenaga (pitcher), Bob Steele (pitcher), Ben Craig (pitcher), Billy Pace (outfield), Nick Ferguson (2nd base), Walter "Barney" Barnett (owner/manager), Mickey Mantle (shortstop), Buddy Ball (outfield), Willard "Billy" Johnson (3rd base), Jack Dorrell (outfield), Gene Lindeman (outfield), Delbert Lovelace (1st base), Leroy Bennett (catcher), Roger Yocom (bat boy) and Jim Goodwin (ball shagger). The man standing behind the players is Joe Becker, a former Joplin Miner baseball team executive, newspaper man, and Boston Red Sox "bird dog." The original photograph was autographed by Mickey Mantle in 1986.

Kansas Historical Society