1957 was a year that rocked the baseball world in New York and marked the end of a golden age of America’s pastime in Gotham. Of the three storied teams that had called New York home for more than a half century (the Yankees in the Bronx, the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and the Giants in Manhattan), both the Dodgers and Giants packed their bags and moved west to the greener pastures of California (to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively). Up until that time, baseball fans had been treated to a trio of Hall of Fame sluggers patrolling center field in New York – Mickey Mantle for the Yankees, Duke Snider for the Dodgers, and Willie Mays for the Giants. While Snider was an outstanding player in his own right (an 8x All-Star with 407 career home runs who was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1980), Mantle and Mays were considered not only among the preeminent players of their time, but are arguably two of the greatest center fielders in baseball history. In stacking up their career achievements alongside each other, the question arises:
Who was better – Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays?
