After retirement, Mantle worked as sports commentator for NBC for a few years and had a brief stint as first base and hitting coach for the Yankees in the 1970 season.

[1] He was of at least partial English ancestry; his great-grandfather George Mantle left Brierley Hill, a small town in England's Black Country, and immigrated to the United States in 1848.

When he was four years old, Mantle's family moved to the nearby town of Commerce, Oklahoma, where his father worked in lead and zinc mines.

One famous incident was when he hit two home runs at Bovard Field against the USC Trojans baseball team, when the Yankees were on a thirteen-game spring training tour of the west coast.

[12] Impressed by the 19-year-old's power, Yankees manager Casey Stengel decided to promote Mantle to the majors as a right fielder instead of sending him to the minors; his salary for the 1951 season was $7,500.

After his father's rebuke, Mantle gradually broke out of his slump and went on to hit .361 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs during his stay in Kansas City.

[23] A second highly publicized physical, brought on by his All-Star selection, was held in October 1952 and ended in a final rejection, this time due to the knee injury sustained in the 1951 World Series.

After the season ended, a full two years after the injury he had picked up at the 1951 series, Mantle had surgery performed on his left knee in November 1953.

[33] During Game 5, Mantle suffered a torn tendon in his left shoulder from a collision with Braves second baseman Red Schoendienst.

[34] The Braves won the series in seven games and the injury would lead to Mantle having struggles in his uppercut swing from the left side for the remainder of his career.

[35] Despite his strong season, the Yankees declined Mantle's request for a contract raise to $85,000, citing that his batting average was almost 61 points lower than the year before.

[38] Although his batting average was the lowest since his rookie year, a league-leading 40 home runs and 94 RBIs saw him come a close second to teammate Roger Maris in the MVP race.

The New York press was harsh in its treatment of Mantle in his early years with the Yankees, emphasizing that he struck out frequently, was injury-prone, was a rube from Oklahoma, and was perceived as inferior to DiMaggio.

[41] Over time, however, Mantle had learned to deal with the New York media and had gained the favor of the press, receiving help from teammate Whitey Ford, a native of Queens.

[43] Late in the season, Mantle was hospitalized with a severe abscessing septic infection on his hip, which had resulted from a "miracle shot" that he had received from physician Max Jacobson at the recommendation of Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen.

[b][45] It was discovered years later that Jacobson's so-called "miracle shot" was in fact laced with various substances, including amphetamines and methamphetamines, and resulted in at least one death.

[48] After the 1962 season, the Yankees gave Mantle a contract of $100,000, making him the fifth player to reach that pinnacle, after Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial (1958 and 1959).

[52] However, on June 5, he broke his foot while trying to prevent a home run by Brooks Robinson in Baltimore; his spikes had been caught in the center field chain-link fence as he came down after leaping against it.

[19] On April 9, 1965, the Houston Astros and the Yankees played an exhibition game to inaugurate the Astrodome, the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium.

On May 22, 1963, against Kansas City's Bill Fischer, Mantle hit a home run against the 110-foot (34 m) high facade, before the ball caromed back onto the playing field.

[68] On August 12, 1964, he hit one whose distance was undoubted: a center-field drive that cleared the 22-foot (6.7 m) batter's eye screen, some 75 feet beyond the 461-foot (141 m) marker at Yankee Stadium.

[84] Further, the shoulder injury Mantle suffered during the 1957 World Series, while not affecting his numbers, led to increasing difficulty in hitting from the left side over the next decade.

At the same time, he always insisted that the promoters of baseball-card shows include one of the lesser-known Yankees of his era, such as Bill Skowron or Hank Bauer, so that they could also earn money for their appearances.

[1] In 1976, the Mantles were amongst the honorary guests invited to the White House when French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing came on a state visit to celebrate the American Bicentennial.

As a result, however, he was suspended from baseball by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who had taken a strong stance against gambling and viewed it as grounds for placement on the "permanently ineligible" list.

[97] After the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, Mantle joined with fellow Oklahoman and Yankee Bobby Murcer to raise money for the victims.

[109] Shortly after Mantle had completed treatment, his son Billy died in police custody on March 12, 1994, at age 36, after years of substance abuse.

[120] Sportscaster Bob Costas eulogized Mantle, describing him as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic".

[121]At Mantle's request made prior to his death, Richardson read the same poem he recited at Roger Maris's funeral – "God's Hall of Fame" (written by a baseball fan).

[134] In 2006, Mantle was featured on a United States postage stamp, one of a series of four including fellow baseball legends Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, and Hank Greenberg.