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Showing posts with the label New York Yankee slugger

October 20: Happy Birthday, Mickey Mantle

Today we commemorate the birth--in 1931--of New York Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle. One of Mantle's main entrances into the starry galaxy of vintage radio came very much by accident.  In a still-preserved blooper , an announcer was discussing the phenomenon of "switch hitting," being able to bat with either the left or right hand, when he declared Mantle the best "swish hitter" of all time, with "swish" being slang for homosexual. The announcer comically overcorrected himself with a very enunciated "switch."