Bob Costas: Mickey Mantle let his guard down one late night

Legendary sportscaster Bob Costas shares his story of inviting Mickey Mantle to stay a few nights at his St. Louis home while in town for a charity event, which led to remarkable candor from the MLB slugger during a late-night conversation. Costas then fast forwards some years to reflect on his eulogies for both Mantle and Stan Musial, and why he only cried during Musial’s eulogy. Plus, NBC sportscaster Mary Carillo emotionally conveys what Costas’ eloquent eulogy for Mickey Mantle still means to her today.
#StLouis #STL #MLB
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Episode debuted nationwide in 2022.
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[@Kevin_Carlson]

The older I get, the more often I get choked up at stories of simple human decency and kindness.

[@tacotom3492]

Only a man who's probably at least middle age understands to a degree what exactly these feelings are . The person having a lot of potential but not maximizing it while seeing someone else with less do more because of life choices. I myself am more like Mickey and I know a Stan the Man type . Luckily for me it's not to late to be close to Stan because you were Mickey for to long . Stan reference would be my father .. who has stuck with me even when he shouldn't have . Boring .. consistent .. high character .. high IQ .. No complaining . Do exactly what they say they will do and are accountable. That's a man . Maybe I'll be 1, one day .. 🤣🤔✌️

[@fenwayify]

Another with simple human decency was and is Jimmy Carter. He will be gone soon, but all he did was act on behalf of others. Most herald Reagan or Kennedy, but really, Carter surpassed them all...

[@RedSpartan32]

Mickey Mantle might have been the most gifted baseball player who ever was or ever will be. The fact that even he understood that he never reached his full potential is tragic. But the fact that he still put up the numbers that he did is incredible.

[@deesley_s_w6551]

Bob Costas is an absolute Treasure...

[@johnkarls2132]

Stan Musial was the epitome of the perfect man!!! Quiet and unassuming and a moral man without tooting his horn about it and a great player as well.

[@michaelkraus4135]

Stan is the MOST UNDERRATED ! BASEBALL PLAYER EVER !

[@ZDiddy7777]

Yea, cause he was from Pittsburgh

[@ZDiddy7777]

Yea, cause he was from Pittsburgh

[@drphot6050]

Chill lol

[@stringtheoryguitars4952]

Only one perfect man ever lived. But Musial was a good one.

[@InvestBetter.]

Stan was "The Man" This illustrates the subtle reasons why His game was just the beginning

[@nicklanese2210]

This tugged at my heart now.

[@cbarrett34]

Bob is a LEGEND

[@garydesantis6755]

If simple gestures can change this world, we should all strive to embrace them. God bless those like Stan Musial.

[@seltonk5136]

God bless stan, mickey, ChewbaccaMom, and lou Gehrig and Jack e. Robinson the first africa baseball ⚾ ever

[@Badtown1988]

Costas is the gold standard. I wish he still did baseball.

[@dburgette7577]

He still does an occasional Yankees game. It’s just as good as ever. Stories filled with great insight.

[@Dennis-kt7pc]

He does baseball games on the MLB Network

[@vintagevinylvets1187]

Amen🙏🏻

[@maxazzopardi7446]

I used to love Bob Costas but like most sports media people he became incredibly political. Almost everyone doesn't care about political opinions on sports commentators.

[@Badtown1988]

@@maxazzopardi7446 I wouldn’t say he became extremely political. He did speak on a few issues that he didn’t really have much business speaking about like guns, but the only other time I can really recall was the Kaepernick stuff, which was related to sports.

[@audtom52]

Great, Great interview. A testament to not only Bob Costas, but to Graham Bensinger who I feel has all the tools and qualities as an heir apparent....Bravo!!

[@nitramsonjack4741]

The small things, are the most remembered.

[@144Donn]

I remember as a teenager watching the Mantle interview: I was not a Yankee fan and did know just how great Mantle was, but I knew who he was. I was so taken and truthfully, the impression left is still with me of the brutal honesty and regret I heard. It was moving and touching and forever impacting. I had never seen anything it in my life- a grown man looking so critically at their life!

