Mickey Mantle

Mickey Mantle is my hero. Not for all the home runs or batting titles won. He is my hero because near the end he stood up in front of the whole country and took responsibility for his past actions: alcoholism and not being a better father. All so-called “victims of society” should follow his example. God bless Mickey Mantle. Rest in peace.

GREG H. WRANIC

Long Beach

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* On Aug. 11 I turned on the radio and was shocked to hear that Jerry Garcia had passed through the curtain of life and joined the ever-growing celestial rock band. I was again saddened, Aug. 12, by the passing of Phil Harris.

I awoke Aug. 13 to the cruelest reality of all--Mickey is gone. He was proof that everyone had a chance to be great. He was the subject of so much of childhood conversation. He was baseball. Who can forget the greatest single season of all time? The year when Mickey and Roger Maris slugged it out for the right to claim the Babe’s home run record. Roger Maris won the title, but Mickey Mantle won our hearts.

I sit here weeping over my lost heroes, my lost youth, and the hundreds of Mickey Mantle baseball cards I stuck between the spokes of my bike. I knew he would live forever. I have nothing now but his memory, and for all his faults, I prefer to remember Mickey as I did as a youth.

DAN O’BRIEN

Twentynine Palms

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* Now that we seem to have forgiven Mantle and all of his faults due to his ills, when will we stop being hypocrites and forgive Pete Rose’s faults and elevate him to the Baseball Hall of Fame where he belongs?

STANLEY ESKIN

Laguna Hills