New York Yankees centerfielder Mickey Mantle had his breakout season in 1956, as his major league-leading .353 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 runs batted in brought home both the Triple Crown and the first of his three Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Awards. He also hit his second All-Star Game home run that season. During Game 5 of the 1956 World Series—Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers—Mantle kept the perfect game alive by making a running catch of a deep fly ball off the bat of Gil Hodges, and provided the first of the two runs the Yankees would score with a fourth-inning home run off Brooklyn starter Sal Maglie. Mantle's overall performance in 1956 was so exceptional that he was bestowed the Hickok Belt (unanimously) as the top American professional athlete of the year. He is the only player to win a league Triple Crown as a switch hitter.

Offered is a commemoration of what the Baseball Hall of Famer described as his “favorite summer.” Mantle has signed his name, and inscribed “Triple Crown 1956”, in silver marker on a full-color canvas print of a photograph of Mantle in the dugout at Yankee Stadium, in his home white Yankees uniform with navy-blue pinstripes, sitting his left leg crossed on his right leg, left hand on his left ankle, smiling. The canvas is mounted in a 26 x 30-inch gold wood frame and the image captures Mantle in his carefree style during the early stages of his 18-year Major League Baseball career with the Yankees, as he had just assumed the starting role in centerfield in the 1952 season following the retirement of Joe DiMaggio, and the injury bug had not started to affect his game or his spirit. It’s the summer of 1956 and Mantle is on top of the world. This item comes with a LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication.

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