Mantle glove after discovery that he was never on the Kiinston roster in 1978:
"hi bob, you're not out anything, glove is exactly what it was stated to be. i was friends with the local radio station owner in kinston who was friends with the new owner in 78 and he hooked me up to play several games without even being carried on the roster as i lived in seven springs n.c.(15 miles from kinston) and was available to play on site without room/board. minor league ball was like the wild west back then and you could get away with a lot of things that would not fly now. the characteristics of the glove match up perfectly for a mantle also. lin
Lin, here's the way it works in the minors: in 1933, 1950, 1978. If you play with a professional club, you SIGN a professional contract! Period. You are ADDED to the roster. You have to have the permission of the manager at Kinston, in that case it happened to be Lee Mazzone who happens to be one of the most respected pitching coaches (Braves 1990s -2005) in our most recent playing era. Hmmm "Radio station guy" hooks me up" to the new owner guy who informs Mazzone, whose team is in the bottom of the standings (and finishes behind Alexandria by one game by season's end) that he's to take on a guy who's friends with everyone. And he's to pitch against Alexandria and walks Mickey Mantle Jr. three times purposely, a guy batting under .200. What was the score in that game? Oh, by the way, we found out that on that date Lin says this game took place, Kinston was not even playing Alexandria. Well, I guess, a source we could check on this with lee Mazzone> I'm sure that game made an impression on him
Nope no wild west. A very buttoned down professional Class A Carolina League, Professional team and manager who wants to win. This was not the House of David adding pickup players. that scenario wouldn't fly now or in 1978 or 1919 in professional baseball. Well for verisimilitude sake Lin might have lived in Seven Springs and gee it was nice of him to pitch and help out Mazzone and his team without the new owner having to worry about room and board.
And there were some pretty good players in the league that year who eventually made it to the bigs: Ozzie Virgil, Wally Backman, George Vukovich. Lin probably got to pitch against them too.
