When Greenwade died in 1986, the New York Times took note: What Mantle was to baseball, Greenwade was to scouting. Greenwade left scouting in 1964 and lived out his days in Willard. He was not just a baseball scout.
He saw the teenager a few more times, and soon after Mantle graduated high school, he signed him for the Yankees. So Greenwade was driving through Oklahoma in the summer of 1948 to see several prospects - including a 16-year-old switch-hitting shortstop named Mickey Mantle. He became a baseball scout for the New York Yankees, driving the dusty back roads looking for the young, raw talent needed to continue Yankee dominance.įrom 1947 through 1964, the Yankees won 15 pennants in 18 seasons.
Greenwade, who died in 1986, was a minor league pitcher whose career was cut short by a two-year bout with typhoid fever. Marymont had an uncle by the name of Tom Greenwade, who lived in Willard. 3, 2017, as Gannett's senior vice president of news. She returned to Springfield as managing editor from 1994 to 1999 and retired from the company on Jan. She worked here as a copy editor for four years and left to move up the journalism ladder and the ranks of Gannett, the News-Leader's corporate parent.
Journalist Kate Marymont is a 1976 graduate of Missouri State University. I'll close with an interesting tidbit that links the News-Leader to The Mick. More: Answer Man: Reader spies an 'under contract' sign what's happening at Highland Springs? Was Mickey Mantle your baby sitter? But he could not have been less enthusiastic about it" he says. "Mickey was the complete opposite." DiMaggio was infamous for being aloof and not wanting to talk to the media.ĭiMaggio, retired at the time, was at an event sponsored in Springfield. Later, Puryear also interviewed DiMaggio, the "Yankee Clipper" and one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe. Puryear worked here from 1985 to 2005 and eventually became the featured sports columnist. Players of this era made far less money than today, but they earned considerable money signing memorabilia. Mantle, for example, made more income signing autographs than he ever made as a baseball player. It was not unusual for Mantle to be at a grocery store in Springfield. In contrast, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels, considered the best player in baseball today, recently signed a 12-year contract worth $35.5 million a year. It is estimated he earned a total of $1 million over his 18 years with the Yankees. Mantle's highest annual salary was $100,000 - which would be $826,424 in 2019 dollars. Puryear wrote in his story that Mantle lived in Dallas and had a second home in Joplin. I certainly was familiar with who he was." "I grew up in little Noel, Missouri, and Mickey was from Commerce, Oklahoma. "Oh my gosh! This guy is a legend," he says. Surprisingly, Puryear recalls, no one else on the eight-person sports staff was interested in interviewing Mantle.Īs the low man in seniority, he says, he was assigned the story - and could not have been happier. "Someday I will pass that along to my kids," Puryear says. "I might have 'accidentally' taken a paperback copy of 'The Mick' for him to sign." "I was young and I was just out of school," Puryear says. He interviewed Mantle in an upstairs office at the grocery store. "He could not have been nicer," Puryear, now 56, tells me when I ask about his 1986 story. More: Answer Man: Is crooked tree near James River Freeway a Native American 'marker' tree? 'This guy is a legend' He slugged 536 home runs and was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times (1956, 1957 and 1962). Mantle played his first game for the Yankees in 1951, eventually replacing fellow Hall-of-Famer Joe DiMaggio in center field. Mantle, plagued by injuries throughout his career, is considered the best power-hitting switch hitter ever. Mantle later received a liver transplant in 1995 - which stirred controversy over how quickly he was matched - but died of a heart attack on Aug. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis, hepatitis and cancer of the liver. Mantle, who battled alcoholism during his adult life, would eventually enter the Betty Ford Clinic in 1994. In addition, I checked public records and the grocery store was built in 1985 - a year before the event.Īt the time, Mantle was 55. He had retired in 1968 at 37 after 18 seasons with the New York Yankees.
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