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Living in the Shadow of Mickey Mantle!

We often forget what an emotional investment we’ve made to the game of baseball. It usually starts early on in our youth and continues throughout our lives. This was even truer during the glory days of baseball—the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s—when baseball was essentially the only real game in town.

One such person who made a deep emotional commitment to the game was a Yankee fan named Clarence Fortin. So committed was Clarence, a native of Waterbury, Connecticut, that when a son was born to him and his wife Irene on June 10, 1953, he named him “Mickey” after his hero, Mickey Mantle. You may recall that Mickey Mantle himself had been named after his father’s hero, Mickey Cochrane.

But Clarence carried it one step further. He named his son Mickey Mantle Fortin. Mickey Mantle Fortin was born just three months after another Mickey Mantle: Mickey’s own son, Mickey Mantle, Junior. Thus began Mickey Fortin’s life-long connection to his father’s hero, Mickey Mantle.

As it happens, Mickey Mantle Fortin is a reader of our Baseball History Comes Alive web site. He contacted me recently and was anxious to share with me some interesting stories about his family’s connection to some of great Yankees of the past. As Mickey told me:

“There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that my father Clarence had already chartered this newborn’s course. He was going to be a baseball star, just like his idol, #7. But talk about placing an unrealistic goal on your kid! This had to be it. Simply put, this would seem to be an insurmountable and unattainable goal for anybody.”

But it wasn’t, not this time, as you’ll soon see.

One story I found very interesting was the origin of his father’s friendship with Yankee stars. For many years, Clarence Fortin owned a restaurant in Naugatuck, Connecticut. One long-time patron of the restaurant was a pitcher named Frank “Spec” Shea, an eight-year major leaguer who played for the Yankees from 1947-1951. Over time Clarence and Spec became good friends. Through his relationship with Shea, Clarence befriended many Yankees, including Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris, and Mickey Mantle. This was the start of Clarence’s 23-year friendship ship with Mantle. Over the many years of their friendship, they became golfing and drinking buddies. It eventually saw them pass away on the same day, August 13, and from the same disease, liver cancer.

It was also the beginning of an especially close relationship with Joe DiMaggio, who Clarence always described as one of the finest gentleman he ever met. At one point, Joe autographed a photo of himself and inscribed it, “To my good friend, Clarence, Always wishing you the best. (signed) Joe DiMaggio.”

Before he passed away, Clarence gave a cherished family heirloom to his son Mickey: a hand-written letter from Joe DiMaggio to Clarence from his home address in SanFrancisco.  As things often happen in life, Mickey fell on hard times and eventually sold the letter for a mere $250.

Almost immediately, Mickey regretted the decision; and he lived with remorse for the next 10 years. Finally, on a whim, one day he did a Google search for “Clarence Fortin.” To his amazement, he discovered that the letter was being auctioned off on eBay at that very time. Thinking he was the recipient of divine guidance to have stumbled on the letter quite by chance, Mickey F. immediately bought the photo…for $2500! For Mickey, the steep price was a bargain, and he cried tears of joy when the letter was finally returned to its rightful home.

As you can imagine, going through life carrying the name “Mickey Mantle Fortin” meant carrying an extra burden. Who could possibly live up to such lofty, unattainable expectations? It came to a head when Mickey Fortin was in high school. He was good enough to make the baseball team, and of course, wore #7 and played centerfield. But legendary coach, Ray Legenza, soon to be named the 1971 High School Coach of the Nation, knew a thing or two about baseball. When asked by Clarence Fortin if his son Mickey had a future in baseball, Ray leveled with him and gave his honest opinion, saying Mickey didn’t “have what it takes” to be a baseball star.

Could he have been more wrong?  Did he realize who he was talking about? Knowing he had much to prove and wanting to make his name-sake proud, Mickey used the coach’s remarks as a positive incentive and became the batting champion and leading slugger on a team that won 64 straight games. For his contributions to the championship team, he was even selected to the All-New England All-Star team:

“We made it to the Baseball Hall of Fame even before the Yankee’s Mickey Mantle! A 64-0 win streak, baseball’s longest at the time, led to pictures and autographs and being enshrined with our own display in the hallowed ground of Cooperstown. Eventually, I was asked to be part of the cast in HBO’s documentary, Mantle, which you can find on YouTube. Talk about fate! How does a young teen-ager given the task of playing baseball while carrying the undeniable expectation that goes along with being named Mickey Mantle, wear 7 on your back, be a star center field and be your teams leading slugger? Seems more like “Mission Impossible” to me. All that happened and is documented.”

One of Mickey Fortin’s stories I found interesting occurred in 1977, shortly after the Yankee’s had won the World Series. Clarence Fortin had been named Waterbury’s “Man of the Year,” and a banquet was held in his honor. Among the invited guests were Roy White and the 1977 American League Cy Young award winner, Sparky Lyle, both friends of Clarence from his restaurant days. The banquet was a huge success, and following the dinner, Clarence invited both White and Lyle to stay overnight at his house. Mickey Fortin remembered a long night of great baseball chatter combined with lots of drinking. In the morning, Sparky Lyle had a gift for Mickey: a fungo bat that had once belonged to Bobby Doerr. Another heirloom was added to the Fortin collection!

Many thanks to Mickey Mantle Fortin for sharing his reminisces about his father and the family’s great connection to the Yankees. He had many more stories, but due to constraints of space, I had to cut it here. If you ask him, I’m sure he’ll be glad to tell you the great story about the time he met George Steinbrenner and Howard Cosell on a Yankee Stadium elevator!

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think we all have a deep emotional connection to this game we love, and it’s always fun to share our stories with other baseball fans.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

Information: Excerpts edited from phone conversation with Mickey Mantle Fortin