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On Sept. 24, 1960 — long enough ago that the Dallas Cowboys played their first-ever regular-season game that evening — Mickey Mantle hit a game-deciding, 10th-inning leadoff homer at Fenway Park. That tied him, at 318 homers, on the all-time list with Yogi Berra, who was hitting sixth in the same lineup. 

On Sept. 28, 1960, Mantle launched two homers off Washington’s Chuck Stobbs, the same pitcher who had served up the mythic 565-foot homer that Mantle reputedly hit clear out of Griffith Stadium in 1953. 

All baseball news that day was secondary to what happened back at Fenway, where “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu.” Ted Williams was playing his final major league game. So it was overshadowed that Mantle’s second homer and 40th of the season passed Roger Maris for what would be the AL homer title, though Maris would go on to win the league MVP. 

Mantle’s first homer that day gave him 319 for his career and moved him permanently by Berra. And it created a fitting top four all time in Yankee homers: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mantle. That generally appreciated historic Mount Rushmore for the most historic franchise has remained intact for 64 years and nine-plus months.