Unmatched Mickey Mantle Memorabilia Collection

New Orleanian Steve Lane has unmatched Mickey Mantle memorabilia collection 

Contributed by Richard Cuicchi 

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Like a lot of kids in the 1950s and 1960s, Steve Lane began collecting baseball cards at an early age. In his case, it was as a 6-year-old in Brooklyn, New York. At first, he wanted to keep only the cards of New York Yankees players from the boxes of nickel-pack cards his grandfather bought for him.  

As he got older, his interests eventually led to focusing on the Yankees’ iconic star Mickey Mantle, and he went far beyond collecting baseball cards. Now, over sixty years later, Lane has amassed the most comprehensive collection of Mantle memorabilia that traces the legendary player’s entire life. 

Lane’s extensive collection encompasses baseballs, photos, bats, gloves, and jerseys, many of which are game-used and autographed by Mantle. He possesses magazines, yearbooks, and original newspaper headlines, all of which feature the legendary player. His baseball card collection eventually evolved into a complete run of Mantle’s Bowman and Topps baseball cards from 1951 to 1968, which are among the most desirable cards in the hobby today.

Lane’s favorite Mantle card is his highly-coveted 1952 Topps card. 

He says, “I have been lucky to be in the right place at the right time with regard to acquiring some of my most unusual items.”  

One such example occurred when Yankee Stadium was renovated in the mid-1970s. The law firm for which Lane was employed was the attorney for the company performing the demolition inside the stadium. Lane was told he could take artifacts from the stadium that would have otherwise been thrown away. This is how he managed to acquire the original architectural blueprints for the original Yankee Stadium which opened in 1923. He also snared one of the original stadium chair seats. He reflects now, “Many items were just there for the taking. Looking back, I wish I had gotten more.” 

Lane added, “I was acquiring Mantle memorabilia before it really became popular. I had hobby acquaintances who would call me whenever they came across a unique piece.” 

One of his rarest items is a game-used baseball that features what is believed to be Mantle’s first-ever sports autograph. When Mantle was playing in his first professional season as a 17-year-old with Independence in the Class D Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri League in 1949, he signed the ball one of his teammates, pitcher Bob Mallon, had saved to commemorate his first pitching win.  

Lane’s collection dates back even earlier in Mantle’s life. He has acquired school-days photos of Mantle, including class pictures and athletic team photos. Not surprisingly, Mantle also played football and basketball for his hometown Commerce High School in Oklahoma. 

When asked what his favorite collectible is, Lane says, “I attended an old-timers baseball game in the Louisiana Superdome in 1984. I had a friend in the city who arranged for me to get Hank Aaron’s signature. The ball I brought already contained Mantle’s and Willie Mays’s autographs which I acquired while attending a fantasy camp. There was one more autograph I really wanted on that ball—Joe DiMaggio’s. He didn’t play in the game but hung out with the other old-timers. After the game, my friend and I went to the area in the Superdome where DiMaggio was supposed to be. We asked one of the stadium attendants if DiMaggio had already left. He said, ‘I don’t know.’ So, we waited and waited, but DiMaggio never came out. By this time there was no one else left in the Superdome. It was about 11:00 pm. DiMaggio finally emerged and was very cordial in signing my ball.” Lane says the ball is special because he obtained all four autographs himself. 

Lane ‘s favorite type of collectible is anything that belonged to Mantle. He acquired Mantle’s Rawlings baseball glove used in the 1963 season. Lane treasures a photo of current Yankee slugger Aaron Judge holding that glove. 

Lane recalls Mantle’s popularity being off the chart during his playing career. He was involved in advertising for all sorts of products and businesses--board games, bubblegum machines, pencil sets, cigarettes, baseball equipment, restaurants, and more. Lane’s collection includes artifacts from many of those endeavors. He says, “Of course, there was no social media in Mantle’s days, yet he seemed to be omnipresent. If he were playing today, he would arguably be more popular than Judge, Ohtani, and other major-league stars.” 

Realizing the significance and rarity of items in his collection, Lane has loaned unique items to the museum at Yankee Stadium. He is proud to see his name, on a plaque prominently displayed in the museum, among other noteworthy contributors such as Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, and Mickey Mantle’s sons David and Dan. 

Lane, a retired attorney, wanted to share his collection with other hobbyists and fans of the game, so he authored a classy-looking book during the COVID period. It contains photos and background stories of his most cherished items. The book is titled Mickey Mantle: A Life in Memorabilia, The Steven Lane Collection. 

Now 70 years old, Lane has lived in New Orleans since 1977. He admits he still has an eye for new additions to his collection. At the same time, he has recognized it was time to also downsize, so he has begun offering parts of his collection for sale through auction houses, including the 1949 autographed baseball.  

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Richard Cuicchi writes for CrescentCitySports.com where this article was first published. He can be reached at richard@thetenthinning.com.