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This is the shed on the Mantle property in Commerce that served as a backstop, where Mickey was taught to switch-hit by his father "Mutt" and grandfather Charlie. Mutt was a right-hander and Charlie a left-hander. So, as lore goes, Mutt would start out throwing from the right side, Mantle batting left-handed, then Charlie would take over throwing left-handed, Mantle batting right-handed. Mickey was a natural right-handed hitter, and there is a significant difference in the two swings, right vs. left, I'll show this later on. An argument can be made that after his knee injury in the 1951 World Series, batting left-handed may have exacerbated the injury and hindered his performance in later years. I’ll present, you decide.

All that being said, Mutt had figured out that a switch-hitter with power in this era, early 1950’s could succeed. As it turned out, this played right into the hands of Casey Stengel’s platoon system, playing mostly right-hand hitters against left-hand pitchers and left-hand hitters against right-hand pitchers. Mantle would never be platooned.

Also, Mickey would make a game of the switch-hitting ritual in his backyard. A ground ball to the foundation of the house would be a single, off the side of the house a double, off the roof a triple and over the roof a home run. I don’t know if there are any statistics as to how many home runs were hit in that backyard.

I played a similar game when I was a youngster, not as a switch-hitter though. My problem was I hit too many doubles that ended up in broken windows that resulted in money taken out of my allowance to pay for the broken windows. So, over time I moved the playing field out to the pasture. The only damage that could be incurred there was once in a great while you might pluck a cow, you know a “grand-slam.” But it never broke anything, the cows always survived, and no money was taken out of my allowance.

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