died on this date in 1995.
1952 was Mantle’s first full season. He’d come up the year before and taken over centerfield with DiMaggio’s retirement. And it was in 1952 that NewMexiKen attended my first major league baseball game — as a 7-year-old. I was MichiKen in those days and the game was at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) against the hated New York Yankees. (I was taken by my 13-year-old uncle. Can you imagine two kids 13 and 7 going to a major league game on their own these days? I mean, who’d drive?)
Anyway, to be honest I don’t remember the moment, but The Mick hit his first career grand slam homerun that day. Even so, the last-place Tigers won with a walk-off grand slam by Steve Souchock in the 11th.
I do remember seeing Mantle hit one out of the stadium, over the right-field upper deck onto Trumbull Avenue in 1956.
Update: I do remember Souchock’s homerun. I also remember my first ice cream sandwich; and that my 13-year-old uncle smoked. I think he convinced me not to tell Grandma.