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Felix Mantilla
Boston Red Sox
Second Base-Outfield
Born: July 29, 1934, Isabella, Puerto Rico
Signed: Signed by the Boston Braves as an amateur free agent before 1952 season
Major League Teams: Milwaukee Braves 1956-1961; New York Mets 1962; Boston Red Sox 1963-1965; Houston Astros 1966
A light-hitting middle infielder for most of his career, Felix Mantilla showed a late career power boost over the last few seasons of his 11 years in the big leagues. Mantilla came up through the Braves system and was Hank Aaron's (#170) roommate in the early to mid-1950s. Both Mantilla and Aaron contributed to the 1957 Braves club that eventually defeated the Yankees in the World Series. He was also indirecly responsible for breaking up Harvey Haddix's (#67) bid for a perfect game on May 26, 1959 when he reached on an error to start the 13th inning. Left unprotected by the Braves in the 1961 expansion draft, Mantilla was drafted by the Mets and he'd serve as their opening day shortstop. He only started 17 games at short, moving over to become the regular third baseman for the woeful Mets in their inaugural season.
Mantilla's late career resurgence came with the Red Sox, where he was traded in December 1962. He made his first and only All-Star Game appearance in 1965, following a 1964 season in which he hit a career high 30 home runs. For his career, Mantilla ended up with most of his appearances at second base (326), but he also played 180 games at shortstop, 156 games in the outfield and 143 games at third base. He was a career .261 hitter with 89 home runs and 330 RBIs.
July 20, 2020 from Scottsdale, AZ - Card #128
I continued to be fairly active with my eBay purchases in July, as we prepared for the abbreviated 60-game baseball season to start. Having been somewhat haphazard in my eBay hunts up until this point, I decided to focus and specifically try to complete the first series of our 1965 Topps set. I added 10 cards to our set from the first series (cards #1 through #88) from Scottsdale Baseball Cards, and the envelope with our new cards arrived on July 20th. As of this writing, we need 39 of the 88 cards from the first series so we're more than half-way there. The priciest card still needed is the A.L. Home Run Leaders card (#5) featuring Mickey Mantle. This Mantilla card entered our collection for $2.
The Card / Red Sox Team Set
The back of the card indicates Mantilla had "at last" been given a chance to play regularly and that was the reason for his power surge in 1964. While that might be the case, he had appeared in over 100 games twice before (in 1959 with the Braves and in 1962 with the Mets) and his numbers came no where close to where they did in his 133 games with the Red Sox in 1964. His two World Series appearances came in 1957 and 1958, with the Braves winning in 1957 and losing in 1958, both times to the Yankees. Mantilla went hitless in 10 World Series at-bats.
1965 Season
The 1965 Red Sox lost 100 games under manager Billy Herman (#251) and Mantilla was their everyday second baseman. Only first baseman Lee Thomas (#111) (151 games) appeared in more games than Mantilla (150 games) and Mantilla led the team with 92 RBIs. He hit .275 with 18 home runs in what was overall a great year for him. He was the starting second baseman for the A.L. All-Stars and went 0 for 2, grounding out to the catcher off Juan Marichal (#50) in the second and flying out to center off Jim Maloney (#530) in the fourth.
Prior to the start of the 1966 season, on April 3rd, Mantilla was traded to the Astros for Eddie Kasko.
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First Mainstream Card: 1957 Topps #188
Topps Flagship Set Appearances (11): 1957-1967
Most Recent Mainstream Card: 1981 TCMA The 1960s II #327
47 - Mantilla non-parallel baseball cards in the Beckett online database as of 7/23/20.
Sources:
Baseball Reference
Beckett Database
SABR
The Trading Card Database
Previous Card: #28 Barney Schultz - St. Louis Cardinals
Next Card: #30 Jim Bouton - New York Yankees
Mantilla's final card came in 1967, although he never played for the Cubs.
ReplyDeleteWhen I posted that card on my 1967 blog, another blogger informed me that Felix had been on the DL to start the 1967 season, and when he came off, the Cubs released him.
Really enjoy the comments you add to these posts, and I always learn something new.
ReplyDelete