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March 17, 1951 Wrigley Field, Los Angeles - In 1951 Yankees co-owner Del Webb, a resident of Phoenix, wanted his club to keep him company for a spring in Arizona and also take a tour of the West Coast. Webb arranged a training camp swap with fellow owner Horace Stoneham: the New York Giants joined the Grapefruit League, training in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Casey Stengel's crew headed west to Phoenix.

The West Coast "tour" was a barnstorming trip up and down the California coast in order to showcase Joe DiMaggio in the Clipper’s home state since on March 2 he revealed that he expected '51 to be his last season, and whet the appetite for big league ball. The schedule called for thirteen games in California, mostly against Class AAA Pacific Coast League teams, with stops at Glendale, manager Casey Stengel’s home-town; in Oakland, where Stengel had managed the Oaks before being promoted to the Yankees’ job; at Seals Stadium in San Francisco, where DiMaggio had made his name; and finally at the University of Southern California against the Trojans. USC’s new coach, Rod Dedeaux, had played two games for Stengel when he managed the Brooklyn Dodgers. Dedeaux got a bigger bonus in 1935 than Mantle got from the Yankees. Three of Dedeaux’s former players—Hank Workman, Jim Brideweser, and Wally Hood—were Yankee rookies.

San Francisco was a fountain of infielders into which the Yankees had been dipping for years: Frank Crosetti, Tony Lazzari, Jerry Coleman and now Gil McDougald, another rookie getting Stengel's attention in the Arizona instructional school.

San Francisco was also the home of 23-year-old Jackie Jensen who, unlike Mantle (who signed for $1,000), had come to the Yankees as a bonus baby. Signed for $40,000 after starring in the 1949 Rose Bowl for the University of California, the Golden Boy was coming home. That spring was the last time the Yankees would train anywhere other than Florida.

Mick got his first look at the West Coast as the Yankees embarked on the 11-day tour of California. Mantle wasn’t in the starting lineup when the Yankees arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, March 16, to start their California tour with a game against the Hollywood Stars. Irregarless, Mantle had made quite an impression with his bat, and was the most talked about young player with sports writers in Los Angeles and San Francisco wanting to know all about him. The game was a sellout; across town the St. Louis Browns and the Chicago White Sox played in front of 235 fans, including their unhappy owners. (The Yankees would draw nearly 140,000 during their ten days in California.)

March 17, however was a day to remember, although almost no one does. At L.A.'s Wrigley Field against the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels, he hit his first home run of the spring. It was a mammoth three-run blast in the seventh inning off right-hander Bob Spicer. The ball cleared the center field bleacher fence 412 feet from home plate and either cleared or ricocheted off another wall beyond, witness accounts vary. Either way the ball traveled some 420-430 feet to straight away center field. The ball went farther than anyone could remember seeing a hit to that part of the park. Gil McDougald, destined to become 1951’s Rookie of the Year, saw a scene often repeated by unwary center fielders. “Mickey hit a two-iron shot, and this guy come runnin’ over in center field thinkin’ he was gonna catch it. He leaps up, and that ball took off like an airplane over the fence. The center fielder was in a state of shock.”

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