A familiar piece of baseball history returns to Heritage Auctions, this time with a new story to tell more than a half century since it last saw action.
On two previous occasions, the Dallas-based action house has offered the jersey Mickey Mantle wore when he struck his 535th home run on Sept. 19, 1968 – the so-called “Gift” served to the New York Yankees slugger by Detroit Tigers ace and 30-game-winner Denny McLain. Mantle’s homer remains the ultimate show of sportsmanship from a young great to a legend at sunset. And each time the jersey was sold – first in February 2017 for $486,000, then in August 2020 for nearly twice that – that is how its tale was told: It was the flannel The Mick wore when he hit No. 535.
As it turns out, that milestone moment – the night McLain winked at The Mick as he trotted the base path – could be only part of the jersey’s story.
The grey flannel button down was a gift from Mantle to his friend Tom Catal, once president of the Mickey Mantle Museum in Cooperstown, New York, to whom the message was inscribed: “To Tom, A Great Friend Always, ‘The Mick.’” And since last it crossed the auction block, Heritage says additional research and photo-analysis has revealed this is also the jersey Mantle likely wore when he appeared in the All-Star Game in Houston’s Astrodome in July 1968 and clubbed home run No. 534 on August 21, 1968.
More importantly, it may be the same jersey Mantle pulled on when he suited up against the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 28, 1968—what turned out to be the final game of his career.
That jersey is among the premier items in Heritage Auctions’ Feb. 26-27 Winter Platinum Night Sports Auction.
“We, along with many collectors, long suspected this jersey saw far more action than that penultimate homer,” says Chris Ivy, founder and president of Heritage Sports. “That alone made it historic. But to find out that it saw action in the final game of The Mick’s storied career makes it even more significant.”
Heritage has placed a pre-sale estimate of $1 million+ on the jersey. Early bidding has surpassed $400,000.
In its catalog listing, Heritage outlines the efforts that went into researching the jersey and the reams of paperwork that document the conclusion are being made available to interested bidders.
Home run No. 534 was certainly among the significant of Mantle’s career.
The season was long gone by late summer 1968, with the 103-win Detroit Tigers the American League’s top team and, soon enough, the world champs. But when Mantle came to bat in the top of the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Metropolitan Stadium, history was just one swing away.
Left-hander Jim Merritt, two years from his lone All-Star season with the Cincinnati Red, was on the bump for the Twins that day in Minnesota, and about to wrap up a two-hit 3-0 shutout when Mantle walked up to the plate as a pinch-hitter. With nobody on and nobody out, Mantle took one pitch before bashing the second over the left-field fence.
The Yanks lost that day, 3-1. But with home-run No. 534 in the books, Mantle tied legendary infielder Jimmie Foxx for third on the all-time home-run list.
Mantle’s final game as a Yank proved to be rather anti-climactic, all things considered: It was in Boston, home of the rival Red Sox, and the 2,401st game of an 18-season career that began in Yankee Stadium on April 17, 1951 – also against the Sox.
On Sept. 28, 1968, Mantle was just three weeks shy of turning 37 years old. As the Society for American Baseball Research would later note, The Mick was playing “with knees that a Social Security recipient wouldn’t envy having, such was the toll on his body, thanks to a regimen of grueling tasks on the ball field followed by nighttime activities revolving around alcohol.”
Late in 1968, Mantle had a pretty good idea he wouldn’t be returning for a 19th season. Years later he wrote in his autobiography that he went to spring training in Fort Lauderdale in 1969 “to convince myself that it was totally over.” All it took was “just a little running” to help Mantle make up his mind – which is why his 1969 Topps card notes that “The All-Star announced his retirement from baseball on March 1, 1969.”
Heritage is also offering a PSA 8 copy of Mantle’s iconic 1952 Topps card in its auction with bidding currently at $650,000.
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Notes: Current Era Cards Dominated ’23 Grading; Heritage Tallies Numbers; Daccord Stick Auction; NSCC Tix, Ohio Show
