9/28/1968 Yankees at Red Sox Mickey Mantle's last at-bat in the major leagues
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- This is a short video from the Sept. 28, 1968 game between the New York Yankees and the Red Sox in Boston, in which Yankees legend Mickey Mantle has his final at-bat in the major leagues.
The game, the second-to-last of the season at Fenway Park, was broadcast on WHDH TV in Boston, with Ken Coleman on the play by play here.
Mantle came up in the first inning to face Jim Lonborg and got a nice round of applause. He popped to shortstop Rico Petrocelli, then trotted back to the dugout, Andy Kosco replacing him in the bottom half of the inning and playing first base.
Lonborg had just recently given up Mantle's 536th and final career home run (the announcer short-changes the Mick a bit). It was tough watching Mantle hit late in his career because of his bad legs, but even so, he still could whip that bat around.
Copyright Major League Baseball or any other party. I don't claim the rights to, and don't profit from, this video. I posted it for historical and educational purposes, and for those who will enjoy it as much as I did.
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Never have been a New York Yankee fan but am almost 48 never saw him play and love Mickey Mantle
just turned 68 seen him play as a kid use to sit in the bleachers for .50 cents or a dollar just to see him
@@vinnymallamo1939 that's awesome vinny
Bravo Mickey ! You had nothing to prove at that moment. You had proven everything a long way before that. You were a great of all ! 🙂👍❤
You can see in his swing mechanics that he is finished. One of my favourite players even though I never saw him play. A legend.
Announcer said 236 homers 😅
@@SSNESS in NY @ YANKEE STADIUM
Who would ever think a Yankee player would get a standing ovation at Fenway Park. This is the 1st time I saw this video but it doesn’t surprise me.
Think of the contrast to 46 years later when Fenway saluted Jeter in his last game.
Jeter. Big time.
Y'all are forgetting The Sandman really 🤣?
Both of those times, as seen in the video and mentioned are: PRE-(George) Steinbrenner and POST -(George) Steinbrenner Eras…We didn’t like his arrogant money grubbing and stealing players to win championships. Other than that, he was a great guy though! 😊
A sure sign of respect for a ball player
i was 6 years old in '68 - i remember my father calling me over to the tv to see mickey bat, he struck out, my father said he was the greatest. i always believed it too. its funny how someone you've never met can touch your life, or at least your youth, forever
536th
Funny to see the mound so high before it was lowered in 1969.⚾️
Yes, it is noticeably high.
His legs about ready to give out. He may have squandered away some of the incredible talent he was blessed with, but he left everything all out on the field right up to his last day
I like that split screen on the top corner.
That was state-of-the-art back then!
@@petegoodwinboston4825 The ‘68 World Series, Gowdy and Kubek put an emphasis on it.
@@petegoodwinboston4825Not to mention instant replay was still brand new back then as well. Plus 1968 is when majority of TV shows in the United States including sporting events such as this was in color.
First thing I thought of too!
Nice piece of Fenway history
I’ve lived in Hamden & Danbury
Fans respect the great competitors. Stan Musial and Pete Rose both got standing ovations at Wrigley Field their last at bats against the Cubs.
Red Sox fans gave Mariano Rivera a long ovation at their 2005 home opener!
Announcer is 300 home runs short on Mantle's previous home run off Lonborg.
I chorlted on that one myself.
Nah, Mick just clubbed 300 home runs between the previous weekend and this game.
That was Ken Coleman.
Yea, I thought I missed something!
On September 19th of that season, Denny McLain of the Tigers (so he claimed later) grooved a pitch to Mantle, allowing him to homer and pass Jimmie Foxx for 3rd place (behind Babe Ruth and the still-active Willie Mays) in career homers with 535. Mantle put an end to the possible asterisk by homering against the Red Sox in his next game, to end up with 536 homers.
Game was not televised. I remember listening to that game. NYY were helplessly out of the pennant race while Detroit was in 1st place heading to a WS title.
