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Message: [QUOTE="superjohn, post: 5280041, member: 1522"] My dad had several stories about Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin. My dad grew up in Jersey City and his cousin who was much older owned a home right by Mantle in River Edge, NJ. Mantle and Billy Martin would come back to the house hammered and Billy Martin would sleep it off in his car because Mantle's wife wouldn't let him in the house, he would sneak into the basement to shower. My dad and my uncle played catch with Mantle as did other kids in the neighborhood. Things go full circle and it always revolved around drinking. Fast forward and my dad is an adult who is waiting for a friend in a NYC bar and the guy who sits down next to him at the bar and buys him a beer is Billy Martin and they shoot the breeze over a couple of rounds. Years after that my dad is working in Waterbury, CT and Mickey Mantle is in town for a function at the Aqua Turf club nearby and Mantle is at a Waterbury bar and he's so drunk cops had to basically carry him out of the bar, put him in the back of their car and take him to his hotel. If memory serves me right I don't think my dad was at the bar that night, his friends were there and told him what happened. Years after that my dad's friend who made it huge on Wall Street had Mantle flown into Litchfield, CT on his helicopter to play a round of golf with them. Mantle was hammered and my dad said it was really sad. This was his favorite athlete of all-time, someone he idolized and played catch with as a kid out on the street and now he was a bad alcoholic who would show up anywhere for a few bucks and an open bar. [/QUOTE]

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