The Mick's favorite year

Commissioner Roger Hartsell of the Maricopa County Superior Court was recently assigned to the division I work in (Family Court), and today he let me photograph some of his baseball memorabilia, with which he decorates his new office. This is the cover of the June 25, 1956 issue of Life magazine, with Mickey Mantle on the cover. That was his favorite year, and for good reason, as the 1956 season ended with him winning the Triple Crown (52 home runs, .363 batting average, 130 RBI). That is a rare accomplishment, and Frank Robinson (1966) and Carl Yastrzemski (1967) are the only players who have achieved the feat since the Mick did it 51 years ago.

Note the other articles highlighted on the cover. One was about Yugoslavia's President Tito, who was considered a maverick among Communist leaders in eastern Europe. And 1956 was also a Presidential election year in the United States; here Lyndon Johnson, who would be elected Vice-President in 1960 and succeed to the Presidency under tragic circumstances three years after that, is referred to as a Southern dark-horse.

Meanwhile, in 1956 I was all of three years of age, and unaware of any of this, although all of it would be of great interest to me as I grew older.