THE ASSOCATED PRESS

Dallas-Mickey Mantle Jr. died of cancer yesterday, five years after the disease killed his father. He was 47.

Mantle Jr. had been in and out of R.H. Dedman Memorial Hospital since about August, said Dorothy Weber, a New York lawyer who represents the family in trademark and licensing.

Mantle Jr. was a switch-hitting center fielder like his Hall of Fame father but never made it to the majors. He spent several years in the minors for the New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers.

Like his father and brothers, he also became an alcoholic. The entire family shared their battle with the addiction in the book, "A Hero All His Life." In recent years, he worked in Dallas with brothers Danny and David at the Mickey Mantle Foundation, which promotes organ donation.

Mantle Jr. was the oldest of the Hall of Famer's four sons and the second to be stricken with cancer. The youngest Mantle son, Billy, had Hodgkin's disease before he died of a heart attack in 1994 at 36.

Mickey Mantle died of liver cancer in 1995 at 63 after receiving a liver transplant. The Yankee great's father, grandfather and uncle all died of Hodgkin's disease in their early 40s.

In 1998, Mantle Jr. had a malignant tumor removed from his neck and had 36 radiation treatments. The tumor was discovered when he was having trouble swallowing.

He is survived by his brothers, his daughter, Mallory, and his mother, Merlyn, all of Dallas.