Mickey Stanley

Mitchell Jack "Mickey" Stanley (born July 20, 1942) is an American former professional baseball player. He played his entire career in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers from 1964-1978. Stanley was known as a superb defensive outfielder over his 15-year career, though he is also remembered for being employed as a shortstop during the last few weeks of the 1968 season, including in all seven games of the 1968 World Series.

Mickey Stanley
Center fielder
Born: (1942-07-20) July 20, 1942
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 13, 1964, for the Detroit Tigers
Last MLB appearance
September 28, 1978, for the Detroit Tigers
MLB statistics
Batting average.248
Home runs117
Runs batted in500
Teams
Career highlights and awards

Early life

Stanley prepped at Ottawa Hills High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Detroit Tigers career

Stanley made his Major League Baseball debut in center field with Detroit on September 13, 1964. He was an excellent defensive player, winning Gold Glove Awards in 1968, 1969, 1970, and 1973. For nine consecutive seasons, from 1966–1974, Stanley played the majority of the Tigers' games in center field. He had speed, a strong arm, good hands, and an ability to take the perfect first step to get a jump on balls headed to the gaps. In both 1968 and 1970, Stanley led all American League (AL) outfielders with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage. His 1973 range factor of 2.74 was well above the league average of 2.02.

Stanley was an adequate but not overwhelming hitter. In 1970, the speedy Stanley was second in the American League with 11 triples. Until 1968, he was used mainly as a defensive replacement, pinch-hitter, and even part-time first baseman. He earned a regular spot in the lineup in 1968 with his slick fielding, .259 batting average (in a year where the league batting average was .230), and hustle, and he led the Tigers with 583 at-bats that season. The fact that outfielder Al Kaline spent part of the year injured also boosted Stanley's playing time.

With the 1968 AL pennant clinched, manager Mayo Smith started Stanley at shortstop for six of the last nine games of the season in preparation for the World Series. In an unorthodox move, Smith planned to replace regular shortstop Ray Oyler (who hit a paltry .135 that year) in favor of Stanley's superior bat. This would also allow the other three power hitting Tiger outfielders (Willie Horton, Jim Northrup, and Kaline) to be in the lineup for every game of the World Series. Prior to this, Stanley had only one start and eight total innings of experience at shortstop, accrued over both games of a doubleheader on August 23 that season.[1] Despite his inexperience at the position, he played adequately, committing two errors in 34 chances with neither error leading to a run. He was used as the starting shortstop for the entire 1968 World Series. Oyler had only a single plate appearance in the series, but was used as a late inning defensive replacement in all four Tigers' series wins. In those four games, Stanley would move to center field to finish the contest. Stanley did not have a stellar series at the plate, hitting .214, but he did triple and score two runs in a pivotal Game 5 comeback win for the Tigers. And his move allowed Horton, Northrup, and Kaline to all play full-time. Horton batted .304 with one home run (HR) and three runs batted in (RBI); Northrup batted .250 with 2 HR, 8 RBI, and a crucial two-run triple in Game 7; and Kaline batted .379 with 2 HR and 8 RBI. In its "The End of the Century" series, ESPN rated Smith's decision to move Stanley to shortstop for the 1968 World Series as #4 of the 10 greatest coaching decisions of the 20th century.[2]

Stanley returned to play 59 games at shortstop the next year after Oyler was allowed to be drafted by the expansion Seattle Pilots. However, the Stanley-at-shortstop experiment did not work long-term. While he played reasonably well defensively (seven errors in 252 chances), his batting average dropped to .235. It recovered when he was returned primarily to the outfield for the remainder of his career. Despite winning 90 games, Detroit finished the 1969 season 19 games out of first.

With the veteran Kaline injured and the arrival of the newly created Designated Hitter rule in 1973 (a spot primarily filled by aging slugger Frank Howard and pinch hitter Gates Brown that year), Stanley reached career highs in games (157, all in the outfield), at-bats (602), and home runs (17). He also played full-time in the outfield for the 1974 season before getting injured and then giving way to budding star Ron LeFlore. From 1975-1978 he completed his career as it had started, as a utility outfielder and late-inning defensive replacement, but this time he made occasional infield appearances, too. During these last four seasons, he played at least a few games at every position on the field except pitcher and catcher.

Stanley is also known for a quote on being struck out by fireballer Nolan Ryan when he no-hit the Tigers in 1973: "Those were the best pitches I ever heard."[3]

In 1516 games over 15 seasons, Stanley posted a .248 batting average (1243-for-5022) with 641 runs, 201 doubles, 48 triples, 117 home runs, 500 RBI, 44 stolen bases, 371 bases on balls, .298 on-base percentage and .377 slugging percentage. He finished his career with an overall .989 fielding percentage. In 11 postseason games, he hit .235 (8-for-34) with 4 runs scored and 2 walks.

After retirement

After retiring from baseball, Stanley signed with the Detroit Caesars professional softball club in 1979. He played part-time as the team advanced to the APSPL World Series but lost to the Milwaukee Schlitz. The Caesars folded after the season, and Stanley continued his career with the Detroit Auto Kings in their only season (1980). The Auto Kings won the Eastern Division of the North American Softball League and advanced to the league finals, where they also lost to the Schlitz.

Stanley now resides in Brighton, Michigan.

Footnotes
  1. "Mickey Stanley 1968 Fielding Game Log". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  2. "Greatest coaching decisions". ESPN. December 23, 1999. Retrieved June 18, 2013.
  3. "Those were the best pitches I ever heard". webcircle.com. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
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See also
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