On Heaven's Home Team: Mickey Mantle

Saturday marks the 10th anniversary of Yankee great Mickey Mantle's passing into eternity. Known for his hard play on the field and off, the last years of Mantle's life were marked by health problems and as he once told Bob Costas, ''a void in his heart and an emptiness inside'' after the 1985 death of his friend and former Yankee great Roger Maris.

But few know about the change that transformed this former alcoholic into a follower of Jesus Christ.

WorldNetDaily features the story of how Pat Summerall and Bobby Richardson refused to give up on their friend and saw him come to Christ late in his life.

WorldNet Daily reports: "Richardson vividly remembers visiting Mantle a few weeks before his death Aug. 13, 1995. One of the first things that Mantle wanted to tell his former teammate was that he ''now trusted in Christ as his Lord and Savior.'' Mantle assured him by quoting to Richardson and his wife one of the more famous verses from the Bible, John 3:16: ''For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.''

Mantle's name has been written in the records of baseball history, but the most important place his name was found is in the Lamb's Book of Life. While those on earth mark the day of his death, let us who believe as he did mark 10 years and counting in the realms of glory!