Can We Have Our Ball Back, Please?

On this day, 56 years ago, Mickey Mantle, the then 21-year-old centerfielder for the New York Yankees, hit a two-run home run out of Griffith Stadium, home of the Washington Senators, into the backyard of a neighboring row house, located at 434 Oakdale Street, 565 feet away. Batting right-handed, the switch-hitting Mantle drove Chuck Stobbs’ first pitch toward left center, where, according to various reports, it cleared the 50-foot- high bleachers wall 391 feet from home plate and bounced off the top of a attached 69-foot long scoreboard, disappearing into the surrounding working-class neighborhood.

Before Mantle had finished rounding the bases, Arthur Patterson, a Yankees PR man, fled the stadium in hot pursuit of Mantle’s prodigious blast. Outside, Patterson ran into Donald Dunaway, the young kid who had seen the ball land down the street. After showing Patterson exactly where he picked it up, Dunaway handed over to Patterson the scuffed-up ball and, in return, received an undisclosed sum of money and, eventually, a new ball autographed by Mantle.

But Can He Post Up Jim Davis?

I've always been interested in the obscure talents of famous people. Like Ted Williams' proficiency for fly-fishing. Or shooting down Koreans. There's just something kind of reassuring about knowing, for instance, that Oscar Wilde was also a pretty good boxer or that millionaires Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are also world-class bridge players.

I'm not sure this qualifies on either front, but I stumbled across this oddly hypnotic video of Robert Mankoff, the cartoon editor of the New Yorker, on the magazine's blog, "The Cartoon Lounge," showing off his basketball skills.

For those of you unfamiliar with Mankoff, he’s in charge of pulling together each week the best collection of cartoons on the planet. He also occasionally contributes his own work, one of which featured this memorable line about the Mick:

"I'm probably in the minority, but I would've loved to see Mantle on steroids."

Although Mankoff’s shooting isn't anywhere in the same vicinity of the Splendid Splinters' otherworldly gifts, the cartoonist is pretty good at hitting the open J, from the same spot, unguarded, over and over again.

Now, don't get me wrong: Mankoff's no Stephen Curry. His form is a bit stiff, to say the least, and I doubt he'd have much luck getting his shot off against a defender, even in an one-on-one against the paunchy dude who appears toward the end of the clip. Still, 9 for 9 is a good night, in any league.