Subtitle – Mickey For The 17 April Trifecta
As noted here, Mickey played his first MLB game on 17 April 1951.
Two years later, in Griffith Stadium, Washington, DC on 17 April 1953, the Mick hit one of the longest home runs ever recorded in MLB history.
Three years later, Mickey hit two home runs, again on 17 April, and again in Griffith Stadium. (See video below.)
Music-wise, your guess is as good as mine as to why Johnny’s Folsom Prison was selected as the back drop to this video but somehow it kind of works:
The 1956 game was the one that my friend Bob Simmons attended and discussed in his Buzzy Podcast with us a couple weeks ago (click here.) Bob sent me this Washington Times article earlier this week:
Mickey died in 1995 from cirrhosis of the liver and other alcoholism-related complications (click here.) A year before he passed, Sports Illustrated published a cover story “Time in a Bottle” in which Mickey discussed his lifetime of heavy drinking and the toll that it had taken on him. Some writers have speculated that it was his childhood sexual abuse that led to Mickey becoming an alcoholic (click here and scroll down to “Early Years”)
Good excuse to play some Jim Croce here: