Stan Isaacs: A Time of Mickey Mantle, Me and J. Edgar Hoover

or…Daily Pafkos at the Wall.

In the summer of 1998 CBS’ Channel 2 in New York broke the story that the FBI had investigated Mantle. It cited some 1969 correspondence between President Nixon’s domestic adviser, John Erlichman, and the FBI. New York Times sports media columnist Richard Sandomir noted that I was listed along with Mantle, Billy Martin and Mrs. Branch Rickey.

It turned out to be in connection with the 1969 baseball All Star Game in Washington. Nixon invited a large group of baseball people, executives, former players and the press to a reception the afternoon preceding the night game. The White House had asked for an FBI check on the guests who would be attending the affair and a CBS correspondent had used the Freedom of Information act to acquire copies of the FBI report. It mentioned Mantle and me among others.

Actually, the report stated that “the central files of the FBI reveal no pertinent derogatory information regarding the following individuals.” A long list of blacked-out names followed. Some names that were not blacked out included baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Kansas City Royals owner Ewing Kauffman, NBC executive Carl Lindemann, Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince and Los Angeles nee Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, whom many law-respecting folk might have regarded as a true enemy of the people.