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Many of our Weekender readers may not know that in addition to being a huge fan of music, I'm also a pretty big sports fan, at least when it comes to Major League Baseball and the NFL. I even have my own blog for the people of NEPA to talk about the New York Yankees, my own favorite team, and I have a lot of fun with it. And since I noticed that today was actually a pretty sad day in Yankees history - the anniversary of the death of the great Mickey Mantle - I thought I'd offer some levity and a very funny Mickey Mantle story.

Back in 1982, Mickey Mantle spent an evening right here in NEPA and was a guest speaker at a banquet at The Woodlands. I was only about 14 years old at the time, but I managed to get a ticket and attend, and it was there that Mantle - in his great Oklahoma accent - shared this hilarious story with the packed room. I'm paraphrasing a bit, because it was 27 years ago, but I do know that it brought the house down. Of course, any story involving Mantle's former volatile teammate, Billy Martin, is bound to be pretty funny.

It went like this:

"Billy Martin and I used to like to do some hunting together, so one day I called up an old friend of mine in Texas and asked if we could hunt on his land. He had a huge property, with thousands of acres, and he had allowed me to hunt there before. I gave him a call, and he said we were more than welcome, so Billy and I drove out ...

Now this guy's land was pretty far out in the sticks, so it took us a few hours to get there. When we pulled up to the house, I told Billy to wait for a minute in the truck, and that I just wanted to let my friend know that we had arrived. He gave me a warm welcome at the door, said it was good to see me, and said that we were welcome to hunt as much as we liked. 'Hey Mick,' he said. 'Do me a favor before you guys head out. I've got an old mule out back that's not well, and he really needs to be put down. I've had him for years, and I just can't bring myself to do it. Can you do it for me?'

Now, that's a tough thing to do for the owner of an animal, so I agreed to do it for my friend. But, on the way back to the truck, I decided to have some fun with Billy. 'Damn it,' I said, when I saw him. 'Can you believe he's not going to let us hunt? He said it was OK, and we drove all the way out here, and now he won't let us. Son of a bitch ... I'll show him.'

I then ran around the back of the barn, with Billy following me, and pointed my rifle at the mule. Billy, who was upset about thinking we were unable to hunt, still seemed shocked at what I was doing, and ran off. I shot the mule, as my friend had asked, and then ...

I heard two more gunshots coming from the other side of the building!

I ran around to see what was happening, and found Billy with his rifle in hand.

He said, 'I just got two of his cows.'  "
 







 

About the Author

Alan K. Stout is the music columnist at The Weekender and has been covering rock and pop music in NEPA for more than 15 years. His column, "Music on The Menu" appears every week in The Weekender.

Alan has won a Keystone Press Award for Excellence in Journalism for his music coverage and has been voted Northeast Pennsylvania's "Favorite Newspaper Columnist" six times.

Alan's interviews include conversations with Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, Eddie Van Halen, David Bowie and Ray Charles. He also wrote the liner-notes to the entire Motley Crue catalog, he is the host of the monthly "Weekender/Mountaingrown Original Music Series" and is the founder of NEPA's annual "Concert For A Cause." He also hosts a weekly radio show, "Music On The Menu Live," which can be heard every Sunday night at 8 p.m. on 102.3-FM, The Mountain.

In addition to his work with The Weekender, Alan also serves as the Newspapers In Education Manager at The Times Leader.

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