Yesterday,
I had the privilege of going to Miami, Oklahoma to watch my best friend, Kaitlin
Davis, sign her National Letter of Intent to play softball at Northeastern
Oklahoma A&M. I am very proud of her and the trip would have been worthwhile
with just that, but as I usually do when I travel, I decided to explore.
Kaitlin’s
dad, Gary, told me that up the road about 5-10 minutes was the small town of
Commerce, Oklahoma. The town of just under 2,500 is famous for being where
baseball legend Mickey Mantle grew up and went to school. Not surprisingly, the
baseball field at Commerce High is named after Mantle, and Gary recommended
that I at least go and take a picture of it (he, like me, is a huge baseball
fan).
So
after lunch, my girlfriend, Kelcee, and I embarked on the short journey to the
metropolis of Commerce. Sure enough, the first (and really the only) thing we
saw was the high school and the sports facilities.
Beyond
the centerfield fence, there is a statue of Mantle, a 1949 graduate of CHS. We
took pictures by the statue and then checked out the field. Mantle’s name, nickname
(“The Commerce Commet,” “Mick”), or famous #7 was seemingly everywhere: the
foul poles, the scoreboard, the score box behind home plate, and the advertisements
on the outfield wall (see pictures below).
Not
even a long foul ball’s distance away from the baseball field was the football
field, where Mantle’s career almost ended before it started.
While
at Commerce High, Mantle starred in baseball, as well as football (Oklahoma
offered him a scholarship to play football) and basketball. During one football
game, he was kicked in the shin and it got infected. Luckily, only a few years
earlier, a new medicine called penicillin was discovered, and a late night
drive to Tulsa saved his leg from being amputated.
Of
course, we know he ended up healing and returning to full strength, as he
played 18 seasons for the New York Yankees, won three AL MVP awards and the
1956 Triple Crown, and swatted 536 homeruns.
Sometimes
you never know what treasures a small town has hidden. You just have to stray
from the beaten path a little and explore.
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