Baseball Memories: Seeing Maris and Mantle in 1962
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by user Niteowl049
Baseball Notebook: Baseball Memories
Baseball Memories:
Seeing Maris and Mantle Year After Maris Broke Record
My parents gave me a trip to Kansas City to see the Yankees and Athletics in the summer of 1962 for a graduation present so American Graffiti was a special movie for me since it was about 1962. Anyway I took the Southern Belle passenger train owned by the Kansas City Southern company from Alexandria, Louisiana to Kansas City. It was the first time to ever travel by myself at the age of 17.
After getting settled into the hotel took a taxi to Municipal Stadium which was originally built in 1923 for the Kansas City Monarchs. The construction cost $400,000.
Was able to see two games on this date the 18th of August 1962 since it was a doubleheader. The main attraction for me was to see Roger Maris who had broken the single season home run record of Babe Ruth the year before and Mickey Mantle.
The summer before I had listened to our local radio station which broadcast the White Sox games and listened to Bob Elson and Milo Hamilton as they let the listeners know that Maris had hit another home run and what number homer it was. It was a mystery to me why they would broadcast White Sox games in Louisiana. I would have preferred hearing Cardinals games since I had grown up trying to listen to the games on KMOX as the sound would fade in and out from time to time so would have been nice to have good reception.
The first game was won by the Athletics by a 5-4 score. Maris hit his 23rd homer and Mantle hit his 27th in the game. Tom Tresh also homered his 16th of the season. The home runs were half of the Yankees 6 hits in the game.
Whitey Ford pitched for the Yankees and finished the game despite giving up 16 hits. He lost the game in the bottom of the ninth when the Athletics broke a 4-4 tie to take the win. John Wyatt 8-6 won the game in relief while Ford 13-6 took the loss.
In the second game Yankees jumped out to a 5-0 lead after 3 innings but the Athletics scored 5 runs of their own in the fifth inning to knot the score at 5-5. By that time Bob Turley the Yankee starter and Orlando Pena the Athletics starter had been lifted for relievers. After 7 innings the score was knotted at 6-6. Then Yankees then scored 4 runs in the 8th and one in the ninth to win the game 11-6.
Bobby Richardson (who incidentally autographed a baseball for me when another worker at newspaper who was related to him got the autograph for me) hit a home run as did Clete Boyer and Dale Long who was the first player to homer in 8 consecutive games while with the Pirates.
I can remember seeing what I assumed were TV trucks parked at the stadium and think I saw Charlie O the mule that day but 45 years later I can't remember for sure. I do remember the taxi driver saying derogatory things about Charlie Finley. Just 6 years later the Athletics moved to Oakland and the glory years of the Athletics franchise before Finley dismantled the team later.
The biggest thrill was seeing Mantle and Maris and Yogi Berra. Little did I know that day that I would see three Hall of Famers in Mantle, Berra and Ford that day.
To me this is what baseball was all about when a pitcher could give up 16 hits and still pitch the whole game with no regard for pitch counts.
For a 17 year old kid who would enter the Army two months later in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis it was a day I will never forget.
