Our Favorite Ballplayers: From Mickey Mantle to Jacob deGrom

Drawing by Brian Bateman for “Mickey Mantle Day in Amsterdam”

My first memories as a baseball fan all involve Mickey Mantle. Growing up in upstate New York during the late 1950s, the only team anyone talked about was the Yankees, and, of course, Mickey Mantle was the most popular Yankee of them all. When my friends and I played Wiffle ball in the back yard or organized pick-up games at the nearby field, we all eagerly claimed to be “The Mick”…