Mantle won't be starting today

This was going to be about The Commerce Comet, #7, Muscles. The Mick. 
But I traded him. 

I traded my Mickey Mantle idea, the Lauren Bacall story and a Broderick Crawford for a story about a good friend, Herb Stupp. 

He may never speak to me again.  Herb’s a big fan of The Mick. Monuments in center field, 520 feet in dead center, old Yankee Stadium big.  

A Herb Stupp baseball card it would go something like this:

The Herb

Rego Park, Queens, NY

1950 to present

6’4’’

Bats right throws right

Back to 180 lbs after beating 
Multiple Myeloma.

Solid glove, never could run.  

Still hits for power.

   
If you mentioned your Dad’s brother, Benny, has a birthday July 9^th.  From then on, every July 9^th, "Isn’t today your uncle Benny’s birthday?” Herb’s memory is that good.

Herb remembers our Sunday softball stats like a computer.  A computer that was hacked into - our batting averages are always a little different than what you think maybe they should be.  It’s just like whenever there’s a mistake on your credit card statement  - it’s never in your favor.  He’s such a nice guy he can get away with it.

Nice to the bone.

He drove his car full of pot-smoking buddies (Herb doesn’t smoke anything) to Woodstock because they needed a ride.  They needed a lift and Herb ended up getting high.

Afterwards, he had the following remarkable line, “Bill Clinton smoked but didn’t inhale.  I inhaled but I didn’t smoke.”

The original creature of habit.  He only drinks – and only serves - white wine. 

He only vacations in New York State. 

When he eats Chinese, he only eats at Szechuan Taste in Chinatown.  Szechuan Taste closed a few years back.  “Too bad we can’t go to Chinatown anymore", Herb sadly said.

Before I forget let me get back to Herb’s memory:

I can’t remember how The Godfather ended (the best one - Godfather I) and I’ve seen it forty times.  Herb remembers everything.  Every year on my birthday I get a kiddie birthday card.  I save them.  My collection goes back forty-five years. Priceless – if you’re into great friend memorabilia.

On the front of each of these forty five cards, birthday boy's age has been scribbled over.  For example: Happy Birthday 8 year old has been changed to Happy Birthday 18 year old. 28 year old. 38 year old. 48 year old.

I have forty five of those cards.  I bet there are a lot of these card collectors. Herb has a lot of friends.

This buddy of mine may be more like Gehrig than Mantle.  More like The Iron Horse - the way he pitched a shutout against the Multiple Myeloma, the way he remembers birthdays, anniversaries, and graduations.  The way he remembers his friends.

Happy Birthday, Herb.  Sorry, Mick.