[@bugs8484]

Graham Bensinger does an excellent job on his interviews. Mickey Mantle was always one of my favorite players growing up.

[@michaelfrazia4569]

facinating...some people are just so great at their chosen profession

[@moose3880]

Bob Costas is the best !

[@4thlineVoice]

Great interview ! I could listen to Costas tell stories all day and Graham i've watched a number of your interviews well done you move in and out of the conversation with ease and let the guests be the focus which is lost on so many hosts these days.

[@4seeableTV]

He just has a way with words. I can even see him waxing eloquently when ordering at the drive through.

[@SethMacLeod95]

Well said. Graham is a true pro! Humble and considerate! No selfishness

[@brucegelman5582]

Decency towards others is the most revered of all human attributes.I'm with you Bob.

[@mohammedakhundzadah6856]

Stan Musial was my dad’s favorite players so I’ve heard cool stories over the years. He always had a special place in my heart.

[@tommayrant2279]

Bobby Richardson also did a great job speaking at Mantle's funeral.

[@janaavery]

Seeing people win, breakthrough, get well deserved flowers or when an artist gets warranted but unexpected praise, I’m shaken up the same way. I fight those tears often. I should stop doing that; fighting I mean.

[@rickshempoilaustralia6574]

I am from Australia and even we know Bob is genuine and a credit to baseball

[@alvinwagner6085]

Can definitely relate to this. I get much more emotional at good things, good memories.

[@morganwhite2176]

Mickey was too hard on himself. He did the best he could with what he had but talent and genius is always attached to emotions, and combined a person can only do the best they can. He did everything great! I wish he could have wiped the regrets away x

[@leftfieldelvis]

I grew up in St. Louis. When I was 6, I played t-ball and they gave out small trophies for us. Who gave them out? Stan Musial. We were a rinky-dink little YMCA league in south StL. My grandpa, who adored Musial, was there that day with me and I remember seeing them talk. I told this to my Mom years later about what I saw. She said, “Oh yeah, Dad told me about that.” I asked what they talked about. “Grandpa asked Stan,” Mom relayed, “Why he came out to this.” “Well,” Stan replied, “They asked.” One of the greatest baseball players of all time came out to a nowhere city kid league because they asked him to. THAT makes him a great man.

[@jimdavis6824]

I wonder how or why The Costas family moved from Commack, Long Island, home of the Commack Arena and the Long Island Ducks. That said, great information, drom a man I have admiired as a broadcaster. These small, but fabulously informative nuances are some of the best deep looks into the athletes we all came to admire and enjoy. Thank you kind Sir for this interview ad well. One precious attribute that seperates a great person, man, or woman is HUMILITY... Hopefully, many others will experience the same goose- pimples, or bumps as I. Thank you both. JD

[@mysticakhenaton1701]

for Bob Costas.👍👍👍👍

[@richardharris3316]

Miss all appreciate what we have in this man and who he is as a man his integrity his credibility cannot be challenged and so when we refer to him let's all refer to him as a great Bob Costas because he's a dying breed and the stories that he has because he came up in the middle of the old regime and the beginning of the new regime his knowledge about the past is impeccable so I tip my hat to the Great Bob Costas God bless you

[@jeremybiewer5465]

100% agree.. There won't ever be another like him.

[@tommychew6544]

This one speaks to me through my experiences in life, I became accepted thru my time in the Corps by being open to groups that became open to me. It's a story that could be a movie but will never be told, I'm fine with that because I know it and that's all that matters.

[@nickthomas6827]

I wish he'd never stopped his interview show.

[@michaelkraus4135]

The reason a lot of us cried when MICK died is that WE LOST A PIECE OF OUR CHILDHOOD.

[@davidhorton7099]

I have a New Respect for Bob to be able to bring out such Wonderful Fragrance of Memories from Great People, Like Mickey.

[@TheShaund]

Completely amazing!!!!

[@lauraroberts4081]

Pure Class⭐

[@tomace4898]

"I couldn't return to the script; it wasn't in the script." THAT'S Bob Costas...

[@kingkang6877]

Bob's eulogy for Stan Musial is still the best euology I have ever heard

[@danacoleman4007]

this is so good!

[@RossBayCult]

3:52 I get it. Decency can make one choke up more so than a sad story. Kindness is more rare than sadness.

[@4seeableTV]

"Kindness is more rare than sadness" well said

[@philipmattie9932]

Phil Mattie. If Mickey Mantle had been blessed with two good legs He would have set records that no one would have approached!! Consider this: He played only two thirds of his career. He missed one third of his career with severe leg injuries, yet still manage to hit 538 home runs ,won three MVP awards, including the triple crown 👑 award in 1956 , which very few players have ever done. He missed the last three weeks of the 1961 season , when he and Roger Maris were going after Babe Ruth's home run record with a hip injury. If that hadn't happened Mantle and Maris would have both broken Babe's record!!! In my opinion the greatest of all time!!! Rip Mick.

[@wrayvon121]

536

[@gregamerson9172]

I'd throw teddy ballgame in that mix too. He spent 5yrs of his prime in the service

[@zizzie4081]

Billy Crystal's very funny memoir tells a similar heart-wrenching story about Mantle.

[@wayne8276]

Glad I saw this .

[@tomweiland7904]

What a great story.

[@luv2sail66]

Costas is one of the best sports journalists ever…especially for baseball.

[@johnmycroft3065]

quite a wordsmith

[@exdemocrat9038]

Great interview.

[@debbiemullen2574]

I enjoyed that. Very well done, Bob Costas.

[@atomicsmith]

In a sea of click bait, there’s Graham. Thanks for the quality content!

[@Jude74]

Decency chokes me up too. It’s so frighteningly rare.

[@leonardodalongisland]

Holy cow! I didn't realize that Mantle died at 62! I'm about to turn 61. ..thankfully I don't have the liver he did.

[@stevengriffin5349]

Johnny has best story about Mantle ; Micky got 86 Ed out disco , tried use Bench to get him in . My mother-in-law gave me a Mantle book that he autographed .

[@catcruz35]

Now we need an In Depth with Vin Scully

[@joemarshall4226]

Mickey Mantle was a better ballplayer at his peak than Stan. Bill James had Mickey rated as number three all time for peak years.....after Ruth and Honus Wagner......he had Stan rated 9th. But career-wise, Stan is also ninth, whereas Mickey was lower. But Mickey's career Offensive Winning Percentage puts him at number seven, while Stan is at number 12 of MLB ballplayers. Mickey was disappointed because he didn't get a career .300 BA (he had .298), but he didn't realize that he was playing the last five years of his career in a new dead ball era, thanks to the expansion of the strike zone in 1963, which led to lower stats for everyone. In Mickey's last year, Carl Yastremski led the league with a .301 and the guy who came in second hit .290! In 1930, the LEAGUE BA was .303! Mickey's career OBP of .420 is 37 points higher than Mays's .383, and Hank Aaron was in the .370s OBP is a lot more important than BA.

[@davidvenesky9053]

Mickey Mantle could have been the baseball player of all time if he did not get injured or drink as much as he did.

[@orbison]

Mickey may not have been, as he put it, a better player or better man than Muisal, but he ultimately was a better man than most for a different reason. Few of us would have the courage to fully face the flaws and demons Mickey had to face and own up to them as he had in his final years. Even fewer would be able to find humor about it. Billy Crystal told a story about an auction of Mickey's memorabilia not long before Mickey died to raise money for charity. This was after Mickey's liver transplant. After hearing about the auction, Mickey jokingly asked a friend who had scored big at the auction, "How much did my liver go for?"

