My farewell to Mickey Mantle

It was a spur-of-the moment thing. Someone invited me to a Yankees game, and I went.

It was Aug. 13, 1995 - the day Mickey Mantle died. The Mick gave me one of my favorite baseball stories, so I put aside my partisan bias and paid my respects.

I don't remember much from the game, other than it was emotional. It was probably overdone in typical Yankee fashion, but I don't remember being too annoyed by it.

David Cone, who had been recently stolen from the Blue Jays, pitched a gem against a really good Indians team. He gave up a run on six hits and three walks with nine strikeouts in a complete game.

According to Wikipedia, they played Somewhere Over the Rainbow at the stadium because it was Mantle's favorite song.

Other Sox or Phils in the game: Kenny Lofton, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Alan Embree, Wade Boggs and Jim Leyrtiz.

Another Yankee I once met, Pat Kelly, better known now as Casey Kelly's dad, also participated. Charlie Manuel was the Indians hitting coach.

I have no real reason why I'm writing about this now. The program (scorecard pictured above) was part of the latest batch of stuff I salvaged from my parents' attic and has been sitting in a pile waiting for me to write it up.