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Mickey and Merlyn Mantle had 4 sons... 2 of which died before Mickey, as well as 4 grand children... Mickey Jr - 1953 - 2000 David - 1955 - Billy - 1957 - 1994 Danny - 1960 - Mickey's wife Merlyn passed away on August 10, 2009.
He still holds the career record for most home runs (18) and RBIs (40) during the World Series. With parity in MLB much greater than it was during Mantle's career, it is unlikely that any player will play in as many World Series as Mantle did -- thus these record should stand for quite a while.
Mickey Mantle was fortunate to have the great Joe DiMaggio as one of his NY Yankee teammates. He admired the fact that DiMaggio played the game his own way. Even his esteemed manager Casey Stengel never had to give Joe DiMaggio any instructions. Mantle also commented that DiMaggio seemed like a loner and kept mostly to himself rather than being "one of the guys". Mantle admired Joe's personal style both on and off the field.
For various reasons, batters hit better when they are on the side of the plate opposite from the side the pitcher is throwing from. A batter who can hit equally well from both sides of the plate thus eliminates any advantage a pitcher throwing from the same side would have. Thus, Mantle was raised to be a switch hitter by his family.
Legend has Mantle at 3.1 from home to first. We know that Ichiro, considered the fastest in the game today has been timed at 3.7 so few believe Mantle could have been this fast. Unfortunately we do not have any solid evidence from the Mantle period to corroborate the 3.1 reports.