[@fudgematthew33]

Wow.

[@jaivas16]

I love Costas as the classiest of sports broadcasters...i have noticed he shares more as he ages...just hope somebody in his inner circle is keeping an eye on this and maybe counsels him on disclosing info as he ages further...would be a shame for a legacy to be tarnished in the age of viral over sharing

[@matty4natty]

Baseball used to be so great

[@michaelkraus4135]

STAN MUSIAL - THEEE MOST UNDERRATED MLB PLAYER OF ALL TIME !

[@tucko11]

A great interviewer asks another great interviewer about an interview with the best baseball player of all time !😂

[@Less1leg2]

A great person does not put him or herself ahead of others. It's why so many Medal of Honor recipients get asked about their recognition reward. Almost to the letter all of them say the same thing. Humble and direct, it wasn't for me I did it. I see this humility aspect being lost in modern superstars. Humility is there for some but a greater number of Superstars need all the spotlight on them. The GOAT aspect supercedes lifting your team up for greater success. The " all about me" superstar player, demanding more touches of the ball. It's not about the "win", its all about my making stats to be the GOAT. It's right now happening before us in NBA basketball. You have a guy who is a HoF quality player. He's done so much but humility is not his game. His game is to be the GOAT but at what cost is it? The GOAT is what the public decides to bestow upon the Player. Even then, the GOAT is only pertinent to the time or era that we the fans make of any person's longevity at the top of the game. No Player decides whom the GOAT is, that folks belongs exclusively to the fans. Mickey Mantle was a massively great player. As time went by he abused himself with the luxuries he could afford and was denied as a poor kid growing up without much. It's called appreciating life's measures. Stan Musial appreciated life's little things. Each Stan and Mickey ran down a road to a given choice. Stan humbly appreciated his starting point, the path he took to the end of his career, and reflected fondly because of the path he took. Mickey afterwards when he was talking with Bob Costas privately. He reflected back, I took another path. Over my life time as a player, it had benefits but it also brought regrets. Stan had no regrets. But that's life isn't it in a nutshell. We are all given paths to choose. At the end of our chosen path, will you be Stan Musial or Mickey Mantle?

[@nickn.3953]

If he doesn't do Vin Scully's eulogy, it will be almost as horrible as losing Vin in the first place.

[@PakRT48]

Who do you think should do Costas' eulogy when the time comes?

[@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879]

Nick n. Who the fuck made Costas the go to eulogy guy for vin scully or Ali or Mickey mantle ? Or Stan Musial? And barely knew Musial ? Who the fuck gave him the right? He didn’t even know mantle ? Bob’s Musial funeral eulogy was scripted and the pause between the words was an old actors trick. Horribly cringeworthy. He joked about how phony it was during his interview on Gilbert gottfrieds podcast. He said it was all phony. Not a good guy

[@joemckim1183]

Well Costas was a good friend to Musial and Mantle so it made sense for him to do the eulogies for them. Not sure if he had the same relationship with Vin. But if Jack Buck had still been around when Stan died he probably would've been a good choice for that job also.

[@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879]

@@joemckim1183 he needs to stop using athletes death to promote himself.

[@garylovio1180]

I fully get why it chokes him up.

[@davidmanners8638]

When I watched Bob Costas’ eulogy for Mickey Mantle for the first time, I experienced the same feeling, the same emotional reaction, as watching Whitney Houston’s rendition of the national anthem at Super Bowl XXV. Both are so well done in every regard that you know you are watching greatness, something of historical significance, an artistic masterpiece performed by a legend. These moments live forever, and are still inspiring today.

[@billyhall53]

Mickey was my boyhood hero. With all his flaws, he still is. I remember listening to whitney houston sing the national anthem at super bowl XXV. IMO it was the greatest rendition ever. Until now i have never heard anybody else give her such high praise for this beautiful song. Thanks for bringing it up.

[@richstex4736]

Stan Musial, Pee Wee Reese, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yastrzemski; all men of high character & quiet dignity.