*Apparently at first, Mantle didn't believe that McLain was going to groove him a pitch (despite McLain calling the catcher to the mound and saying he was going to do so). Mantle took the first pitch, a batting practice fastball right down the middle, without taking the bat off his shoulder. Mantle said the catcher looked at him as if to say, "What are you doing?" So the next pitch (another grooved fastball), Mantle swung and fouled it off. On the third grooved pitch, Mantle homered. As he was trotting around the bases, Mantle glanced at McLain, and he smiled and winked at him. Now while all of this was going on, Joe Pepitone was on deck and watching it all take place. When Pepitone got to the plate, he gestured at McLain to put one over the plate for him also. McLain responded by throwing at Pepitone and knocking him on his aşs.* 😂
@@superbrownbrown Nice recap. I did hear that MM interview.
At the time he didn't know he was retiring yet, he did so at spring training in 1969
Really! It seemed like it was preplanned!
@@petegoodwinboston4825 I recall him coming to Spring Training in 1969 and announcing it.
@@kevinbergin9971 I remember that, too.
My brother and I were young kids at this time and our Dad would drop us off at Yankee Stadium while he visited the relatives in NYC (who worried back then?) It was sad at times to watch Mickey like this, a shell of his former self we only saw in film clips.
Father of the Year, in my book!
Sad to see The Mick go out like this. He was only 36 years old, but with all the injuries and self destructive lifestyle, he looked much older at the plate.
As he later "joked", "If I knew I was going to live this long I'd have taken better care of myself". He died at age 63.
True. It *was* quite a ride for the Mick, though.
@petegoodwinboston4825 So true, he had a career for the ages.
I was talking to another Yankee fan last month who was under the impression that Mickey had faded from the 1961 Home Run race with Maris because of injuries from playing. He was shocked to find out the truth- that late in the '61 season Mantle had picked up an STD from one of the baseball groupies. Broadcaster Mel Allen found out and told Mickey about Dr. Max Jacobson (a.k.a. "Dr. Feelgood"), who also discreetly treated President John F. Kennedy's back problems with massive drug injections.
Mantle unfortunately developed an infected abscess in his hip from the STD shots and was hospitalized. The rest of Mick's 1961 regular season was finished, though he did appear in the World Series.
And Mantle never spoke to Mel Allen again.
@@bluemoon-20 OMG, I'd never heard that! Wild!
@petegoodwinboston4825 Yea, that was a wild story, incredible but true. Of course, times were so different back then that Mantle (and JFK) were able to have affairs and such because the Press would look the other way. How times have changed.
As a yankees fan thank you for posting this
You're welcome, Sal!
This old Yankee and #7 fan could not agree more. I’ve always said, I hate the Red Sox but I respect Red Sox fans, and that was a tremendous sign of respect for The Mick. I don’t remember but I hope that we showed the same respect to Yaz when he retired.
@@jeffreyamster6020 I recall the Yankees having a Yaz day (Southhampton, N.Y.) in 1967, *while* he was probably beating their brains out that season. I also remember the Fenway fans being respectful of Jeter in his final appearance.
@@petegoodwinboston4825 Good info and Yaz was a standout baseball player in HS in Suffolk County. By the way, the hi-lite of my baseball “career” was striking out Rico Petrocelli’s nephew for my only complete game ever in “Senior”(13-16) Little League in Marine Park, Brooklyn
@@jeffreyamster6020 Yaz was also good at hoops, no surprise. And I once threw a no-hitter in Little League ... with 7 walks, 3 HBP, and a lifelong case of tennis (baseball) elbow. 🤭
Im 48 i was a Don Mattingly fan growing up in the 80s i was a Yankees fan im a Chicago cubs fan as well. I live in Louisville Kentucky most of my life were they make the Louisville slugger bat and hockey 🏒 stick at the factory and museum. My dad was a teen in the 50s middle school to his highschool and liked Mickey Mantle playing.
