I wonder how great Mickey would've been if he hadn't been injured so seriously and so much. He was injured so much. The knee injury from the 51 Series was just the first. I saw a picture of Mickey on crutches detailing the injuries he suffered in his career! He had to tape himself from shoulders to knees before every game. He never complained - he just became bigger then life to some of the Yankee Fans. We all knew, if the game was on the line and Mickey was coming up, we still had a very good chance of winning it.
I think The Babe, Mantle, and Mays are top 3 (OF) of all time (not counting "Shoeless Joe"). But I honestly believe Mickey is the greatest ballplayer I ever saw. He did so much during his career while he was hurt. Without the injuries, there would have been no limit to the records he would have set maybe even brake Babe Ruth's career Hr records and many other records along the way.
Joe D was famous for making every catch look graceful and easy. I've seen him play and read books on Joe D, he was not a very nice guy! First words to a rookie were "Don't mess with my WS money"!
DiMaggio hot dogged it (some say, not me) going after the ball seeing Mantle coming on and only at the last moment yelled I got it. To be fair, Joe never dove or jumped for a ball, he was that good reading the ball, a talent very very few OF have...even the better ones! In this case his very late call, caused Mantle to try and stop, snag his foot on a sprinkler, the rest is history! Without DiMaggios (so called) grandstanding, Mantle might have been the best of the best. In my mind, I saw one of the best outfielders of all time.
There will never be another Mickey Mantle but, the closest I have ever seen is a guy in Texas...Josh Hamilton, his story is much more a tail of Drugs and Drinking but, oh what he could have been!
