Despite their personality differences, Mantle and fellow slugger Roger Maris – the M&M Boys – were closer than many imagined. Both were miner’s sons and good enough football prospects to be recruited by the University of Oklahoma. Mantle’s public popularity, ironically, benefitted when Maris broke Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record in 1961, since many felt Mantle was the logical successor to the Babe. “I became an American hero in 1961 because he beat me, “ Mantle is quoted as saying in “The Last Boy.” When Maris struggled with illness the last two years of his life, Mantle made a point of calling Maris once a week. He also was a pallbearer at Maris’s funeral in Fargo, N.D., on a bitterly cold day. (The night before the temperature had dipped to -18 degrees F.)
