Aug. 23, 1964 - Bobby Richardson surreptitiously put the harmonica to his lips, gave one discordant toot, and innocently slipped it back into his pocket. “That’s good,” Mickey Mantle said. “Nobody would suspect Bobby.”
Mantle was smiling his infectious toothy smile, and the feeling was all over the Yankee clubhouse. The Yanks had beaten the Red Sox, 4-3, today, and now they had a winning streak — a two-game streak, but that’s how they begin. So, harmonicas were in, and so were firecrackers.
Whitey Ford had carried the noisemakers a long time, waiting for the right moment. Firecrackers aren’t appropriate during a six-game losing streak. But now, the three sharp gunshot sounds from the showers drew peals of laughter. It was as if the fireworks were to announce the return of Mantle.
Mickey hit a line drive over the distant right-field wall at Fenway Park for two runs in the third inning today to give Jim Bouton a 2-0 lead. Last night, Mantle hit a homer and double and knocked in three runs as the Yankees broke the losing streak, 8-0. As Mantle goes, so go the Yankees. It’s been said before, and it still fits.
“You’re always happy when he’s in there,” said Bouton, who’s still got a crack at winning 20 games with probably 10 more starts. “If he hits a home run in every one of our remaining games, we got a hell of a chance.”
“I don’t like it when he’s in there,” said Tony Kubek, who singled and had an easy jog around the bases in front of Mantle in the third. “He makes me envious.”
The most surprising thing about Mantle’s season is that, in spite of frequent injury, he has played in 108 games and leads the team with 27 home runs and 81 RBI’s. What position he plays the rest of the season depends upon the schedule and how much his legs can take. Playing left field at Fenway was manager Yogi Berra’s idea, and Mickey agreed.
“I want to play where it’s easiest,” he said. “This park here, there’s hardly any running in left field at all. Even if you play against the wall, you’re right near the infield, it seems to me.” On hard shots against the wall at Fenway, the shortstop often plays rebound.
But in Yankee Stadium, Mantle would rather play center. There’s almost as much ground to cover in left field, and he’d rather not have to wrestle with the late-season shadows and air currents. Tom Tresh can have it; the Yankees play 24 of their last 39 games at Yankee Stadium.
“I don’t make out the lineups,” Mantle said. “I just tell Yogi I can play.”
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