@@matthewfarmer2520 I didn’t know they did hockey sticks, too!
@@petegoodwinboston4825 now you know lol
So sad how Mantle could have gotten a home run at his last at bat. But instead, he got a pop out. Sad for a legend. Rest In Peace.
It's always difficult to watch the last at bat of any player who gave the game so much. That time comes for every one of them...... Today we watch Miguel Cabrera soon to do the same thing....... Thanks for the memories.
Well said! Even though his legs are gone here, you can see the bat speed through the zone as they say these days.
Saw him play once. It was in his final season, In Milwaukee where the White Sox played a handful of their home games that year & in '69. Dad got us tix in the mezzanine. Only thing I remember was his forearms were HUGE. It was a shame his knees held him back in the latter years,
He also had osteomyelitis issues from his teenage years.
This was the second to last game of the 1968 season. After this at bat he was replaced defensively. In the season finale, the next day, he did not play. In fact he had left Boston and was not with the team.
1:31 Holy Cow, the mound really was high back then!
I started watching baseball in 1968. I was living in New York City and watched Yankee games all the time, so I saw a bit of Mickey Mantle in his last year. If my memory is correct, he and Roy White were battling it out to see who would be the Yankees leader in home runs. Mantle ended up leading the team with 18. When you consider that seven years earlier Roger Maris and Mantle led the team with 61 and 54 home runs respectively, you realize how far the Yankees had fallen by 1968. Incidentally, Roger Maris was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968, also his final year. He made his final World Series appearance when the Cardinals met the Detroit Tigers. Bob Gibson struck out 17 Tigers in game 1 of the 1968 World Series, but the Tigers' pitcher Mickey Lolich ended up the hero with 3 complete game victories, the last being in game 7 after 2 days rest.
Yikes! You'd ideally like your home run leader to have more than 18!
@petegoodwinboston4825 That shows you how far the Yankees had fallen by then. By the late '60s they were a last place team, with those talented stars from the 1950s and early '60s now aging veterans who didn't take care of themselves like the players of today.
@@bluemoon-20 I always feel for Horace Clarke, who was a good ballplayer but got kind of saddled with being the face of that down era.
@petegoodwinboston4825 You're absolutely right, Clarke was the face of a once great team that was now a doormat of the A.L. and didn't deserve the wrath of fans who were spoiled by decades of success.
You also had amazing young players like Mel Stottlemyre and Bobby Murcer who had the misfortune (and bad timing) of making the team just as the downward spiral began. They had their greatest seasons for terrible NY teams and an empty Yankee Stadium.
By the mid 1970s when the Yankees finally started winning again, both were gone. Years later another great Yankee suffered through a similar fate of bad timing and career misfortune; Don Mattingly.
@@bluemoon-20 Stottlemyre was a horse!
The good old days of umps wearing neckties. This was also the last game for Rocky Colavito.
The first swing was so painful for Mickey.
Sure looked it. Trouper, though his legs were pretty much gone at that point.
You got that right.
Notice how Ken Coleman shortchanges Mantle of 300 home runs when he says Lonborg gave up his 236th home run! I have a number of these Red Sox clip reels and partials from the 68-71 period but this is the first time I've ever seen this clip! I wonder if Mantle's last HR is on another reel since it was against the Red Sox. (Yankee telecast material of this era is all gone except for Mantle's 500th HR and Mantle Day celebration in 69).
Glad you enjoyed! I, too, got a kick out of Ken Coleman stiffing him of *300* home runs! Long story short, I do believe there is a bit more Red Sox content from that era available, but it's gonna be hard to find. But I've always got my eyes and ears open!
If Mickey had retired in 1967, instead of 1968, he would have been a lifetime .300 hitter. But after hitting a puny .237 in 1968, his lifetime average fell to .298. Mick said that it was his greatest regret in baseball.
