1953 Mickey Mantle's New York Yankees Silver World Series Tray Commemorating 1949-53 Champions (Mantle Family LOA)

1953 Mickey Mantle's New York Yankees Silver World Series Tray Commemorating 1949-53 Champions (Mantle Family LOA)

The Mick was one of the greatest offensive threats of any center fielder in baseball history. He has the highest career OPS+ of any center fielder, and he had the highest stolen base percentage in history at the time of his retirement. In addition, compared to the other four center fielders on the All-Century team, he had the lowest career rate of grounding into double plays, and he had the highest World Series on-base percentage and World Series slugging percentage.

Mantle was raised in Commerce Oklahoma, where he later earned the nickname, “The Commerce Comet”. He was scouted to play professionally right out of high school and in 1950 won the Western Association Batting title with a .383 batting average. He was promoted to the New York Yankees in 1951 and in his first three years in baseball quickly became a Three-time World Series Champion. In just his third season in the Majors in 1953, Mickey Mantle hit .295 with 27 homers as the New York Yankees won 99 games and the American League pennant. Mantle hit 2 home runs and drove in 7 of his team’s 32 runs as the Yanks downed Brooklyn in six games.

One of the rewards of the 1953 World Series victory for Mantle was this silver plate. Measuring 13 inches in diameter, the plate has the signatures of the 1953 World Champion Yankees etched throughout the baseball design. In the center, there is a circle pattern with “1953” arched on the top and “WORLD CHAMPIONS” arched on the bottom. The Yankees bat-in-hat logo is centered on a “V” with “1949”, “1950”, “1951” and “1952” flanked in between. This silver tray displays tarnish and some discoloration. A rarely seen World Championship commemorative piece, awarded to Mickey Mantle and this comes with a LOA from the family of Mickey Mantle.