FanHouse MickeyMantle

Left on Base is MLB FanHouse's link dump.

* Boston's two-year offer to Jason Varitek comes with a deadline -- he has until the end of the week before the Red Sox take the deal off the table.

* The Rangers move into the lead for Ben Sheets, which pleases Kevin Millwood: "I think it would be great for us if he's on our team," Millwood said. "I don't know what's going on with that, but he'll make us a better team."

* All the fake sports-themed Lego men you've ever wanted.

Listen, I love Tiger Woods* as much as any golf fan, but this is insanity.

It appears Woods has decided to go back to college (he does have two more years of eligibility) to play baseball, and has turned his shoulder on Stanford for North Carolina State. I guess we should have seen this coming, with the long drives and incredible shoulder turn and hand-eye coordination that would make Mickey Mantle weep.

The always amazing Brahsome points out that N.C. State inked the deal with Woods after a late push for the 14-time major champion.

The Wolfpack made a late push to get the right handed slugging first basemen after several other high profile programs backed off in the wake of Woods' torn ACL and stress fractures. Woods looks to push for playing time as a true freshman.

Deep and sincere kudos to our classic namesake for hitting yet another milestone in his storied, rosy-cheeked, Faulknerian man-child career. 536 is something to be proud of, even if it's still 33 less than Rafael Palmeiro.

HEY GUYS, the last Dugout of August is after the jump.

As we enter the final weeks of Yankee Stadium's existence, it's hard not to think of the history that was made there and the great players who used to call it home. Whether it's the Mickey Mantles, and Whitey Fords of old or the Reggie Jacksons and Thurman Munsons of more recent times, the place has seen more than it's fair share of Hall of Fame players.

Many Yankees fans and baseball fans in general will leave the place with fond memories of baseball's great cathedral. Well, not all of them. One fan in particular probably isn't going to have very nice things to say about the place after being kicked out earlier this week. His crime? He had to use the washroom.

A Queens man is considering legal action against the New York Yankees after he was ejected from Tuesday night's contest against the Boston Red Sox for trying to use the restroom during the playing of "God Bless America."

During the patriotic 7th inning stretch at Yankee Stadium, nature called on Bradford Campeau-Laurion. When he tried to leave his seat during the traditional singing of God Bless America, however, he says he was stopped by a NYPD officer who said he'd have to wait until the song was done.

For all the talk about Chipper Jones possibly hitting at a .400 clip for an entire season (an unlikely possibility despite all the media attention and the way he's playing), it's pretty awesome in a somewhat ironic way that he hit his 400th home run this season, taterjacking a shot of Ricky Nolasco in the sixth inning Thursday night.

He is only the third switch hitter in the history of baseball (Eddie Murray and Mickey Mantle being the others) to cross the plateau.

'Just an awesome all-around night,' Jones said after becoming the 43rd player in the 400-homer club, doing it in style amidst a four-hit performance that raised his major league-leading batting average to a startling .418.

'I guess I've seen every single one of them,' said Braves manager Bobby Cox, the only manager Jones has played for during a 15-year career. 'He's one great player. Four hits tonight with a home run. ...'

Besides being an understatement by Cox, that first sentence points out just how much Larry means to the Atlanta organization. He was there for the resurgent Braves teams of the 1990's and along with John Smoltz, remains one of the biggest reasons why the Braves dominated their division for 14 straight years.

One fascinating "statistic" from the AJC is that in his 15 year career for Atlanta, Chipper has taken only two curtain calls the entire time, the first in 1999 and the second tonight. That's pretty indicative of -- beside Jones' approach to the game -- how synonymous he is with Atlanta baseball and how much his place in that lineup may even be taken for granted.

Whether or not he hits .400 this season, Chipper Jones's place in the history of baseball is pretty secure. He's been a MVP, the offensive leader of the winningest National League team of his era and a solid player at two different defensive positions. He may be the second-best switchhitter in baseball history, in fact, but he's not sure he ranks that low on the list.