Yes, it's too bad, he fell to .298, he was an amazing player, I saw him play, but only once, This last at bat, was pitcher Lonborg?
@@garymorris1856 I remember the last 4 years of Mickey Mantle’s career. It was sad. Very sad. His last good year was 1964.
@@frederickrapp5396 Yes, you are correct. I only saw Mickey play once, and it was in 1967, as you know, by that time, he was playing first base, and it wasn't the same.
Same
Thing happened to Jim Rice.
Mantle hit a homerun off kofax in the world series alot of people dont know that even though the Yankees lost that W S hitting a homerun off Kofax was special,,,l saw him do it.
Mickey Mantle was a great ballplayer.
What a thing to be at that game!
The booze had really caught up to mick by 68
He was a mess
Plus his knees were shot and he had back problems but he gave his all on the field
Darn the Yankees will never be that bad again I would have loved going to the "Stadium ' to see a Last Place Ballclub
Not many people went. Mel Allen got canned for mentioning the tiny crowd at the Stadium in those post '64 implosion years. Whitey said they all got "old at once.'
My brother and I were young kids at this time and our Dad would drop us off while he visited the relatives in NYC (who worried back then?). It was sad at times to watch Mickey, a shell of his former self we only saw in film clips.
The advantage of those small crowds was that we could always move to better seats, and no one stopped us!
Great condition, thank you!
You're welcome!
Color film likes this makes players like Mantle, Mays, Williams, DiMaggio, etc. feel a little more real. If you didn't see them live, the black and white film makes them feel more distant. They were playing another kind of game in another kind of time, you lose that sense of proximity. When you see Mantle playing in good quality video, good enough quality that you can see the Fenway of today in the Fenway of then, it's easier to place Mantle in the present game. And that bridge from 1968 to today feels shorter.
Another thing I remember about 1968 was that it was a big deal when Mickey Mantle passed Ted Williams and Jimmie Foxx on the career home home run leaders list. When Mantle retired he was third on the list, behind only Willie Mays and Babe Ruth.
And little remembered Eddie Matthews, member of the 500 home run club ended his career in Detroit. Great year for the Tigers
After his playing career, Jim Lonborg became a Dentist.
I would smack the fool that thought A CAREER OF MANY RECORDS, SOME STILL TODAY UNBEATEN, A GREAT FIVE TOOL PLAYER, GRACIOUS & DEFERRING TO MAYS & OTHERS IN HUMBLE MINDSET, SHOULD HAVE NOT PLAYED THIS LAST YEAR AS IT PUT HIS CAREER AVERAGE JUST BELOW .300 ! TO PUT HIS ACHING BODY THROUGH ANOTHER CONTEST AS HE ALWAYS DID ( No one played hurt as much as Mantle- a team mindset and great inspiration to his team) making undue flaw to his 18 years of baseball ! I really am unhappy about this .... the Mick came into Yankees MLB club career when I was born - 1951 .... I am a fan of 68 years, Mantle being my favorite !
237,18, 54. Thats a 3 million dollar player today.
Ha! One can tell how great he was, because at this point he's doing it all with his upper body; his legs are shot. Amazing.
That .237 season average dropped his lifetime average to .298, something that tore him up.
Nowadays everyone in the stands would have their phones out, recording.
No doubt!
Yes, unfortunately.
He hit a home run in his last at bat in Detroit. A “gift” from Denny McLain. Which brought a reprimand from MLB
Is it true that Pepitone then asked McLain for one right down Broadway and McLain buzzed his tower?
@@petegoodwinboston4825I don’t remember that but wouldn’t doubt it. Joe P was my favorite Yankee.
.50 sec mark " Lonborg gave up Mantle's 236th home run last week in New York." Oopsie Ken Coleman.
Got a chuckle out of that myself!
Commentators:
Ken Coleman & Mel Parnell
It was tough for him that season. But his OBP was still very good, and in the first game of a DH 5/30/68, he was 5-5 with 2 HR.
