Mickey Mantle going deep on the road for the New York Yankees When Mickey Mantle joined the New York Yankees in 1951 he became the next great link in the chain of Hall of Fame Yankees sluggers that went back from "The Mick" to the Yankee Clipper Joe Dimaggio, the Iron Horse Lou Gehrig, and the Sultan of Swat Babe Ruth. "The Commerce Comet," far and away the greatest switch-hitting power hitter of all time, won the American League Most Valuable Player award three times, was named to 16 All-Star teams, and played on seven World Champion teams. His 536 career home runs put him third on the all-time list when he retired after the 1968 season, but currently that is good enough for 12th place on career list. Looking back at Mantle's career fans have always wondered what he could have accomplished if he had not had all of these knee injuries and if he had taken better care of himself (ironically, here is somebody who could have used steroids just to become healthy again, unlike the four players who have based him in career homeruns who are generally believed to have jacked up their home run numbers by taking performance enhancing drugs).
This six-inch figure shows the muscular Mantle hitting what we can assume is one of those 536 home runs (or one of the 18 he hit in the World Series), from the left side of the plate. In this version he is wearing the gray road jersey of the New York Yankees, although there is an alternate version of this figure wearing the familiar pinstripes of the Yankees home uniform that you can track down. There are bulging muscles on Mantle's arms worthy of a statue by Michelangelo, and lots of dirt on his lower legs and cleats as we have come to expect from the people at McFarlane Toys. The face, always the most difficult part of these action figures to capture, is okay, but the main attraction here is capturing the power of the Mick's swim and that they have managed to accomplish.
There is a minor complaint in that while McFarlane Toys has advanced beyond making us slice open the hands of a figure to put a bat into position (e.g., Jason Giambi from their Series 3 set of MLB Baseball figures) by having the knob of the bat come off so we can just slide it into place and then reattach the knob, I have not yet been able to get the bat handle through both of the figures hands to be able to pop the knob back on. Otherwise the only other comment of note would be that Mantle's hair is a darker brown that we remember.
In addition to Mantle, Series 3 of the Cooperstown Collection offers up Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers sliding into home plate, Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates awaiting a pitch at the place, New York Yankee Don Mattingly about to make contact with a pitch, Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox urging his famous home run in Game 6 of the 1975 World Series, and a 2nd Edition figure of Nolan Ryan following through on a pitch as a member of the California Angels. We already have figures of Ruth and Mantle's teammate Yogi Berra, as well as Reggie Jackson, but Yankees fans are now looking forward to figures of Gehrig and DiMaggio (and Whitey Ford) in future Cooperstown Collections. But so far nothing has been announced for any of McFarlane's sports figures sets for 2007.
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