Message #2001730

[mitlen]

(Image removed from quote.)

As a 19-year-old rookie in his first World Series [in 1951], Mickey Mantle tore the cartilage in his right knee on a fly ball by Willie Mays while playing right field. Joe DiMaggio, in the last year of his career, was playing center field. Mays' fly was hit to shallow center, and as Mantle came over to back up DiMaggio, Mantle's cleats caught a drainage cover in the outfield grass. His knee twisted awkwardly and he instantly fell. Witnesses say it looked "like he had been shot." He was carried off the field on a stretcher and watched the rest of the World Series on TV from a hospital bed.

Dr. Stephen Haas, medical director for the National Football League Players Association, has speculated that Mantle may have torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the incident and played the rest of his career without having it properly treated since ACLs could not be repaired with the surgical techniques available in that era.

Still, Mantle was known as the "fastest man to first base" and won the American League triple crown in 1956. In 1949, he received a draft-examine notice and was about to be drafted by the US Army but failed the physical exam and was rejected as unqualified and was given a 4-F deferment for any military service.

That's the one.    Pretty good deal though.    4-F and play baseball another 17 years.