The Mick

The last time I went on another "I love the MIck!" jag, I desperately tried to find a story online that I had heard him tell on one of those old videos they show on PBS every coupla years, but I couldn't fucking find it, and I was heartbroke.
Well. I know the story. I guess I could've just ... written it, the way I'd told it myself to my friend about 50 times.

But Peter Abraham just did it for me! :)

Three things that are great about Mantle:

1. His actual name was Mickey.

2. He had a career OPS of .977. That’s 12th all time.

3. This story:

Mickey took Billy Martin hunting one day in Oklahoma and told him to wait in the car while he went and asked a friend of his who was a farmer for permission to hunt on his land.

The farmer agreed, but asked Mickey for a favor. He had an old cow that needed putting down and asked Mickey to do it for him because he didn’t have the heart to. So Mickey decided to play a trick on Billy.

Mickey came back to the car, pretended he was mad and got his rifle. “That son of a gun won’t let us hunt,” he said. “I’m going to shoot his cow.”

So Mantle when into the barn with Billy trailing behind. Bang! He shot the cow dead.

Suddenly he heard two more shots. Bang! Bang!

He turned around and there was Billy with a smoking rifle. “I got two of his horses, Mick,” he said. “That’ll show him.”

I have no idea whether this story is true. But I once heard Mickey tell at a banquet and it was just about the funniest thing in the world the way he told it with that drawl.

XMAS NOTE: my language is usually more "colorful" when I tell it, but fuck it. And he's right about that drawl - I could listen to Mickey read the phone book.