My dad grew up on the same street or a street over where from Mickey Mantle lived when he was with the Yankees across the George Washington bridge ….. dad said that he would play catch with him when he was younger and was really kind to all the kids in the neighborhood. I remember when I was growing up that dad had an autographed baseball that he kept in the trunk of his car since it was a great memory for dad. I couldn’t believe that dad would use that ball to play catch with me if we didn’t have a different one to use. I often wonder what happened to it but my last memory of it was how faint the autograph had become from our VERY occasional use. I asked dad once why he used the ball instead of putting it under glass and dad said that it was a great memory for him and it was really only worth the memory so playing catch with his son with the same ball that Mickey Mantle played catch with him made it even more special.
Dad took me to several games at Yankee Stadium back in the 70’s and my memories of that time are pretty thin but I do remember never going to a game without my mitt hoping for a foul ball. That was back when the big time ball players weren’t so ego driven that they were too good to play with the local kids. I know dad got the chance to play catch with a couple other ball players too but I don’t remember who those guys were.