Did this actually happen?

bluecolt · Feb 18, 2021

On a warm Saturday afternoon in late summer 1968, the Yankees were hosting the Tigers at the old Yankee Stadium. Denny McLain, in his penultimate year, was on the mound on his way to 31 wins. He was winning comfortably late in the game when Mickey Mantle came up. The Mick was in his final year, a ghost of the great player of the fifties and early sixties, but had accumulated 534 career homers, tying him with the great Jimmy Foxx.
Bill Freehan went out to talk to McLain on the mound. He came back to his catching position and crouched down.
Freehan muttered to Mantle, "McLain wants to know where you want it."
Mantle was incredulous. "Could Freehan have actually said that?"
Freehan repeated, "McLain wants to know where you want it."
Mantle stroked a practice swing waist high over the plate.
Lo and behold, that's where McLain grooved an easy fat fast ball over the heart of the plate. Mick hammered the ball over the right field fence for homer number 535.
Mantle and McLain never acknowledged that this event ever happened. Bill Freehan, now University of Michigan baseball coach, the catcher on that fateful day, still swears to it.
Did this charitable act by McLain actually happen? Who knows?

onomatopoeia · Feb 19, 2021

Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Thursday afternoon, September 19, 1968 Yankees at Tigers boxscore . Mantle's solo homer, (career #535), in the top of the 8th made the score 6-2 Tigers. Bill Freehan didn't play in that game

Insidious Von · Feb 19, 2021

Here's a kicker, Jimmy Foxx nearly broke Babe Ruth's home run record long before Roger Maris did it. He hit 58 homers in 1932. In 1968 the Tigers rotated their catchers according to the pitcher's pitching arm, Bill Freehan and Jim Price were the catchers.

onomatopoeia · Feb 19, 2021

Insidious Von said:
Here's a kicker, Jimmy Foxx nearly broke Babe Ruth's home run record long before Roger Maris did it. He hit 58 homers in 1932.

Foxx actually hit 60 homers in 1932, but two of them were in a game ended prematurely by rain in less than five innings. The game was replayed, and none of the stats from the rain out game counted.

If five or more innings have been played, and the score is tied when the game is ended by weather, (or if the score had been tied at the end of the previous full inning), it would be considered a tied game, and would be replayed in full, but individual stats would count.

If game play ends prematurely because of a lighting failure, lightning, insect infestation, rally squirrel, etc, the game would be suspended, and resumed at a future date mutually convenient to both teams, often as part of a pseudo doubleheader, and sometimes at the other team's home park. So, if the Blue Jays and Angels had a game suspended in Toronto, and the game was resumed in Anaheim, the Jays would still be the Home team for the balance of that game.

If a game ends because of fan anarchy, the game would be forfeited by the home team, with a score of 9-0. All individual stats, except pitching wins, saves or holds, would count.

bluecolt · Feb 19, 2021

onomatopoeia said:
Tiger Stadium, Detroit, Thursday afternoon, September 19, 1968 Yankees at Tigers boxscore . Mantle's solo homer, (career #535), in the top of the 8th made the score 6-2 Tigers. Bill Freehan didn't play in that game

After over fifty years, even the players got it wrong as time fogs their recollections. The game was in Detroit, not New York. Apparently, Bill Freehan got it wrong the last fifty two years and still thought that he was the catcher that day. Jimmy Price was the catcher. Jim Price mentioned it as allowing a great player his final great moment.
Until his death, Mickey Mantle recalled this story many times. You can find this story in a number of places. Just Google it. He mentioned that it was Freehan who was the catcher. Maybe the Mick got it wrong, too, including the wink that McLain gave him as he rounded the bases.
McLain was censured by the Commissioner for improper conduct for grooving the ball to the Mick, which incidentally vaulted Mantle to number three on the all-time home run list at that time. He told Mr. Eckhert, "You don't think that I would intentionally throw a home-run ball, do you?