And, Yes, a Role Model at the End : After facing his devils, Mantle stood tall in organ donation advocacy and alcohol warnings

In Yankee Stadium and ballparks from Boston to Los Angeles, in living rooms across America, Mickey Mantle brought joy to baseball fans, no matter what team they rooted for.

He roamed center field with grace, exploded from the batter’s box on drag bunts despite his bad knees, knocked home runs deep into the bleachers. He was a worthy successor to the great Joe DiMaggio, and his death Sunday of cancer recalled an era not too long ago when baseball had dynasties--peopled mostly by pinstripe-wearing Yankees. Mantle played in 12 World Series for a single team, an achievement unlikely to be seen again.

Mantle retired in 1969, and his later years were often fogged by drink. Yet after treatment for alcoholism at the Betty Ford clinic last year, he owned up to the disease and used his enduring celebrity to deplore his former life style. When he could have hidden, he stepped to the plate one more time and told those who admired him, “Don’t be like me.”

He spoke out this year, too, after receiving a transplant to replace his alcohol-ravaged liver. Mantle made a moving plea for organ donations, and pledges from would-be donors soared. The foundation that bears his name has promised to continue promoting organ donations and to finance transplant research.

Mantle played in an era when team travel switched from trains to planes, when television’s increasing popularity showcased his talents to millions of people, when a teen-ager from small-town Oklahoma could conquer the big city. Baseball rode high then. New Yorkers had the Yankees and Mantle, the Giants and Willie Mays, and the Dodgers and Duke Snider, all in center field.

For most who saw him play his way into the Hall of Fame, Mantle’s exploits on the field easily erase the stains of his troubled later life. He played hard, even when injured, and was not a braggart; clearly, he deserved the label “sports hero.” And those who knew only of the recovering alcoholic and the promoter of organ donations have an equally good memory of the man, that of a role model of a different sort.