On Mickmas Day, a Memory of Class.

Last night's awful slough of a playoff game to decide the American League pennant inspired just the right homily for Mickmas Day.

That's the Mick above, running out his home run against Sandy Koufax in Game Four of the 1963 World Series. It was the seventh inning, and The Mick's homer tied the contest at 1-1. The Yanks would go on to  lose the game, and the World Series, on a Joe Pepitone error, but nobody knew that yet. 

It was a big deal, The Mick's homer. So was this one, his walk-off home run off Barney Schultz of the Cardinals, in the 1964 World Series:

It was Mantle's 16th World Series homer, breaking Babe Ruth's record, and putting the Yankees up in the World Series. As you can see, The Mick—being congratulated by Frankie Crosetti—has got around the bases so fast that Schultz was not even off the field yet. 

Mantle has a ghost of a smile on his face, but he's not even looking up. He's not even looking at Cro, much less the losing pitcher. It was how he ran out pretty much every home run, even his 500th, in a career that left him third in the all-time home-run totals when he retired, with 18 more in the Series.

As you saw last night, Junior Caminero's home run last night, which put Tampa Bay up by 5-1 against Cleveland—but did not end or even wrap up the game, as it turned out—led to a 43-second celebration by Junior as he circled, uh, vogued around the bases, pausing for assorted chest thumps, victory bellows, and the like. 

Someone on the internet timed this epic celebration against how long it took Caminero's speedy teammate, Chandler Simpson, to get to first base on a bunt. (It came to 10.3 Simpsons.) 

Junior hit his homer off Cade Smith's Cleveland's closer, and a fine pitcher...though of course, he is no Sandy Koufax. When it comes to comparisons, I wonder how long Caminero would have had to take getting around the bases for a game-tying, World Series homer off Sandy K. 

Maybe 20 Simpsons?  Thirty?

I know, I know. I'm old, and styles change, times change. 

Mantle used to say that he always ran around the bases like that because he was sure the pitcher felt bad enough and he didn't want to make him feel any worse. Also, of course, even a 5-Simpson celebration back in the day probably would have brought a fastball perilously close to his head in his next at-bat.

I'm aware, too, that there were plenty of ways in which The Mick was not so classy. Junior Caminero might just have been carried away with the moment, and for all I know he spends his every spare moment during the off-season doing great things for his family and friends and orphaned children. 

Really—he could be a great guy.

But...there's something to be said for showing class on the field, all the time, no matter what else you are. That was The Mick. That was another reason why we loved him.