Mantle/Sheppard

I'm embarrassed to admit that I totally missed three days ago being the 70th anniversary of Mickey Mantle and Bob Sheppard making their debuts at Yankee Stadium.

Seventy years ago today – April 17, 1951 – both the Voice of God and The Commerce Comet landed at Yankee Stadium for the first time.

On April 17, 1951, Mickey Mantle made his major-league debut, hitting third and playing right field for the Yankees. Batting behind Phil Rizzuto and ahead of Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra – quite the run of retired numbers – Mantle went 1-for-4 in the Yankees’ 5-0 season-opening win over the Red Sox.

Also on that day, Mantle and the rest of the Yankees lineup were introduced by Bob Sheppard, who made his debut as the Yankees’ public address announcer. In the two lineups that day were eight future Hall of Famers – DiMaggio, Mantle, Berra, Rizzuto, Johnny Mize, Ted Williams, Lou Boudreau, and Bobby Doerr – as well as Joltin’ Joe’s brother Dom, who was the Red Sox’s leadoff hitter and thus the first name announced by Sheppard.

Mantle retired before the 1969 season, and Sheppard kept announcing until the end of 2007. He died in 2010, and Derek Jeter famously had him record his announcement so he could use it for every at bat until he retired in 2014, making Sheppard the only person to ever announce him at the Stadium. Pretty cool.

Not cool? I predicted Sheppard's death back in 2009. Yikes. Like Prcne Phillip, he died just two months before hitting 100, unfortunately.