Chapter One: I Miss Mickey!

When asked if he thought Mickey Mantle was going to Heaven, former teammate and a pallbearer at Mickey's funeral, Johnny Blanchard said, "Where Mickey's going, it's HOT, I can guarantee you that!" (11/22/06)

Bobby Richardson came to the mound in my very first inning pitching for the New York Yankees during our first road series of the 1966 season and said,"Do you hear what Mickey is yelling"? I said "no" (I was concentrating on the hitter, Frank Robinson, the number 4 hitter for the Baltimore Orioles and didn't hear "anything"). Bobby told me Mickey was saying "hurry up"! The reason Bobby came in to tell me this is that he didn't want me to take it personally, especially in my first game in the big leagues. What Mickey was trying to tell me, in essence, was that it wasn't necessary for me to take my time between every pitch just because I was in the big leagues now. I now know that players, especially outfielders, like to keep a game going at a faster pace since the time goes by slower for them because they aren't involved in every play like the infielders are, especially with sinkerball pitchers like me or Mel Stottlemyre on the mound.

Ever since that time, I became one of the "quickest" pitchers in the league, once completing a game in an hour and 18 minutes in a nine inning match against Ferguson Jenkins later on in my career. The media loved it too since they could get their stories in to their papers sooner so they could get out to the bars and restaurants quicker after games, especially on road trips. The writers and I thank Mickey for that! One time a writer even asked me why I worked so quickly out on the mound. I answered (honestly), "So I can hurry up and see who wins". They loved it and I really did too! Thanks Mickey!

The first time I personally saw Mickey was in 1963. I had been invited to work out for the Yankee "brass" while the Yankees were in Chicago for a road trip in June of that year. I had just come off of a career making season at the college I ended up graduating from, Northern Illinois University, earning all kinds of honors in Division One College baseball in the season that just ended.

I got to ride on the team bus from the hotel in Chicago, where I had just eaten breakfast with my dad and 2 of the Yankee scouts, to the ballpark for my tryout. It was a thrill to be on the same bus and hear the Yankees chatting and joking on the 15 minute trip to Comiskey Park. I was amazed to see that I was taller than Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and especially Whitey Ford since I was only 6 feet tall. But I noted Mickey's forearms. As big as Popeye's! Guys look so much bigger on TV!

The next time I would see, and actually meet Mickey, was 2 1/2 years later in spring training of 1966. I had been placed on the 40 man roster and was invited to spring training with the big club after a really great season the year before, splitting the season between Greensboro, NC (A ball) and Columbus, GA. (AA ball).

Mickey was awesome! He knew rookies were reluctant to come up to him and say hello because he was so incredibly famous. So he would actually come over to us when the occasion presented itself and say, "Hi, I'm Mickey Mantle". As if we didn't know! That's how he was in the clubhouse.

Mickey liked me even though I wasn't in his "group" per se. He was at the twilight of his career (in pain) and I was just starting mine.His buddies were mostly gone by that time, Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, JohnBlanchard, etc., but Whitey Ford was still there even though Whitey was almost beneath his twilight with severe circulation problems in his pitchingarm. All in all, Mickey wasn't having much fun by the time I got to theYankees.

Fritz