Like candy I would think Mantle is the popular choice. I will add that I swung the Louisville Slugger Stan Musial model all four years of my college career. A footnote to Nellie Fox bat—it had an extremely thick handle.
Good choice for a bat. I would guess that it might be the most productive bat of the three but maybe not the most popular to buy for the general public. Mantle was a bigger icon. I remember holding that bat. I thought that the balance was perfect. It was meant to put a hurt on a baseball. The Fox bat I think would be very underrated. It was like a magic wand for directing a baseball where it was pitched. Not many homers in that bat, though.
I knew that he was a good pitcher and when I subsequently looked up his NYY ERA I was shocked at how high it was.
Critics always throw rocks at how many batters Nolan Ryan walked. In his 27 MLB career he had seasons where he had more strikeouts than base runners allowed. How many seasons did this happen? This includes hits, HBPs, and walks.
I remember a story about Ryan, I don't recall the hitter. He was discussing batting against Nolan with an interviewer. He said Nolan threw one in at over 100mph and the ump calls a strike. The batter then said to the ump, "sounded high and outside to me"
Yep. There is a story (that was on Johnny Carson) with Gary Sheffield about his first time facing Ryan he got a stand up double to left center. When he pulled up at second base Ryan pulled up there with him, looked at him and said “that’s the last f*%king time you’ll do that”. Then Sheffield looked at Carson and laughed saying it was the only double he ever got off of Ryan.
