1964 World Series: A Guarantee Fulfilled

"Fan" or "fanatic." Translation: A person with excessive enthusiasm for something. Both words mean the same, but in this mind as it pertains to baseball both are vastly different. 

Baseball tends to throw the word fan around a bit too loosely. I would call 95 percent of baseball watchers "fans" and only 5 percent "fanatics."

If you qualify as a true fanatic, the baseball Gods will guarantee you one absolute live thrill at some point in your lifetime.

Saturday, October 10, 1964. The Bronx, New York.

Section 17, Row K, Seat 7.

Two ball park franks and a Mountain Dew chased by a vanilla and chocolate dixie cup with a wooden spoon.

The '64 world series opened in St. Louis, and the first two games were split. The Cardinals beat Whitey Ford 9-5 in Game One, the Yankees evening the series when Stottlemyre beat Gibson 8-3 in game two.

The scene shifted to Yankee stadium on Oct. 10 for Game Three, which turned out to be a pitching duel between Jim (bulldog) Bouton and veteran Curt Simmons.

If you remember the Bulldog, then you will recall his hat falling off with nearly every pitch.

I remember Boyer drove home the first Yankee run with a second-inning double and the Cards tied it with a run in the fifth, and that is how it stood through eight innings.

The Cards put runners on first and second with one out in the ninth. I believe Simmons was lifted for a pinch hitter Bob Skinner. Bouton preserves the tie by getting Skinner on a deep drive to center and Curt Flood on a fly to right.

When the Yankees came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, on the mound for the Cards was their closer, knuckle ball pitcher Barney Schultz.

Scheduled to lead off was Mantle. On the day, Mickey was one for three with a double. Mickey was always good against knucklers so the Stadium was electric.

As usual with all Mickey's at bats everyone in the stadium got out of their seats and stood. We have yet to see that kind of respect shown to any ballplayer since.

We all remember the familiar pose of Mickey kneeling in the on-deck circle before most at-bats (bat head down, right hand leaning on the knob) but this time Mick was leading off. This brings out the intimidating pose number two that we remember: standing tall, staring at the pitcher with bat label resting always on the inside of the shoulder.

If you grew up with Mickey, you knew every move, even down to the way he took his batting helmet off after a strike-out – always from the back of the helmet, never from the bill.

Mickey was the only ballplayer we ever saw that looked as good striking out as he did hitting a home run.

As he prepared to bat against Schultz, we noticed Mickey turn to on deck hitter (he never does that) Elston Howard and say something. As we learned later, the six words were "relax Elly, this game is over."

Schultz threw one pitch to Mantle, and Mickey drives it deep into the upper deck to give the Yankees a 2-1 victory.

I remember Cardinal outfielder Mike Shanon climbing the short fence in right and just looking up.

I swear, my throat is still a little raspy from all that screaming.

It was Mick's 16th World Series home run. He would also hit home runs in game 6 and 7, giving him a record 18 World Series homers, another record that will never be broken.

The Cardinals would then go on and break our hearts with a seven game series win. Our Yankees would have to wait another 12 years before reaching the World Series again.

Mickey would later call this called shot his biggest thrill in baseball. I was blessed to be there. As far as I am concerned, the baseball Gods fulfilled their obligation to this fanatic.

Thanks Pop, you're the best.