THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995 TAG: 9508160032
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K3 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: REAL MEMORIES
SOURCE: BY GEORGE RAISS
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
THE DEBATE started in a hotel room on St. Simon's Island, Ga., in 1951 when I was not quite 7 years old.
``Dad,'' I asked, ``who is going to replace Joe D.?'' The famed Yankee Clipper was by all accounts finishing his illustrious career that year.
Without hesitation my father replied, ``Nobody can do that, but they say this kid Mantle might.''
In his mind, he never did. But in my mind, especially after the magical triple-crown summer of 1956, Mickey Mantle had taken Joe DiMaggio's place. And then some.
In the days since it became evident the baseball world was on a death watch for the Mick, I've asked myself why I, and thousands of others my age, cared so much about somebody who played his last baseball game 27 years ago. After all, even he acknowledges that he was not much of a father or husband, and that during his playing career he was openly rude to his fans.
Despite his flaws as a person he was baseball from the mid-1950s until he retired. He led the Yankees and the Yankees led baseball.
My father passed his love for the Yankees to me. It has been a pleasure and, in recent years, a curse I carry to this day. Many of my memories of my boyhood are linked to that team and the man celebrated as the Oklahoma Kid. And after many years my father came, grudgingly, to the conclusion that, yes, Mickey Mantle was a worthy heir, but never the equal of his beloved Joe DiMaggio.
With Mantle's death, I've been struck by some eerie similarities with his passing and my father's. I think that is why I am so saddened. Both my father and my baseball hero drank far too much. But both spent their last years sober, trying to make amends to those they had hurt. They both succumbed to a particularly virulent form of cancer. They both died at age 63.
The debate over Mantle vs. DiMaggio on the ball field will go on as long as there are those alive who saw them play. I think Mantle's humility and humanity regarding his weaknesses and flaws, displayed in his later years, set him apart from the aloof magisterial figure DiMaggio has remained. Mantle, finally, shared himself with his fans. The Clipper never has.
Finally, I am saddened by Mickey's death because it deprives me of one of the most anticipated events in my life. Last fall my wife organized a surprise 50th birthday party for me with baseball as a theme. The fare was peanuts, Cracker Jacks, beer and hot dogs served up by vendors. She persuaded over a hundred of my friends to contribute to a ``camp fund'' to send me to the Mickey Mantle Fantasy Camp.
The camp was scheduled for May but became a casualty of the baseball strike. It was rescheduled for October, but the magic will be missing and I won't go.
The memory of the nicest thing ever presented to me as a birthday gift, along with memories of the countless thrills provided by the Mick, will be with me for the rest of my life. Both will suffice nicely. MEMO: George Raiss is director of informational services for Norfolk public
schools and one of the greatest Yankee fans anywhere. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Baseball great Mickey Mantle died Sunday of rapidly spreading
cancer.
by CNB