Mantle and Jones

Chipper Jones idolized Mickey Mantle, and talks about the time they met, well before Jones was famous:

“It was one of the only times where I found myself, the night before, practicing how I was going to meet somebody in the mirror,” Jones recalled.

When the moment came, he couldn’t get any of the words he had practiced to come out of his mouth.

“That’s how high a pedestal this guy was on,” Jones said, chuckling at the memory.

Composing himself, Jones finally began a conversation.

He wondered how Mantle dealt with the adulation, always carrying himself with a mythical aura that would still drive some fans to tears long after he was done playing.

“Mickey, does this ever get old?” Jones asked. “How do you keep this in perspective?”

Mantle told the young ballplayer of a recurring dream.

“I’m standing at the pearly gates. God walks up, and apparently I’ve got this worried look on my face. He says, ‘Mickey, I’m gonna let you in. But can you sign these dozen baseballs?”

Jones roared with laughter.

So did everyone else in the room.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2DyfLXC