Mickey Mantle

English

a monument to Mickey Mantle

Etymology

After the highly-regarded American baseball player Mickey Charles Mantle (1931–1995).

Noun

Mickey Mantle (plural Mickey Mantles)

1. A popular hero and champion in a field.
   • 1957 September 20, “Egged On: Meggi Lays Claim To Another Title”, in Park City Daily News:

     Meggi O'Day, the Mickey Mantle of the poultry world, has added another championship to her list of titles. The little Leghorn hen laid another egg....

   • 1974 October, Boys' Life, volume 64, number 10, page 9:

     It isn't easy to explain why Danny Blancheflower, the Mickey Mantle of English soccer 15 years ago, says, "Your country is a great frontier town and you have great big attitudes toward things

   • 1979, Bill Neville, Real steel: an investor's and philosopher's guide to the American automobile, page 22:

     This does not mean that the 1940 Buick was the Mickey Mantle of automobiles, but it was an all-star

   • 1990, Emily Couric, The Trial Lawyers: The Nation's Top Litigators Tell How They Win, page 163:

     "The engineers that were put to work on this are ... the Willie Mayses and the Mickey Mantles of the engineering profession. They are devoted, intelligent, honest engineers."

   • 1998 February 23, Kristina Dorsey, “'Damn Yankees' Not A Homer, But A Solid Hit”, in The Day:

     "Damn Yankees" isn't the Mickey Mantle of musical comedies

   • 2004, Business week, numbers 3914-3922:

     Says James Swanson, chief investment strategist at MFS Investment Management: "They are the Mickey Mantles of the investing world." Harvard Management has achieved this with a formula that bears little resemblance to that of the average

   • 2005, R. Simmons, Real Life Lessons for Teens:

     Nearly all the answers were entertainers or athletes, the Mickey Mantles of your generation - until Sept. 11, 2001

   • 2005, David Ansel, The soup peddler's slow & difficult soups: recipes & reveries, page 148:

     ... the Mickey Mantle of soups, then avgolemono, if you'll humor me, is the Eddie Murray of soups

   • 2007, Christopher Russo with Allen St. John and Matthew Shepatin, The Mad Dog Hall of Fame, page 137:

     And that combination of Hair and efficiency really helped him [Johnny Unitas] become one of football's first television stars, kind of the Mickey Mantle of professional football.

Further reading

• Mickey Mantle on Wikipedia.Wikipedia