Mickey Mantle, an almost mythical baseball star who feared he had failed to fulfill career expectations because of alcohol abuse and whose recent years were haunted by self-recrimination, died of cancer early Sunday. He was 63. The former New York Yankees center fielder and a member of baseball’s Hall of Fame said at a July 28 news conference that he had squandered a gifted life and warned admirers he was no role model. “God gave me the ability to play baseball. God gave me everything,” he said. “For the kids out there, don’t be like me.”

Los Angeles Times, Monday, August 14, 1995