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Seven (Times Two) Equals: Fourteen
Mickey Mantle’s epic final days moved a generation, and that’s precisely why we must let Pete Rose back into baseball
My Dad, born fifteen months after the Japanese capitulation in 1945, grew-up in Ardmore, Oklahoma. He has always revered his home state’s golden boy: Mickey Mantle.
My step-dad, born just four-and-a-half months shy of Jack Kennedy’s slaying in 1963, grew up in Lima, Ohio. He often recalls “eating, sleeping, and breathing baseball” back then. No doubt, this was accompanied by “worshiping” Ohio’s most extraordinary baseball progeny: Peter Edward Rose.
Oddly enough, both Mantle and Rose have been banned from baseball.
They were also both uniformly known for their epically blunderous moments as much as their most illustrious.
Notwithstanding, solely one, Rose, wears the label of baseball’s proverbial ‘Black Sheep.’ Meanwhile, the late-Mantle, despite all his imperfections, was revered by baseball enthusiasts from all generations and never encountered long-term “official” consequences for his hapless decisions. Mantle’s ban ended shortly after a commissioner change, and just before Rose’s began.
