An array of worthy challengers was no impediment for Mickey Mantle, who led wire-to-wire for a first ballot win and enshrinement in the Circle of Greats. Mantle was mentioned on over 85% of ballots with runner-up Eddie Mathews, also on the COG ballot for the first time, exceeding 60%. Jim Bunning and all of the holdovers in their last round of eligibility managed to attract sufficient support to remain on the ballot.

A much-heralded phenom from Oklahoma, Mantle had a tough time as a 19 year-old rookie in the Big Apple. Some tough love from his father in a famous phone call back home set the Mick straight, and onto his path to stardom as one of the outstanding center-fielders in major-league history. At his retirement after 18 seasons, Mantle’s 109.7 career WAR (15th all-time) was 4th among center-fielders, trailing only HOFers Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker, and contemporary Willie Mays (who also debuted in the 1951 season). Forty-five seasons later, those four still hold down the same top 4 spots with no player since coming within 25 WAR of Mantle.

More on the Commerce Comet after the jump.

The full spreadsheet showing this round’s vote tally is here: COG 1931 Part 1 Vote Tally. The vote summary for recent Circle of Greats voting rounds is here: COG Vote Summary 2 .  An archive with fuller details of the earlier, 1968 through 1939, rounds is here: COG 1968-1939 Vote Summary .  In both of the Vote Summary workbooks, raw vote totals for each past round appear on Sheet 1 and the percentage totals for each past round appear on Sheet 2.

Hard to know where to start in superlatives for Mantle. Let’s talk about his precocity. As mentioned, Mantle debuted as a 19 year-old country boy, a bit out of his element in the biggest of big cities. That didn’t stop him from achieving these career ranks through age 25, showing his rank at the time (1957) and now:

• Home Runs: 4th / 5th
• Runs: 2nd / 2nd
• RBI: 5th / 5th
• Hits: 7th / 12th
• Walks: 1st / 1st
• OPS+: 5th / 5th
• WAR: 2nd / 2nd
• Offensive WAR: 2nd / 2nd
• WAR Baserunning Runs: 2nd / 14th

Says a lot that his ranks remain the same, or very close to the same, almost 60 years later.

Possibly Mantle’s rank in Runs Scored might be a surprise. It shouldn’t be. Though Mantle obviously benefited from playing on a dynastic team that had no trouble scoring runs, his speed in his early years (evidenced by his WAR Baserunning Runs) was spectacular. Mantle didn’t steal a lot of bases by modern standards (nobody did in the 50s), but he made his attempts count with an 82% success rate through age 30, including 80%+ for eight consecutive seasons (1955-62). Over that same period, Mantle took an extra base on 58% of the singles and doubles hit behind him (AL average was 47%), including scoring from 2nd on a single 84% of the time (AL average was 71%). Mantle was top 10 among AL qualified batters in taking an extra base in every season until 1957 (including 4 straight years ranked 2nd), and top 15 every year until 1962 (best in the AL over this period was last week’s COG choice, Al Kaline).

Mantle’s ascension to the Yankees’ center-field position didn’t happen right away. The Bombers already had a legend manning that pasture in 1951 and the torch would be passed from Joe DiMaggio only at season’s end. The Yankees clinched the pennant with a double-header sweep of the Red Sox on Sep 28th. With another double-header the next day, DiMaggio got the day off and Mantle made his first appearance in center-field. On the final day of the season, DiMaggio was back in center and Mantle in right … until the 4th inning, when DiMaggio took a seat and Mantle moved from right over to center. Legend past and legend future.

In the 1951 World Series, Mantle suffered a serious injury when he stepped into a drain in the outfield while chasing down a fly at full speed. Though he, of course, recovered and was lightning on the base paths throughout his twenties, the lingering effects of that injury are thought to have taken their toll on the Mick’s speed in the second half of his career. Regardless of his physical ailments (which became severe) Mantle kept right on mashing. After a 117 OPS+ in his rookie campaign, Mantle never fell below 137 in any season the rest of the way. Even with his body pretty much spent (and now suffering also from personal demons), Mantle was still raking at a 147 OPS+ clip for his final two seasons.

Mantle was famous for hitting mammoth home runs, attracting notoriety early in his career with a 1953 bomb in this game against the Senators, thought to be the longest ever hit at cavernous Griffith Stadium. That shot may or may not have traveled the claimed 565 feet, but it heralded many more monster shots, including several at Tiger Stadium and a 1963 blast at home that hit the upper deck roof-top facade in right field, the closest any player ever came to hitting a ball completely out of Yankee Stadium.

