Mantle’s Hair Sold

One by one, the auctioneer sold off bits and pieces of Mickey Mantle’s life: a clump of his hair ($6,900), his golf clubs ($18,000), the handwritten remarks he made while dying in a Dallas hospital ($21,000).

Greer Johnson, Mantle’s agent and lover, sat in the front row of the crowded hotel ballroom, her thin lips frozen in a small smile while she listened to the bidding.

“This is about closure,” Johnson said, as the auctioneer peddled her Mantle-signed license plate for $1,300, his American Express card for $6,500, his passport for $8,000. “For me, this is about moving on.”

For Mantle’s family, who had objected to the auction, it was about capitalizing on Mantle’s death. They were upset about some of the personal items that were offered - things such as eyeglasses and medicine bottles - that Johnson agreed to take off the block.

Baltimore Orioles second baseman Roberto Alomar is recuperating from surgery on an injured left shoulder that prevented him from batting right-handed most of last season.

Dr. Lewis Yocum performed the arthroscopic surgery in Inglewood, Calif., last week to repair the cartilage of the shoulder socket.