In The On Deck Circle..........

It is amazing to me that to this day, the potential for greatness in a baseball player, is measured by the physical attributes of none other then Mickey Mantle. Not Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays or Ken Griffey Jr., all of which had better stats then Mantle. In fact, if you were to look at the career stat sheet for Mantle, you would of course have to be impressed, but not necessarily blown away. But yet, he still is the yard stick that all young ball players are compared to when it comes to the combination of  speed and power.

There is an article in a recent Sports Illustrated about the Angels incredible rookie Mike Trout. He is tearing up the league and will certainly win Rookie of the Year and perhaps the MVP as well. He replaced veteran Vernon Wells in the outfield. I don't have the article in front of me, but from what I remember, Wells mentioned that if  a video game were to create a ballplayer, it would be like Mantle.

To me, that comment reminds me about potential, the potential in all of us. When Mantle was a rookie, he was touted to be the next in line of the Yankee greats. Before him there was Ruth, Gehrig and DiMaggio. Yes, Mantle did become the next Yankee great, but he was not as great as he could have been.

Maybe Trout will reach his potential and I hope he does. I think one of the reasons I view Mantle as this mythical figure, is because he, like myself, could have accomplished more. Mantle is actually easier to identify with then say Willie Mays or Hank Aaron, two contemporaries of Mantle. Mays could not have hit more then 660 home runs and Aaron could not have hit more then 755. The both of them reached their potential, Mantle did not.

My son Zachary is 17. He is an astute baseball fan. Of course he never saw Mantle play, but when asked who his favorite Yankee is, he says "The Mick". Why? I suppose because I spoke about him enough and like so many of us who have come before him, see in Mantle so much promise, just from watching old videos of him rounding the bases with his head down (so as not to embarrass the pitcher) after hitting "tape measure" home runs.

What Mantle did off the field contributed greatly to his slightly less then stellar career. He actually atoned for it toward the end of his life. All I know is that when my father took me to Yankee Stadium as a kid, I remember staring at Mantle when he was in the on deck circle and never once thinking about his potential, or anyone else's. All I wanted to do, was watch Mantle get in the batters box.

As long as I am alive, I am still in the lineup of life. Every morning when I wake up, I step out of the on deck circle, take the bat off my shoulders and take my cuts and try to hit one out of the ball park. I just hope I remember to keep my head down as I round the bases.