20 Oct 2008 Yankee Hall of Famer *61 Mickey Mantle Aug 1995

Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995) was an American baseball player who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in He played his entire 18-year major-league professional career for the New York Yankees, winning 3 American League MVP titles and playing for 16 All-Star teams. Mantle played on 12 pennant winners and 7 World Championship clubs. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123). Mickey Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma. He was named in honor of Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane, the Hall of Fame catcher from the Philadelphia Athletics, by his father, who was an amateur player and fervent fan. According to the book Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son, by Tony Castro, in later life, Mickey expressed relief that his father had not known this (Cochrane's true first name), as he would have hated to be named Gordon. Mantle always spoke warmly of his father, and said he was the bravest man he ever knew. "No boy ever loved his father more," he said. His father died of cancer at the age of 39, just as his son was starting his career. Mantle said one of the great heartaches of his life was that he never told his father he loved him. When Mantle was four years old, the family moved to the nearby town of Commerce, Oklahoma. Mantle was an all- around athlete at Commerce High School, playing basketball as well as football (he was offered a football scholarship by the University of Oklahoma) in addition to his first love, baseball. His football playing nearly ended his athletic career, and indeed his life. Kicked in the shin during a game, Mantle's leg soon became infected with osteomyelitis, a crippling disease that would have been incurable just a few years earlier. A midnight ride to Tulsa, Oklahoma, enabled Mantle to be treated with newly available penicillin, saving his leg from amputation. He suffered from the effects of the disease for the rest of his life, and it probably led to many other injuries that hampered his accomplishments. Additionally, Mantle's osteomyelitic condition exempted him from military service, which caused him to become very unpopular with fans, as his earliest days in baseball coincided with the Korean War (though he was still selected as an all-star the year his medical exemption was given, and was known as the "fastest man to first base.")

Daily Spark

Today Middle passage

Middle Passage One version of the triangular trade had a much greater cost in human suffering. It began with NE traders exchanging rum for slaves on the West African coast. The traders sold the enslaved Africans in west Indies for molasses or brought them back to sell in the mainland American colonies.

Slave Trade The slave trade brought around 10 million African across the Atlantic Ocean. This terrifying and often deadly voyage was called the Middle Passage. The journey could last up to 3 months.

Middle Passage Enslaved Africans were chained by the neck and legs. They lived between the upper and lower decks of the ship, in spaces just a few feet high. Even the sailors remarked on the terrible conditions enslaved Africans faced on the voyage.

Life on a ship “They [the Africans] had not so much room as a man in his coffin,” wrote one slave ship captain. Slave traders carried as many slaves as possible so they could earn greater profits when they sold their human cargo in North or South America.

Death on the Seas Thousands of captives died on slave ships during the Middle Passage, often from diseases such as smallpox. Thousands of slaves also committed suicide by jumping overboard.

Anti-Slavery Some colonists opposed the slave trade. In 1688 Quakers in Germantown, Penn, made the first recorded colonial protest against slavery. One Quaker stated his view: “To bring men hither, or to rob and sell them….we stand against.” Massachusetts merchant and judge Samuel Sewall also criticized slavery in a 1700 pamphlet.

Slave Labor Despite protests, slavery continued to be practiced in all the colonies. Slave labor was particularly important in the southern colonies, where tobacco and rice production required many workers. As southern farmers relied increasingly on slave workers instead of indentured servants, the demand for slaves grew. The slave trade also brought wealth to areas that used little slave labor. For example, some of the slaves ships were built and owned by people in New England.