MANTLE LEGACY GOES ON : POPULARITY HASN'T WANED.

Byline: Richard Sandomir The New York Times

In the year since Mickey Mantle's death, the commerce surrounding his name has barely diminished.

Mantle remains a formidable icon with a long future through a spate of new books, a reissue of all his baseball cards, strong sales of his widely dispersed memorabilia, an organ donation awareness program sustained by the former Yankee's family, and the New York City restaurant in his name.

``The real question is whether he becomes an Elvis or a Marilyn,'' said Marty Appel, a spokesman for the Topps Co. ``He has the real potential.''

Mantle's achievements may never be deemed notorious enough for such cult status. He inspired no conspiracy theories (well, except for what really happened during the 1957 fight at the Copacabana) and no one has spotted him cavorting with aliens on supermarket lines. But whatever stands behind his allure - athletic deeds, charm or his dignified fight against alcoholism and cancer - his memory is on a clear path toward a long afterlife.

Just before his death, Mantle received the sixth-highest ``Q'' rating - which measures recognition and popularity - among 350 sports stars in a survey by Marketing Evaluations of Port Washington, N.Y. Only Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Willie Mays and Magic Johnson received higher Q's.

``There is a special connection or sympathy attached to him that only a few players have ever known,'' said Mickey Herskowitz, who wrote the best seller ``All My Octobers'' with Mantle in 1994 and collaborated on a soon-to-be-published memoir, ``A Hero All His Life,'' with Mantle's widow and their sons.

A scan of bookstore shelves shows at least six Mantle books published since his death, from another Herskowitz work, ``Mickey Mantle: An Appreciation'' and David Falkner's ``The Last Hero'' to ``Mantle Remembered,'' excerpts from past Sports Illustrated articles, and ``Letters to Mickey.''

``A Mantle book is an automatic sale,'' said Marty Laufer, the owner of Sportswords, a sports-only bookstore on the Upper East Side. ``He's the man.''

No surer symbol of the Oklahoma-born slugger's appeal is the addition of a monument in his honor at Yankee Stadium to be unveiled Sunday. It stands to the left of those in Monument Park for Babe Ruth (erected in 1949), Lou Gehrig (1942) and Miller Huggins (1934).

``The planning for it started shortly after he died,'' the Yankee spokesman Rick Cerrone said of the Finnish granite monument that stands five feet high, three feet wide, and weighs 3,000 pounds.

``People have known that when Mickey or Joe DiMaggio passed, there'd be a monument for them.'' A plaque that honored Mantle on a special day in 1969 will be removed from the park.

In addition, Rawlings has produced a special baseball with a facsimile of Mantle's signature and uniform number, 7, and blue stitching that will be used during Sunday's Oakland-Yankees game. It is available on the memorabilia market for $29.95.

``The only other time that that has happened was during Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2,131st consecutive game,'' Cerrone said.

Mantle's popularity during his post-playing days has been easy to view through the prism of his trading cards. Except for the rarest of tobacco cards from the early 20th century, few players' cards are more valuable to collectors than Mantle's Topps 1952 card. Depending upon their condition - ranging from merely mint to mint and perfectly centered - they can be worth from $17,250 to $50,000.

``Mickey Mantle never goes out of style,'' said Tom Mortensen, the editor of Sports Collectors Digest. ``People love him, regardless.''

Topps drew on that timeless appeal this season by randomly inserting reprints of Mantle's 19 Topps or Bowman cards, plus a specially made 20th, into its 1996 card set. With industry sales down since the players' strike, the Mantle inserts led Topps to a healthy but conservative recovery.

``It not only helped Topps, but helped rejuvenate the baseball card market a bit,'' Doug Kale, editor of Sports Card Trader, said of the Mantle cards, which are worth upward of $300 each on the secondary market. ``They brought collectors who had dropped out back into the market, and brought in new ones.''

In his latter years, Mantle signed bats, balls and pictures that virtually flooded a welcoming market. That merchandise has held up well in a sagging market, and more valuable items that were used in games have displayed greater strength.

``Real game-used uniforms, balls and bats, the $1,000 and up stuff, is 25 to 100 percent higher in value since he died,'' said Joshua Evans, president of Leland's Auction House. He said a Mantle Gold Glove award recently sold for $90,000, compared with $25,000 for Mays and $3,850 for Dave Parker. A 1961 pinstriped Mantle flannel uniform is worth about $75,000.

Mantle was formidable enough in the market to make an exclusive deal several years ago to sign merchandise for Upper Deck, an agreement that ended in dispute recently when an arbitrator awarded $4.9 million to Mantle's estate. Upper Deck has appealed the ruling in federal district court.

``The arbitrator erred in many respects,'' said Camron Bussard, an Upper Deck spokesman. But Roy True, the Mantle family lawyer, said: ``They didn't pay Mickey. Simple as that.''

The Hall of Famer's family has formed two organizations, Four M Enterprises, to license products bearing Mantle's likeness and signature, and the Mickey Mantle Foundation.

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