[@Malouco]

Mantle walked with a ganster lean too

[@andybrimer8216]

So I had Mickey Mantle staying at my house and I invited Stan Musial over for dinner....my Saturday nights don't look like that

[@wrayvon121]

I had Yogi Berra staying ay my house and I invited over Ted Williams.

[@cammriggs]

these types of stories are what the game of baseball actually represents. we're sitting in the middle of this lockout that has gone on far too long and has both sides fighting over, what i believe is, petty nonsense. yes the economics of the game are really important but baseball is one of the only sport that can take something so fundamental and ordinary, and turn these players in to giants. there is no other game like it.

[@gregoryphillips3969]

For me except for Howard Cosell, Bob Costas is the greatest sports journalist ever. He is the greatest of this generation easily and it's not close.

[@keefriff99]

Bob is a great broadcaster and storyteller. What an amazing life he’s had.

[@SuperToughnut]

I wish Bob Costas was my neighbor.

[@MP-tf7cc]

😲

[@randyjames693]

Mickey Mantle was a great teammate......he was a bit of tragic hero......for baseball. Joe DiMaggio was tragic in his own right as well.

[@isdochere]

How come this isn’t on the full episode?

[@softhotty]

I'll get shot down for this statement, but I'll say it anyway. You can tell he's impressed with himself, atleast he comes off that way to me. That's why I can't put him up there with the McKays, Maddens and Summeralls. He is very good don't get me wrong...one of the best for sure.

[@jjb9739]

I always thought that too.

[@ninosmishail7908]

Where can I watch full episodes? My zip code is 85022.

[@spacecowboyj]

Lmao

[@MrAitraining]

Leave your phone number, he'll call you..

[@mookie449]

Mantle's favorite inning was the bottom of the fifth.

[@daviclar867]

If not a heavy drinker who knows what his numbers would've been after his career was over.

[@richreed9927]

Heh, hehe, unless

[@robertochapa9735]

I love you bob but stop hating on my Astros.

[@extanegautham8950]

What a bizarre pronounciation of Musial and Mantle by this interviewer @5:20...

[@robertgrayraleigh]

Hey Bob. Mickey Mantle would be a huge Trump fan -- no doubt. He'd be shy about it though. Does that make you hate him now?

[@okjoe5561]

Bob Costas would have been so much better as a sportscaster if he didn't feel the need to inject his political opinions into the game.

[@robertgrayraleigh]

Costa's religion seems to be man-made

[@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879]

Bob Costas should stop doing eulogies for famous athletes and broadcasters as if he is the final say on their lives. Who made him arbiter of their feelings or history. Costas self appointed arbiter of dead athletes is absolutely shameful

[@andystrub7930]

Optics, there are no words for idiots like you accept pathetic. If you don't know why Costas gave those eulogies then shut your mouth and don't comment on them. Costas is the greatest sportscaster and TV personality to ever live and an he is a walking encyclopedia of baseball. Meaning he was the perfect man and the only man asked to speak at both of those funerals and give a eulogy. Two of the best and most heartfelt eulogies ever given and that's been echoed by hundreds of thousands of people.

[@danieljp3048]

He literally gave the eulogy at Mantle’s funeral, at the family’s invitation.

[@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879]

@@danieljp3048 no they never asked him. He decided to do it and then pre announced to press. He is a dirt bag

[@daveyboy_]

@@danieljp3048 we know he gave tbe eulogy , everybody know's he did the eulogy. I dont think you know where when or how to use the word , 'Literally '.

[@LardGreystoke]

@@opticscolossalandepicvideo4879 Don't need to worry about him doing your eulogy.

[@Grandizer8989]

Hate how Graham looks like Ben Shapiro

[@steveandersen2291]

Costas is too arrogant.

[@kerrytodd3753]

Bob Costas….what a joke.

[@rayray4192]

Terrible husband, terrible father, terrible human.