Meeting Mickey Mantle - His Idol

Written by Aron Wallad


Meeting Mickey Mantle

Meeting Mickey Mantle would be a dream comes true. A dream realized for Dan on his 38th birthday, when his wife honored him with a week long stay atrepparttar Yankee Fantasy Camp in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Dan played with some ofrepparttar 132966 Yankee legends: Bobby Murcer, Mickey Rivers, Ron Guidry, Moose Skowron and Catfish Hunter. The games were great and being onrepparttar 132967 same field with some ofrepparttar 132968 players he had watched on TV or at Yankee Stadium was mesmerizing.

But what maderepparttar 132969 week particularly special wasrepparttar 132970 friendship he nurtured with his hero. The Mick even gave Dan a nickname - “Nails” forrepparttar 132971 scrappy, Lenny Dykstra-way that Dan played. While Mickey didn’t play in these games, he did spend a lot of time with allrepparttar 132972 campers. Dan took this time to get to know Mickey. He loved his down to earth quality. He loved his honesty. He loved being around him.

Listen, Can You Hear the Crack of the Bat?

Written by Aron Wallad


Listen Can You Hearrepparttar Crack ofrepparttar 132965 Bat?

The other day, as I watched my aughter take batting practice from her new batting coach, my eyes shifted to another batter that was being coached by another teacher. Her swings were slow,repparttar 132966 ball was glancing off her bat and trickling intorepparttar 132967 batting screen. Her hips were not rotating and there was no power being generated from her swings.

The coach then took some time with her to show her some techniques that would help her in her quest to be a better hitter. They spoke for about 10 minutes. Or should I sayrepparttar 132968 coach spoke for 10 minutes andrepparttar 132969 girl listened.

As I gazed back and forth between my daughter and this other girl I realized that after about 20 more minutes of hitting and talking with her coach that this girl ( we will call her this girl ) was smackingrepparttar 132970 ball. Projectiles were streaming off her bat. That loud crack from her bat was reverberating inrepparttar 132971 facility.

It dawned on me. That this is why I love this game so much. I loved that crack ofrepparttar 132972 bat. I loved hitting that ball so right. I loved it whenrepparttar 132973 ball whistled inrepparttar 132974 air. Enjoying repparttar 132975 other aspects ofrepparttar 132976 game like base running, fielding, and throwing were great. But, I was deeply passionate about hitting. The supreme challenge was why I started playing this game and why I continue to enjoy watching it today.

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