The Mick: 25 years gone
As I said in my previous post, He’s Gone and nothin’s gonna bring him back, this week 25 years ago was a terrible one for my idols, Jerry Garcia and Mickey Mantle. Mickey Mantle passed away 25 years ago on August 13.
Mickey Mantle was my childhood idol of the 60s. That didn’t make me different than millions of children that grew up in the 50s and 60s. Since I was raised in Northern New Jersey, every kid wanted to wear #7 (sorry Ed Kranepool, it wasn’t for you–Or even the Rangers’ Rod Gilbert, who was worthy of worship). I even learned to mimic Mantle’s limp caused by his serious leg injuries.
Mantle was deeply flawed. He was a great ballplayer and team mate, but not a good husband nor father. He assumed he would die young as many of his family did, but his liver problems were self-inflicted from his alcoholism, which he would overcome in the later stages of his life.
His performance in the first 10 years of his career were second to none—all before the age of 30. He retired at age 36, but his last few years were merely a means to earn a high salary for a player far past his time on poor Yankee teams in the CBS ownership era, the low point of Yankee history. Despite his greatness as an athlete, he was humble, not egocentric as with many pro athletes, and, though he was beloved by all, he was insecure.
I worshiped him.
I even met The Mick one time. It was a five second encounter memorialized with the photo in this post.
Here’s the story:
In the late 80s I was the Management Supervisor on the Polaroid account at BBDO/New York, one of the world’s largest ad agencies. Polaroid was a magical company years ago, though by the 80s was starting to lose its luster. Nonetheless, running this ad account was a plumb assignment. Industry trade shows were important to display new products and one of the key trade shows for the photo industry was the Photo Marketers Association (PMA) show which was held at McCormick Place in Chicago. All the major industry players had mega-booths displaying their newest products and most of the major booths had celebrity greeters. At our Polaroid booth we had Michael Jordan as our greeter. I hardly cared.
However………across the floor at the Fuji booth Mickey Mantle was the celebrity hand shaker seated in front of a backdrop of a blown up photo of Yankee Stadium. Interestingly Mantle had the longest line comprised of men in their 30s and 40s (at the time) that no doubt also idolized the Mick in their childhood. The line was roughly 20 minutes long. I wanted patiently to meet my hero. What would I say when I got there? What memorable expression could I use to make him remember me? I was deep in thought. Then all of a sudden, it was my turn. Here’s the brilliance I blurted out,
“Uh. Mick you’re the greatest”
His response: “Thanks”
Snap, photo, gone.
Obviously, this was an encounter the Mick would remember all his life and he no doubt told thousands of others of his memorable exchange with Lonny Strum, BBDO Management Supervisor.
I am older than Mickey Mantle was when he died. There are millions of men my age who have the same passion for the legend of Mickey Mantle, one of the greatest ballplayers of all time.
“Ugh, Mick you’re the greatest”. RIP
More Strumings
- Tips= To Insure Prompt Service
- It’s All Over.
- A DJ Once More.
- States Rights and States Responsibilities.
