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The best-case template was cast in iron in a small hotel room on Aug. 11, 1951. A man named Elven Mantle — “Mutt” to everybody — drove the 163 miles from Commerce, Okla., to Kansas City, Mo., to join his son, Mickey, for Father-Son Day at Municipal Stadium. But it wasn’t exactly a happy occasion. 

Mantle — whom Casey Stengel had called “the best ballplayer I’ve ever seen,” and Stengel had been around pro ballplayers since 1910 — had started hot his rookie season with the Yankees, but by July he’d fallen into an irreversible funk. Stengel sent him down to Triple-A. 

At first, Mantle’s slump became even worse: he started 3-for-18. Even as he caught fire on a three-week road trip, when the Blues returned home, Mickey was deeply depressed. 

He told his father he wanted to quit.