To fans of a certain vintage, Mickey Mantle was for 15 years the very embodiment of the New York Yankees.
Between his emergence as a teen sensation in 1951 and his injury-forced retirement in 1968, Mantle hit 536 home runs, leading the league four times in that category.
He won the Triple Crown in 1956 (.353/52/130) and was a centerpiece of 12 pennant winners, seven of them world champions. He was a three-time Most Valuable Player (1956, 1957, 1962), and (not surprisingly) a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1974, approaching 90 percent of the vote.
A look back at the 10 most exceptional regular-season outings as well as the five best postseason games of Mickey Mantle’s career with the New York Yankees.
Our standard of measurement is Win Probability Added. That calculates the individual’s role in influencing the game’s outcome. It emphasizes late-inning game-turning accomplishments and judges the player’s contribution within the broader context of winning the game.
That may be a problem for some because this standard can overlook exceptional individual performances accomplished under less than game-critical situations. For example, Mantle’s three-homer game of May 13, 1955, does not make the top 10 list because he hit two of those three home runs after the Yankees had already built a three-run lead.
With that as an explanation, here are Mickey Mantle’s 10 most exceptional regular season performances.