Offered are 218 photographs taken by noted baseball photographer Phil Sarno between 1959 and 1969, the vast majority of which feature Mickey Mantle and the New York Yankees during his last 10 seasons. Also included are black and white copy negatives of 108 of the images represented and 15 original color negatives of the 1992 Chicago White Sox that include Frank Thomas, Tony Gwynn and others. Several of his Mickey Mantle images later graced a well-known set of postcards in the 1970s. In the early 1990s, Sarno had read a newspaper story about a baseball collector and business owner in St. Louis that had done work with Mickey Mantle, and it prompted him to create the offered archive of prints and negatives. After his passing in 1993, Phil's son delivered the archive to the collector with the message that Phil simply thought he would appreciate it. The archive was preserved for more than thirty years, until now.
Phil Sarno worked in the newspaper business starting in the late 1930s, before serving as an accredited war correspondent under General Douglas MacArthur's command. He later worked as a sportswriter and photographer for the Hazleton Plain Speaker in Hazelton, Pennsylvania. From the late 1950s to the late 1960s, Sarno would travel to Philadelphia and New York in his duties for the paper, covering the Phillies and the Yankees. With his press credentials, he had wonderful access to all the Yankees, including Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto and New York players. Additionally, he took advantage of seeing most of the future Hall of Famers of the era as they came through to play the Yanks and Phillies--Ted Williams, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax and Hank Aaron to name a few. He also covered historic events at Yankee Stadium, including the 1960 All-Star Game, the 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1964 World Series and both "Mickey Mantle Days", in 1965 and again, after his retirement, in 1969. The photos, all printed in the early 1990s and technically Type III by PSA/DNA standards, are all 8x10 inches and present in Near Mint to Mint condition.