Saturday, May 14, 2011

On This Day in Baseball History: Mantle's 500th



On May 14, 1967 (Mother's Day), Mickey Mantle hit his 500th home run, becoming the sixth big leaguer to reach the milestone.  Playing the Orioles at Yankee Stadium, Mantle connected for number 500 on a pitch by Stu Miller in the seventh inning.  It landed in the lower deck in the right field corner and it would prove to be the margin of victory for the Yankees, who beat the Orioles 6-5 in front of only 18,872 fans.  Dooley Womack picked up the win in relief, pitching 3.1 innings of one run ball after Yankees starter Mel Stottlemyre fell apart in the sixth inning.  Mantle finished the game 2-4, with one RBI and two runs scored.

Despite many off-the-field problems, Mantle finished his career as one of the greatest Yankees to ever play the game.  "The Commerce Comet" played 18 seasons for New York, hitting .298 with 536 home runs, and 1509 RBI (all his career stats: Baseball-Reference).  He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 and he died on August 13, 1995.

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