The One Who Beats Them

"I hope you live to be 500, because if anything happens to you, I'll be the ugliest man in the world."

Few baseball players get away with talking to their manager like that. But when the player is Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra will take all the lip he hands out. At 32 Mantle is at least a couple of steps slower than when he broke into the American League 13 seasons ago. He has a chronically weak right shoulder and his knees are crosshatched with scars from cartilage operations--the most recent of them last winter. He runs as if he were on stilts, and he winces every time he swings a bat. But Mickey Mantle is still the most valuable player around.

Last week the Yankees were trailing the American League--leading Baltimore Orioles by only .006 points, and the reason, in a word, was Mantle. Mickey's .323 batting average was the second best in the league. He had hit one out of every five Yankee home runs so far this year (with 19), led the team in R.B.I.s (61) and, naturally, in walks (59). In two crucial games last week, he demonstrated why, in case anybody had forgotten, the Yankees pay him $100,000 a year. Against the Orioles, Mickey beat out an infield hit, moved to second when Tom Tresh walked and then set sail, aching legs and all, for third. He slid under the tag with a stolen base; Tresh, playing follow the leader, dashed to second. When Joe Pepitone singled, both runners scored --and the Yankees beat the Orioles 2-0.

Washington Pitcher Alan Koch was Mantle's next victim. In the Yankee fifth, with two on, two out, and the Senators leading 3-1, Mantle stepped up to the plate. First base was open, and Koch was in no mood to take unnecessary chances. His first three pitches were off the plate, and Mickey took them all. "You can't let Mantle beat you," Koch said. "He's the wheel. Even with a 3-0 count on Mickey, I didn't want to let him beat me." So Koch threw another ball, low and inside. Only Mantle did not take this one. He creamed it 295 ft. to right field for a double that tied up the game. Once more Pepitone followed with a hit--and the Yankees won, 6-3. In the clubhouse, an hour later, poor Koch was still muttering: "You can't let Mantle beat you."

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