Mickey Mantle and His Journey to Become One of The Greatest in Major League Baseball History
Background
Mickey Mantle was born on October 20 of 1931 in the town of Spavinaw, Oklahoma. Named by his father in honor of the Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane, he would be exposed to baseball from an early age. In fact, so in love was he with the game that he would practice batting left-handed against the right-handed pitches of his father, and batting right-handed when against the left-handed pitches of his grandfather.
Mantle would be surrounded by sports from his earliest years. Though he would become known for his baseball career later in life, up through the end of high school he was an all-around athlete. In fact, based on his skills as a halfback in football, he would be offered a scholarship to play for Oklahoma in college. During his sophomore year, however, he was kicked in the left shin during practice, leading him to develop osteomyelitis (an infection of his shin bone) that, had it happened only a few years earlier, would have led to its amputation. Lucky progress in medicine had resulted in the newly available penicillin, which was about to treat the infection thus saving his leg.
