A Boy Named Mickey Mantle from Commerce

Mickey Mantle was born in 1931 in Commerce, Oklahoma, a mining town so small you could blink and miss it. His dad, Elvin “Mutt” Mantle, was a lead miner and former semi-pro ballplayer who saw something in Mickey before anyone else did. And the thing is, Mutt didn’t just dream for his boy – he prepared him. From the time Mickey could swing a bat, he’d be out in the yard hitting balls from both sides of the plate. Mutt pitched right-handed. Grandpa pitched left. That wasn’t a coincidence. They were crafting a switch-hitter in the shadows of the Great Depression.

But it wasn’t all sunshine. Mickey nearly died at age 7 from osteomyelitis, a bone disease that required him to undergo multiple surgeries. He walked with a limp for a stretch of his childhood. Imagine that – the fastest man in baseball, once nearly crippled before he ever took a lead off first base.

And yet, out of that humble soil, out of that one-stoplight town, bloomed a legend who would change the World of Baseball forever.

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