Piece Of Mickey Mantle's History Moved From Picher

Craig Day, News On 6

PICHER, Oklahoma -- Other than giant chat piles left over from its mining days, there isn't much left in Picher, Oklahoma.  The town is mostly abandoned.

Severe environmental pollution prompted the EPA to buyout homeowners. Picher is now a modern day ghost town.

"It really hurts to drive through Picher and see that it is no more," Jim Ellis said.

The homes left in Picher are forgotten and will be demolished, except for one. It's an old five room, wood framed house. Part of the floor had rotted and it's certainly seen better days.

"We got her up, it was a challenge, but we got her up," Henry Hart, with B & L Trucking, said.

So why is the aging house being saved? It's where Mickey Mantle married his wife in 1951.

Mantle played 18 years with the New York Yankees. He's regarded by many as the best switch hitter of all time and is a member of the baseball hall of fame. The Yankee slugger has deep roots in Oklahoma.

Even though its only traveling less than ten miles to Mantles' hometown of Commerce, it will go a long way toward making the Commerce Sports Authority's goal of creating a Mantle monument park a reality.

One possible location for the house is near a statue that honors the Commerce Comet, outside the high school baseball field.

"We just thought it would be another added attraction for the area and it would be a shame to let it be destroyed," Brian Waybright, Commerce Sports Authority, said.

It will take a lot of work to restore the home, but many say it's worth it. While Picher's heyday is long gone, at least a small part of baseballs glory days will live on.

Specific plans for the sports park are still in the works so it's not known yet when the house could be open to the public.