I am currently reading a recently published book highlighting Mickey Mantle's 1956 season - the first in which he won the MVP (Mantle would win two more, including 1957). The book is entitled A Season in the Sun, the Rise of Mickey Mantle. It's fairly interesting, but people have cited some inaccuracies as troublesome. The one thing I noticed is that the authors (who I believe have history background moreso than sports) refer to runs batted in as RBIs, when I believe is technically supposed to be expressed as "RBI" - as runs in the plural, not "in."
Anyhow, I found an interesting description in the book that applies not to Mantle, but to one of his Yankee-great predecessors: Babe Ruth. This apparently comes from an article entitled "The Babe on Balance," which appeared in a 1975 issue of the journal American Scholar. Here's the quote as it appears in the Mantle book (the bolding is mine):
"He challenged Ty Cobb's small-ball notions of scientific baseball, a strategy that emphasized getting on base, sacrificing the runner to second, executing hit-and-run plays, and protecting a one- or two-run lead. But his impact transcended the sport. Ruth's approach dovetailed with the instant gratification peddled by the nascent advertising industry. Swing for the fences, buy now and pay later, the world is at your fingertips - it all became part of the same consumer-driven culture. In Yankee pinstripes he was more than a baseball player; he was a prophet whose mighty swings made spectators gasp in wonder at the potentialities of man. He was the Great Gatsby of baseball. It seemed as if nothing was beyond his reach."
I think that does a great job of summing up the evolution of America to a consumer-driven society, which started in the 1920s and continues to this day, at least the way I have learned it.
Anyhow, I found an interesting description in the book that applies not to Mantle, but to one of his Yankee-great predecessors: Babe Ruth. This apparently comes from an article entitled "The Babe on Balance," which appeared in a 1975 issue of the journal American Scholar. Here's the quote as it appears in the Mantle book (the bolding is mine):
"He challenged Ty Cobb's small-ball notions of scientific baseball, a strategy that emphasized getting on base, sacrificing the runner to second, executing hit-and-run plays, and protecting a one- or two-run lead. But his impact transcended the sport. Ruth's approach dovetailed with the instant gratification peddled by the nascent advertising industry. Swing for the fences, buy now and pay later, the world is at your fingertips - it all became part of the same consumer-driven culture. In Yankee pinstripes he was more than a baseball player; he was a prophet whose mighty swings made spectators gasp in wonder at the potentialities of man. He was the Great Gatsby of baseball. It seemed as if nothing was beyond his reach."
I think that does a great job of summing up the evolution of America to a consumer-driven society, which started in the 1920s and continues to this day, at least the way I have learned it.
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