Drury - Fort Lauderdale: playground of the stars

Known as the M&M Boys, Mickey Mantle (left) and Roger Maris, shown here in 1962, provided the home-run power to the 1961 World Series champion New York Yankees. In 1961, Mantle hit 54 home runs before taking sick, and Maris broke Babe Ruths record of 60 home runs by hitting the record-breaking ball on October 1, 1961, in the last game of the season, against the Boston Red Sox. Maris was Major League Player of the Year in 1961 and ended his career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968. Maris and Dale Murphy are the only two-time MVPs who are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Courtesy New York Yankees.)

Many agree that Edward Charles Ford, better known as Whitey, was the greatest left-handed pitcher in Yankee history. Whitey Ford (left) is shown in the photograph at right with the author at Coral Ridge Country Club in 1975. Ford was with the New York Yankees for 12 seasons, and his catcher for most of that time was Yogi Berra, who said Ford was not only a thinking mans pitcher, but also a great competitor. Mickey Mantle hit 536 home runs in his 17 seasons with the Yankees. He used that same powerful swing on many golf courses in Fort Lauderdale. The bottom photograph is one of Mantle hitting a long iron during a tournament at Coral Ridge Country Club in 1967. Mantle retired from the Yankees in 1968 after spending his entire 18-year career with the team and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

In 1964, Ralph Houk (on the left) was named the general manager of the New York Yankees and liked Florida so much that he later made Pompano Beach his home. While retired from baseball, Joe DiMaggio was part of the coaching staff in those years. DiMaggio, who was married to Marilyn Monroe for 274 days in 1954, invited Monroe to visit him during spring training in February 1961, and the author picked her up at the airport and brought her to the Yankee Clipper Hotel. That was the last times Joe saw her; she died in August 1962. (Courtesy News York Yankees.)

To help promote the Fort Lauderdale beaches, Yankees super-star shortstop Phil Rizzuto agreed in 1965 to put on a bathing suit and pose for this publicity shot. The above photograph includes three of the authors children, who volunteered to be models (for free, of course). Chris Drury was pitching, John Drury was catching, and Sue Drury acted as the umpire. In the bottom photograph, Sue Drury called strike threeyoure out on Rizzuto, known affectionately as the Scooter. Pitcher Chris Drury and his brother John Drury agreed with their sister, but not Phil, who was considered one of the great shortstops in baseball.