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What If Mickey Mantle Had Used Steroids?
By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

The all-time poster boy for “playing hurt” in baseball has to be Mickey Mantle, the New York Yankees’ legendary center fielder.

A switch hitter that hit with stunning power from both sides of the plate, Mantle suffered for years with bad legs.

Looking back at his overall performance, it’s nothing less than amazing that he soldiered through so many campaigns, especially toward the end of his career.

I found myself wondering what his lifetime statistics would have been if he had the benefit of steroids and modern medicine.

Would he have beaten Babe Ruth’s overall mark of 714 home runs?

And during that phenomenal summer when he and Roger Maris were neck and neck in the home run derby, what would their numbers have looked like had they both been juiced?

Speaking of juice, if you can believe the presentation of Mantle in the movie, “61” that chronicled Maris’ record setting season, the great Mantle was doing a lot of self-medicating with alcohol.

What a downer, figuratively and literally.

With the steroid cocktails devised by today’s trainers and gym rats, Mantle probably would have felt only minor discomfort and he would have had monster strength. He might have passed on using the bottle, altogether.

What do you think the extra percentage of effectiveness is for a power hitter who has steroids coursing through his bloodstream?

Is he going to hit 10 more homers a season, or 20, or 30?

I’ve just been talking about Mantle and Maris.

Henry Aaron DID beat Ruth’s record for lifetime homers.

Would he have reached 1,000 or more?

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone(r) and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations from Santa Monica to South Africa. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

For information about coaching, consulting, training, books, videos and audios, please go to: http://www.customersatisfaction.com

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