Member Recalls His Days with “The Mick"

Local 4 NJ member Carl Lombardi, Sr., far right, with former teammate Mickey Mantle and the rest of the Joplin Miners in 1950.

August 13, 2005 marked one decade since baseball fans said goodbye to one of America’s most legendary pastime heroes – New York Yankees’ centerfielder Mickey Mantle. For Carl Lombardi, 78, a cement mason and 48-year member of Local 4 New Jersey, this was a time for fond reflection. This year is the 55th anniversary of when he played ball with “The Mick.”

Lombardi recalls the 1950 season when he played minor league baseball with Mantle on the Joplin Miners in Missouri. He was 22 at the time and Mantle was 18. He always felt like Mantle was a kid brother. On the road, they roomed together and socialized on the bus. As Lombardi recalls, Mantle was the type of kid everyone had to like. And he was the type of ball player that played every game like it was his last.

Mickey Mantle signing a ball, while Whitey Ford, center, and Lombardi look on at Mantle’s 1974 induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

In an interview with the Newark Star-Ledger, Lombardi says, “He tried to get in as much as he could because he had a fear of dying because family members were stricken with cancer of one sort or the other.”

So Mantle played hard and never let on about his injuries. While on the Joplin Miners, Lombardi remembers when Mantle, who at the time was a shortstop, was spiked by a base runner stealing second. “Mantle was cut wide open, but he just closed up his pants and said, ‘Carl, don’t say anything.’” This play-hard, die-young attitude stuck with Mantle throughout his career who once said, “If I’d known I was going to live so long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”

As a Joplin Miner, Lombardi played second base. Although he recognized Mantle’s great natural talent for the game, he admits that their double plays were less than Hall of Fame caliber. “They were bad,” Lombardi remembers. “One time, the ball came to him, hit him in the head and bounced over to me, and I got the force and threw the runner out at first.”

Local 4 NJ member Carl Lombardi, Sr. with Mantle’s first All Star game bat. The bat’s inscription reads, “All Star 1952 Philadelphia, Mickey Mantle.”

Lombardi and Mantle stayed friends throughout his Yankee career. He would visit Mantle, his wife, Merlyn, and the kids when Mantle was able to get him Yankee tickets, and he even met manager Casey Stengel and a few other players.

Mantle made time for Lombardi, even at his busiest moments, such as Mantle’s Hall of Fame induction in 1974 in Cooperstown, New York. When Mantle caught sight of Lombardi, he came running over to greet him. They sat in the dining room to talk, but were continually interrupted for book and baseball autograph requests. Mick said, “Look, I can’t even talk to you. I’ll have a state trooper come down and take you up to my room.” Sure enough, a state trooper came down and took Lombardi and his wife up to Mantle’s hotel room.
Earlier this year, Lombardi attended a reunion organized by John Hall, author of “Mickey Mantle: Before the Glory.” Other attendees were Mantle’s teammates from the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids, the Independence Yankees and the Joplin Miners – all the teams Mantle had played with before his move to the Yankees.

“My whole family went out and wanted to see where I had played and where Mickey played. We saw all the ballplayers…[players] I hadn’t seen in 55 years,” says Lombardi.