"The one thing that I wanted to be, that (Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray) weren't was the all-around guy who hit for average, power, drove in runs, scored runs, was a tough out, on-base percentage, all those things. Not that they were any slouches, but from an average standpoint, Mickey hit .298. I don't know what Murray's average was (.287), but, you know, the one thing I can say is, from an average standpoint, 'I got 'em.' "

I'd rather have Jones than Murray, I'll give him that, but this is the first time anyone's ever said Mantle wasn't an all-around player. Sure, Jones's career average of .310 is better than Mantle's. Britney Spears sold more albums than Billie Holliday, doesn't make her a better singer.

What Jones, and USA Today, leaves out is that his average is 38 points higher than league average over his career. Mantle's is 42 points better. It's like inflation. Prices from the 1950's and 1960's are lower in actual numbers but similar in value, same thing with batting averages.

Big tip of the cap to Walkoff Walk for unearthing this gem. I've watched seven times already, and each time I see something else that cracks me up, like fact that Mickey Mantle is still compulsively chasing Roger Maris even after retirement (check out the pinball machine graphics, if you missed it). Also, the overacting by everyone in the scene is hilarious. What's that guy doing in the middle of the screen 11 seconds in -- smelling Mr. Blue Sweater's beer?

The story of Mickey Mantle's record-setting, 565-foot home run blast at Washington's Griffith Stadium goes a little something like this: Mantle hit a ball off an advertisement sign estimated at 460 feet from home plate, the ball flew out of the stadium, a kid apparently had it in his backyard behind the stadium, a Yankee PR guy went and snatched and voila: there's your 565 feet.

But thanks to that damn new-fangled technology and Jeff "Blue Steel" Passan's intrepid reporting, it looks like there's not way on Earth that was even possible.

The more evidence surfaced to debunk it, the stronger the legend of 565 grew. Mantle himself said the home run he hit May 22, 1963, off Bill Fischer would have traveled farther had it not bounced off the right-field façade of Yankee Stadium. The work of physics professors, particularly Robert Adair, cast doubts on the ability of a ball to travel 500 feet, let alone 565.

"The ball could not have flown farther than 515 feet," Jenkinson says, and even that, he believes, is a stretch. One physicist told him it went 498 feet. Jenkinson, whose book "Baseball's Ultimate Power: The Kings of the Tape Measure" is set to come out next year, thinks it went 505 feet. A phenomenal home run, yes, one only a handful of players could hit. Not the best, though.

So yes, there goes mathematics ruining the purity and esprit de corps of our national pastime once again. Jim Armstrong must be livid about this.

Fox News recently sat down with Pete Rose out in California and got his opinions on a whole host of things. There's a lot of "back in my day" talk in the interview, which always seems to come spewing out of the AARP demographic -- I will be there some day as well -- but there were also a few interesting nuggets of interest.

One: he doesn't seem as concerned about making it into the Hall of Fame anymore.

"I don't dream about being in the Hall Of Fame. It's not a dream. When I go to bed at night, all I pray for is that I get up the next morning."

For some time, I"ve sided with MLB on his one: Pete Rose broke the rules and thus, he should receive the appropriate punishment for it. However, he's also arguably the greatest hitter the game has ever seen and for that, I think he deserves his just rewards. Maybe he'll eventually nab a posthumous nod? Either way, no one can take away his on-field accomplishments.

And for those wondering about where that name Charlie Hustle actually emanates from, here's your answer:

Straight from PostmanE's "Oh, no kidding" file, comes the revelation that Mickey Mantle had a good time at the ballpark. And I'm not just talking about his sweet swing in the batters box. Oh no. Apparently Mantle liked to swing for the fences in other parts of the stadium as well. From Sal Marchiano's self-published memoir via the New York Post:

Marchiano also reveals how Mantle sent a jaw-dropping answer to the Yankees front office when he was asked to recall his fondest memory of Yankee Stadium for the 50th anniversary of "The "House that Ruth Built." Mantle wrote back: "I got [oral sex] under the right-field bleachers by the Yankee bullpen. It was about the third or fourth inning. I had a pulled groin and couldn't [bleep] at the time. She was a very nice girl . . ."

They always said Mantle had the magical touch. Between him and Babe Ruth, it must be a Yankee thing.

Previously at FanHouse:
Babe Ruth Got His Swerve On