(Baseball fans know that was the year Maris eclipsed Babe Ruth’s 60-homer season of 1927.) Verone’s favorite collectible? A 1961 program from a game in which Mantle and Roger Maris socked home runs.
MICKEY MANTLE AUTOGRAPH PLUS
This “casual” collector has a modest yet enviable collection of framed ophotos, many of Mantle, plus quite a few signed baseballs, all housed in the couple’s spare bedroom. If you’re serious, specialize on something and, if you want it, get it.
“I’m a casual collector,” Verone said, with this advice: “Know what kind of collector you want to be. Verone still heads to the occasional card shows at Cornoado Center in Albuquerque and strolls Chris’s Cards in the Cottonwood Mall, where his wife of 37 years, Sharon, is employed despite knowing virtually nothing - his words, not mine - about sports. “Till he hurt his back, he was one of the best baseball players. Professional, not a head case … ‘I’m here to play,’” is Verone’s scouting report of the current Miami Marlins manager. He remembers being a big fan of Bobby Murcer, like Mantle an Okie and a darn good center fielder for the Yankees (1965-66, ‘69-74, ‘79-83), and, later, Don Mattingly. “I was gonna buy it - it’s my biggest regret in collecting.” Thus, passing the chance to drop $1,500 on that cool Mantle item might have categorized him, to some, as nuts. Like many collectors classified by society as aenior citizens, Verone began collecting baseball cards as a kid, flipping them, trading them and attaching some to the spokes of his bicycle. Although he describes himself as a “collector,” he’s quick to admit, “I’m not gonna go nuts.” When his parents followed him to the Land of Enchantment in 1996, he and his dad began collecting baseball cards and attending card shows together. “It’s enjoyable and keeps me busy,” he said, forsaking the quiet and nothing-to-do aspects of retirement. He puts in 40-45 hours a week at Smith’s supermarket, a short drive from his home in central Rio Rancho. Navy aboard the USS Preble (1976-82, “during the awful years” of the Yankees), got a job with IBM after leaving the Navy and, after a huge - to the tune of 9,000 jobs - layoff, found a job with Intel here in River City.Īfter 22 years with Intel, he retired - but not for long. “I’ve been to the new Yankee Stadium - it doesn’t have the mystique.”įlash forward: Verone served in the U.S. Here I am, a kid, and, ‘Wow!’” Verone said. “My first year in Little League, he took us to Yankee Stadium in 1967. “He was quite an American Legion ballplayer, a decent pitcher.
I got into weights and he had me swing a lead bar,” Verone remembers. It was 1962 or ‘63, Verone said, a few seasons before the hobbled superstar’s Hall-of-Fame career came to an end after the 1968 season.īut there was more to it than that: “He talked about baseball. 7 of the Yankees was - “He taught me about Mickey Mantle.” I was 6 and he had a Yankee game on he said, ‘Come here, sit down.’”Īnd that’s when Verone’s dad began to explain what a great player No. “He didn’t like the Yankees, but I don’t know what team he rooted for before the Mets (who came into existence in 1962). “My dad was a die-hard Mets fan,” he recalled. It starts with his youth, growing up in New York - like so many Rio Ranchoans did. But why does Verone find him captivating? Mantle, who passed away due to inoperable liver cancer in August 1995 after a hard life, seems to still impress collectors a fifth of the way through the 21st century. One item that didn’t escape is a 1953 Topps card of Mantle, which, while not in pristine condition, is certainly a fine piece of cardboard to own. “It” was a gorgeous - except for what he considered a “gaudy frame” - a Mantle-signed 18×20 photo of Mantle making a running catch to preserve Don Larsen’s no-hitter in the 1956 World Series, the season Mantle won the Triple Crown.
“It was the fish that got away,” he laments, 8-10 years after it slipped his grip. (No worries wife Sharon was OK with the purchase.) This one is still kicking himself over a Mantle collectible he didn’t buy when he had the chance - even though it would have cost him $1,500. And these guys are more than avid fans, they still collect Mantle memorabilia when they find it, and that includes baseball cards. The Observer has managed to find three local devout Mantle fans, and has heard of yet another in Northern Meadows. What is it about this guy named Mickey Mantle? To his right are a few of the autographed baseballs he’s collected, mostly former Yankees standouts. David Verone poses with the bulk of his photo collection, with some spread out on the bed and unseen.