So Rico Petrocelli made two memorable catches on popups. This and the year before (Which only clinched a tie for the AL pennant)
The injuries were taking their toll on Mickey from 1965. Not helping matters was the Yankee decline (The team had cut the scouting back in 1960, so when guys like Richardson and Kubek retired, no was there to help).
Ha! Great point on Rico!
The Yankees collapsed so suddenly, I think mostly due to serious injuries. Maris was injured in 1965 and was never the same. Kubek had back or neck problems and had to quit. Elston Howard injured his elbow in spring training and couldn’t swing the bat properly. Jim Bouton hurt his arm and was never the same. And of course Mantle, the injuries caught up with him. They went from first place to last in two seasons.
@@syourke3 Yes. Other guys like Linz and Lopez (who could have helped when Kubek and Maris got hurt) were suddenly over the hill come '65. Tresh, in the second game of Spring Training in '67, went for a ball in left, and blew out his knee. The Yankees forced him to play, and he went from 22-27 HR a season to 11-14, with a batting average of only .200 - .210. Others like Pepi, Downing, Hamilton, Stottlemyre did alright, but there was little help. An oddity of '68: the Yankees got Rocky Colavito that season. He ended up the WINNING PITCHER in a game, I kid you not!
@@scottmorissey8915 I remember Colavito pitching and winning that game! I think he pitched 3 scoreless innings after coming on in relief in the middle innings when the Yankees were down by several runs and had used up all their legitimate pitchers. Colavito had been a pitcher in the minors before switching to outfield. He had a gun for an arm.
@@syourke3 Rocky's last game? Same as Mantle's.
No cell phones those were the days
Mickey was the greatest player on the greatest team of all time. He played on 12 pennant winners in his first 14 seasons. For both speed and power, there’s never been anyone like him since. No steroids. Didn’t even lift weights. But he could the ball 500 feet and run from home plate to first base in 3.1 seconds. Which is insane! How me managed to play Roth all those injuries is beyond me but he did, and the numbers he put up in his prime were simply tremendous. Plus he was great base stealer, too, a 90 percent success rate in his prime. Sadly, the injuries caught up with him and he was washed up by age 33, but at his best, he was as good as any position player who ever lived. Plus he was a great team player, he always gave 100 percent, and his teammates loved him. I’m glad I got to see him play at the old Yankee Stadium whim I was a kid, and I saw him pinch hit a dramatic home run on August 4, 1963, with a standing ovation that must’ve lasted around ten minutes.
I just saw a chart that compared a portion of Mickey's career to one of Trout's, and Mickey was ahead in 16 of 17 categories. And Trout is excellent.
Mickey was a great hunter too ! He got billy martin to shoot two thoroughbred horses at his doctors ranch ! !
LOL. Fantastic story!
The Mick was baseball.
That he was! Enjoyed finding and displaying this one!
See if you can't pay the rent see what Micky Mantle tells you 😂😂😂😂
All these years I thought Mantle's last at bat was a ground out.
I was hoping he'd wrap one around the Pesky Pole!
MICKEY!!!!!!!
Even without his legs, you can see the bat speed he produced.
He homered at home in 1973
As impressive as that was, it was an Old-Timers Game.
Yes he did. But he homered off of his best friend and teammate Whitey Ford.
In the original Yankee Stadium's 50 anniversary season and also its final season before being shut down until 1976
This was 1968 the year of the pitcher Denny Mc Lain was 31-6 Bob Gibson had a 1. 12 era nobody had a great year at the plate Yaz was the only batter over. 300 ( .301) and won another batting title
Wow he did not look good here. This was his 17th season and it’s clear a 20+ year career was not gonna happen. If he stayed healthy and played maybe 22 years who know what stats he would have had.
You can see the greatness of the swing, he just has no legs. And even he admitted he squandered some of his talent. With all that, he was still one of the game's best, if not the best, for years.