MICKEY AND THE DUKE
What if Mantle had become a Dodger?
The pinstripes. The centerfield monuments. The mammoth home runs. The World Series year after year after year. Bronx summer sin the sun during the 1950s, the last decade of American innocence.
Did baseball ever beget a union as magnificent as Mickey Mantle and the Yankees?
The most beloved of all Yankees, the franchise of Ruth and Gehrig, DiMaggio and Berra, Mattingly and Munson, Jeter and Rivera, was the Commerce Comet. The Mick. Mutt Mantle's switch- hitting son.
Paul Simon first tried to use Mickey Mantle for his l yrics i n “Mrs. Robinson,” switching to DiMaggio only because the cadence of his name was a bit better. Mantle and the Yankees are the most romanticized story in baseball history.
But what if instead of The Bronx, Mantle had played in Brooklyn? What if instead of the Yankees, Mantle had been a Dodger?
Don't l augh. It could have happened. It absolutely could have happened. It almost surely would have happened, i f Dodger executive Branch Rickey not allowed the Yankees to hire away super- scout Tom Greenwade i n December 1945.
Perhaps you've heard of Greenwade, the most renowned scout i n baseball history. He worked for the Dodgers from 1940- 45, then the Yankees from 1945- 64.
Among his Dodger signi ngs — George Kell, Rex Barney, Gil Hodges, and Oklahoman Cal McLish. Among his Yankee signi ngs — Hank Bauer, Elston Howard and Oklahomans Bobby Murcer, Tom Sturdivant and Ralph Terry.
Greenwade was the primary scout on Jackie Robinson; he eagle- eyed the Kansas City Monarchs when Rickey sought to break baseball's color l i ne. And Greenwade was the scout who i n May 1949 signed Mantle out of Commerce High School i n northeastern Oklahoma.
According to Jim Kreuz of the Society of American Baseball Research, Greenwade wrote The Sporting News i n 1954 that he was the only scout who i n 1948 and 1949 watched Mantle play for Baxter Spring, Kansas, i n the Ban Johnson l eague, a summer amateur organization. Two days after Mantle's high school graduation i n May 1949, Greenwade signed Mantle to the Yankees for $ 1,500 and a salary of $ 140 a month.
Two years l ater, Mantle was i n the Yankee outfield and headed for baseball i mmortality.
The same script could have happened, only with the Dodgers.
Greenwade was born i n Willard, Missouri, near Springfield, and l i ved there most of his l i fe. He played minor- l eague baseball all over, i ncluding Muskogee and Tulsa.
Greenwade went i nto minor- l eague managing, then i n 1940 was hired to scout for the Dodgers. He scoured Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas for ballplayers, and Rickey made him the color- barrier secret agent who checked out Robinson and Cuban Silvio Garcia.
But i n December 1945, after the Dodgers signed Robinson to a contract with the Montreal Royals of the International League, the Yankees offered Greenwade $ 11,000 a year, counting bonuses, a huge j ump from his $ 3,600 Dodger salary. Rickey l et him go.
With the Yankees, Greenwade did not move. He did not change regions. He did not change much of anything, except for which New York team he recruited. And recruiting i s what i t was, i n those predraft days.
It seems virtually certain that i f Greenwade had remained a Dodger scout i n 1949, the only scout
who would have been around Commerce and Baxter Springs i n May 1949 worked for the Dodgers.
Instead of the DiMaggio/ Yogi Berra/ Phil Rizzuto/ Allie Reynolds Yankees, Mantle would have j oined the Robinson/ Roy Campanella/ Pee Wee Reese/Don Newcombe Dodgers.
My, how baseball history might have changed.
The Boys of Summer, as Roger Kahn dubbed those Dodgers, “the most glorious team that ever played baseball i n the sunlight of Brooklyn,” would have i ncluded Mickey Mantle.
The Dodger outfield would have been Mantle, Duke Snider and riflearmed Carl Furillo. Andy Pafko or Sandy Amoros patrolled l eft field for those Brooklyn teams of the 1950s. Snider l i kely would have moved to l eft field, and the Dodgers would have had the greatest outfield i n baseball history.
Yankee teammate Tony Kubek once j oked that Mantle would have hit 1,000 home runs had he played his career with Brooklyn's Ebbets Field as a home park. That's nonsense, of course. Mantle actually hit almost as many home runs at spacious Yankee Stadium ( 266) than on the road ( 270), i n fewer home at bats.
But Ebbets Field, with power alleys of 351 and 344 feet compared to Yankee Stadium's 399(!) and 385, would have i ncreased Mantle's production.
In Mantle's first 14 seasons, the Yankees won 12 American League pennants and seven World Series. The Dodgers won eight National League pennants and four World Series from 1951- 66.
Put Mantle on the Dodgers, and those numbers go up. Take Mantle off the Yankees, and those numbers go down.
Do the Dodgers replace the Yankees as the great dynasty of that era? Do the Dodgers replace the Yankees as the greatest franchise i n baseball history?
For all the Ruth/ Gehrig l ore, they won four pennants i n the 10 years they were full- time teammates. The DiMaggio teams were i nterrupted by World War II. It was the Mantle era that sealed the Yankees as America's Team.
And i f Mantle had elevated the Dodgers even beyond their exalted status, would that have changed baseball i n Brooklyn? Would Walter O'Malley have been given a stadium deal that could keep the Dodgers i n New York?
Seems feasible. Forests have been felled i n detaili ng O'Malley's quest for a new stadium. Many of them talk about the close calls. Seems l i ke Mantle might have been the difference i n getting a stadium.
Which as historian Kenneth Matinale of Radical Baseball pointed out i n 2015, means no Los Angeles Dodgers. Maybe no San Francisco Giants, who followed the Dodgers to California. No New York Mets.
Maybe LA gets a second expansion team to go along
with the Angels i n 1961. Maybe San Francisco gets the expansion teams that went to Washington ( after the Senators moved to Minnesota) i n 1961 or to Houston and New York i n 1962.
The Dodgers could have transitioned from the 1950s Boys of Summer to the 1960s j uggernauts of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale with Mantle still the anchor.
Maybe New York still would have three teams.
Who knows? We'll never know. Because a scout from the Ozarks changed j obs i n December 1945. Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at 405- 760- 8080 or at btramel@ oklahoman. com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4: 40- 5: 20 p. m. on The Sports Animal radio network, i ncluding FM- 98.1. You can also view his personality page at oklahoman. com/ berrytramel.