A Treasured Relationship

Growing up in the 60's, Mickey Mantle was my favorite baseball player. I was not alone as there were millions of other baby boomers who idolized Mantle as well. Mickey led the New York Yankees to the World Series almost every year between 1951 and 1964. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 and today, still holds numerous baseball records.

I had the opportunity to meet Mickey at his 1994 “Mickey Mantle Week of Dreams” baseball fantasy camp. He had just been released from the Betty Ford Clinic for his alcohol addiction. My father is also a recovered alcoholic so I had tremendous respect for him and Mickey for overcoming their disease.

Sadly, Mickey passed away the following year due to liver cancer. But, before he died, he made a public statement in which he pleaded with today's children, “Don't be like me. I am not a role model.” He also established the Mickey Mantle Foundation for organ and tissue donation.

Wanting to learn more about Mickey's life, I searched on the internet and found very little. I then began working on building a comprehensive tribute website to The Mick. Over the years, my website received recognition from many people including several of Mickey's old teammates. Tony Kubek and Bobby Richardson even provided materials that I gladly added to the site. About the same time, I began collecting Mickey Mantle memorabilia.

Fast forward about ten years and I now own the largest collection of Mickey Mantle memorabilia in existence including the rights to many Mantle photographs. In February of 2007, my collection was showcased at the Astros Minute Maid Park during FanFest. Over 2,000 fans viewed the collection. Now, the most significant pieces of my collection are on display in the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. They will be on exhibit from March 1 through November before moving to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library and Museum in Michigan.

In 2006, I wrote a book titled “A Great Teammate – The Legend of Mickey Mantle” which was published in February of 2007. Since that time, I have developed a great relationship with the Mantle family including Merlyn (Mickey's widow), and Danny and David (his two living sons). I am now the webmaster for their website (www.mickeymantle.com ) and am involved in other projects with them. Mickey epitomized the term “A Great Teammate”. While playing for the Yankees, he always put winning before individual accomplishments. Although my respect for Mickey runs deep on a personal level, I feel strongly that there is much to be learned from the game of baseball and the way Mickey played the game. At Swearingen Software, I try to emulate his winning attitude by encouraging teamwork. Our daily lives would be so much better if everybody held teamwork with such high regard.