Mickey Mantle Field Ceremony Speech

By Randall Swearingen

Right now, I feel like the Shoeless Joe Jackson character in the movie, "Field of Dreams", as he was standing on the ball field and looking towards Kevin Costner, he asked, "Is this heaven?".  Well, I can't tell you how honored and excited I am to be part of this event and to be surrounded by such prestigious people who played important roles in Mickey's life.  I was surprised when I was asked to speak here today because I didn't really know Mickey personally.  I'm here today simply because I am, and always will be, a devoted and dedicated Mickey Mantle fan.

I consider myself very fortunate in that I attended Mickey's last Week of Dreams baseball fantasy camp in October of '94.  I attended this camp so that I could meet the one player that I had idolized all my life.  That camp was undoubtedly the most memorable week of my life.  I actually got to get dressed and shower in the very same locker room that Mickey used during spring training.  I got to sit in the very same dugouts that Mickey sat in.  And most importantly, I got to play baseball on the very same fields that Mickey played on.  I couldn’t believe it!  My eyes must have been the size of saucers when at the initial get together, Mickey walked up behind me in the food line, put his hand on my shoulder as he reached over and sampled some of the food.  I was literally frozen when I realized who it was. He just smiled and walked away.  I stood there for about two minutes before I realized it wasn't a dream.

Now, I find myself equally excited because in this immediate area, lie some very significant places from Mickey’s humble beginnings.  For example, just down the road is Mickey’s childhood home were he learned to switch hit against an old tin garage.  This is the actual school that Mickey attended.  Nearby is the gym where Mickey played high school basketball.  Also nearby is the remains of an old football field where Mickey played high school football.  Visiting places like these gives me goose pimples knowing their historical significance.  I am ecstatic to know that there is a movement underway to bring the recognition to Commerce, OK that it so rightly deserves as Mickey’s childhood hometown.

A couple of years ago, in my thirst for more information about Mickey, I searched the internet and was both surprised and disappointed to learn that there was very little on the internet about him.  I was even more surprised that the domain name of mickey-mantle.com was available so I quickly reserved it.  I then set out to create a comprehensive online tribute to The Mick.  I wanted every baseball fan, young and old, to have an opportunity to sneak a glimpse at Mickey's exceptional lifetime accomplishments.  My efforts in creating this site have been repaid many times over by emails from fellow Mickey Mantle fans thanking me for taking them back to their childhood to relive their personal memories of the Mick.   I would like to share with you a few emails that I have received from fellow fans who have viewed my web site.

A fan from upstate NY wrote, "I am a diehard Mickey fan.  I saw him play many times when I was a kid growing up in the Bronx.  I had the pleasure of meeting him once.  It was probably the biggest thrill of my life.  He autographed an 11x14 picture and ball for me.  I didn't sleep for two nights after that I was so pumped up."

An anonymous fan wrote, "Thank you for putting this page together. I am 53 years old and for two hours you made me feel like a young kid again."

And finally, a fan from Ontario, Canada wrote, "I'm 54 years old.  Mr. Mantle was my all time idol.  I have a wall of pictures of him.  Your web site is great.  I especially loved the section with the different artist paintings of him.  I actually cried while looking at them.  He was and still is the greatest of them all."

When I think of Mickey Mantle, the word that comes to mind to me is 'respect' as Mickey was one of the most respected players in baseball history.  He was respected by his teammates as well as his opponents.  During the fantasy camp, I couldn't help but notice the immense respect that Mickey's old teammates held for him.  Every day, the players would sign autographs in the locker room.  If you took a new ball to any of the Yankees for an autograph, the first question they would ask was "Is Mickey going to sign this ball?".  If you answered yes, they would sign ANYWHERE but on the sweet spot.  If you answered no, they would sign the sweet spot and tell you that if you took the ball to Mickey to sign afterwards, they would personally come after you!  They ALWAYS reserved the sweet spot for Mickey. That was HIS place.  It was obvious that Mickey had been and still was their leader.

Mickey was truly their leader as he led them to 12 World Series in his 18 year career.  With Mickey, the Yankees were a true dynasty. Tom Tresh probably said it best when he once said, "We never thought we could lose as long as Mickey was playing.  The point was we had Mickey and the other team didn't."

It's kind of ironic that Mickey Mantle's own named contained one of the best descriptors of his importance to baseball and more specifically the Yankees.  If you take the second syllable of Mickey and the first syllable of Mantle and you get 'Key Man'.  That's exactly what Mickey was to the New York Yankees.  But Mickey's importance went far deeper than that.  Mickey was and still is so important to the baseball card world, that in 1996, Topps baseball card company permanently retired the number 7 from their card numbering system.  Topps will never again print a baseball card with the number 7.  That's an honor and tribute that has never been bestowed on another player before or since.

The most interesting thing about my week at Mickey’s fantasy camp was the impact it had on my life.  For weeks afterwards, every morning when I woke up, I was thinking about some event from that week.  Whenever I was down, I could quickly cheer myself up by reliving one of its many once-in-a-lifetime moments.  I never got to thank Mickey for what he meant to me and for what he did for me that week, so Mickey, where ever you are, thank you.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the city of Commerce for opening its arms to Mickey Mantle fans, from near and far, by 'brushing off the dust', so to speak, from Mickey's past stomping grounds so that fans of tomorrow can learn about the roots of the legend that we all know as Mickey Mantle.  I would like to conclude by borrowing another line from the movie "The Field of Dreams", "If you build it, they will come."

Thank you.