After 7 seasons of 50+ home runs in the 1920s and 30s (all in the AL), Mantle’s 52 dingers in 1956 were the junior circuit’s first 50+ season in 18 years. Mantle followed that up with 54 in 1961, part of a legendary duel with teammate Roger Maris as both chased Ruth’s all-time season mark of 60, feasting particularly on the woeful pitchers of the expansion Senators who served up 20 of their 115 homers. Maris reached 50 on August 22nd and Mantle on September 3rd, but both struggled under intense scrutiny over the last month of the season, with Mantle connecting just once over the final 18 games, while Maris needed to go to the last day of the season to pass Ruth, despite reaching 56 with 20 games still left to play.

Mantle would pass Ruth in post-season home runs, tying the Babe’s career mark of 15 in the final game of the 1963 series against the Dodgers, and then adding three more the following year against the Cardinals. Mantle went deep in 9 of his 12 World Series, and had multiple dingers in 6 of those Fall Classics. Mantle would also pass Ruth in 1964 in career strikeouts, unseating the Babe after 36 years as baseball’s most prolific whiffer.

Perhaps Mantle’s most lasting influence on the game was in popularizing switch-hitting. When the Mick debuted in the 1951 season, only 45 switch-hitters had ever reached 3000 PAs, and just 21 had passed 5000. Most of those were singles hitters with just 11 of the 45 slugging .400 and only one above .450. Only seven of the 45 had reached even 300 doubles, including just three over 400. And, as for home runs, Ripper Collins‘ 135 led the way with only Frankie Frisch, Roy Cullenbine and Augie Galan also at the 100 level. By the time Mantle retired, those 45 switch-hitters with 3000 PAs had grown by more than 20% to include the likes of Jim Gilliam, Maury Wills and Pete Rose. Twenty-five years after that, the roster of 3000 PA switch-hitters had more than doubled to well over 100 and included others besides Mantle with power credentials, notably Eddie Murray,  Reggie Smith, and Ken Singleton. Today, that roster has almost doubled again to reach the 189 level with numerous other power hitters including Chipper Jones, Lance Berkman, Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira.

Mantle and Willie Mays, debuting in the same season and playing the same position, are often the subject of debate about who was the better player. But, for the first half of Mantle’s career, the more common speculation was whether Mantle or Eddie Mathews would be the player who would challenge the Babe’s record 714 round-trippers. At the time, Mantle had been the second youngest player to reach 200, 300 and 400 career homers, in each instance a few months older than when Jimmie Foxx had passed those milestones. That Foxx would reach 500 by age 32 but have just 34 more after that might have been instructive, but with Mantle and Mathews both getting to right around 400 by age 30 (Mantle was at 404 and Mathews at 399), the Babe seemed in reach, if still something of a long shot (Mays was in the discussion too, but a little further back at 368; Aaron was still under 300, but a crucial 3 years younger than the other three). In the end, of course, it was Aaron who passed the Babe, with Mantle and Mathews having to be content with 500, and Mays with 600.

Trivia time: As contemporaries, Mantle, Mathews, Mays and Aaron figured in some interesting milestone home run games:

• A few days after Mathews had hit number 400, teammate Hank Aaron hit number 300 playing against the Mets’ pair of Duke Snider and Gil Hodges, the first game with four 300 HR men
• The next season (1964), Mathews played against the Giants’ pair of Snider and Mays, the first game with three 400 HR men
• Mathews hit number 500 playing for the Astros against Mays’ Giants, the first game with two 500 HR hitters since Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott in 1945
• Later that season (1967), Mathews and Mantle played in the the first AL game with two 500 HR men
• Finally, Aaron hit number 600 in 1971, playing against Mays and the Giants, the first game (of many) with those two men at that plateau. The next pair of 600 HR hitters in the same game would not come for another 40 years, in this contest.

Quiz: Babe Ruth hit his 500th home run off Willis Hudlin of the Indians on Aug 11, 1929. From then until the end of his career in 1935, Ruth was the only active major-leaguer with 500 home runs. Jimmie Foxx was the next slugger to reach 500, connecting off the Athletics’ George Caster on Sep 24, 1940. Foxx would be the only active player at 500 for almost 5 years, until joined by Mel Ott on Aug 1, 1945. Other than Ruth and Foxx:
(a) which player had the longest stretch as the sole active 500 HR club member?
(b) which player had to wait the longest after reaching 500 before becoming the sole active player at that level?
(c) which player played the longest after reaching 500 without ever becoming the sole active player at that level?