"The first time Mickey Mantle came up to bat right-handed in this Series I had a feeling that it was going to happen. I said to the man sitting next to me, "He's going to hit this one out of here." The Series was in its 14th inning at this point and about all Mantle had done was strike out and walk—but up until then he had been swinging lefty against right-handed pitching. Now there was a big, tall southpaw named Green out on the mound. Being a switch-hitter, Mickey was hitting from the other side of the plate. I've thought for a long time that he was a better right-handed hitter than a left-handed hitter, and he proved it here. You could tell it was gone as soon as he swung, even though he didn't quite get around on it. It went into the right field stands. This was during the 16-to-3 rout at Forbes Field when there was a parade of Pittsburgh pitchers. Next time up Mantle drew a right-hander and struck out. But the time after that a left-hander named Gibbon was pitching and I said, "Here it goes again." This one sailed over the wall in deep center field where no other right-hand hitter ever put one. They got out the tape measure and nobody talked about much else for a day or two. It was enough to make anybody wonder why Mantle ever bothers to hit left-handed. In the third game, at Yankee Stadium, he came up against Green again and hit another tape-measure job. I've never seen anybody sting a ball harder than Mantle can."
January 1, 1970