when they dared to dance with the New York Yankees featuring hardball immortals Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Yogi Berra.On March 26, 1951, Rod Dedeaux lined his Trojans up against the legendary Bronx Bombers at Bovard Field in an exhibition, which the Yanks took 15-1.
While the name Mantle is synonymous with baseball history, he was just a 19-year-old rookie that day trying to live up to the hype as the next great Yankee. He did more than that.
"The Mick" was a one-man show, launching two homeruns as part of his four-hit performance. The mightiest blast of the day is considered one of the longest of his career and the reports of where it actually landed live in Trojan baseball mythology.
While you are at the games this weekend, you can see an overhead picture of Bovard Field that day featuring a capacity crowd of 3,000 with Mickey Mantle's iconic signature scrawled across.
Friday and Saturday's games are at 6 p.m., while Sunday is scheduled for a 1 o'clock start. We'll pay tribute to the Mantle game on Saturday evening at Dedeaux Field.
A diagram of where the Mick's homers landed.
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