Considered by many the greatest player in baseball history, Willie Mays died Tuesday at 93. He had been the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
A star for the Giants in both New York and San Francisco, Mays was looking forward to Thursday’s Rickwood Field game, the first major-league game scheduled to be played at the 1910 Birmingham ballpark once used by the Birmingham Black Barons, the Negro American League team that once employed him.
The Westfield, AL native hit 660 home runs, sixth on the career list, and won 12 Gold Gloves for his stalwart play in center field, where his speed, throwing arm, and patented basket catch made him a standout for decades.
An All-Star 24 times, he was the first player to top 300 stolen bases and 300 home runs. Mays had the most putouts by an outfielder (7,095), most home runs by a center-fielder (640), and homers in extra innings (22).
He hit his first home run against fellow Hall of Famer Warren Spahn in 1951 and, 12 years later, a 16th-inning solo shot against Spahn that ended a scoreless duel between Spahn and Juan Marichal on July 2, 1963, in San Francisco.
In addition, he was so brilliant in the All-Star Game that Ted Williams once said, “They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays.”
Among his All-Star records were most runs (20), hits (23), extra-base hits (8), and total bases (40).
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The former Rookie of the Year was twice elected National League Most Valuable Player. He led his league in home runs and stolen bases four times each, adding a batting crown and World Series ring to his collection of trophies.
According to Baseball Reference, his average over 162 games – the length of the current season – was 36 home runs, 103 runs batted in, and a .301 average.
The Sporting News named him its Player of the Decade for the ‘60s, when other candidates included Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente.
Mays started and ended his career in the same city but with different teams. He broke in with the New York Giants, then managed by Leo Durocher, in 1951 but finished with the 1963 New York Mets.
His highest salary was $165,000, earned in each of his last two years, but he made only $12,500 in 1954, the year he made his most famous catch, grabbing a titanic drive by Cleveland’s Vic Wertz in dead center field at the Polo Grounds.
That was easily the most memorable play of an unexpected World Series sweep by the Giants over the Indians.
At 5-10 and 170 pounds, Mays did not have the size of such current sluggers as Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton. But he used his eyes, arms, and legs to produce enormous power even though the prevailing winds of San Francisco played such havoc with his drives that he fell short of the both Babe Ruth’s record and the 700 Home Run Club. In addition, he missed nearly two full seasons to military service.
The long-planned June 20 game between the Giants and Cardinals at Rickwood Field, originally set to be a celebration of all things Mays, will now become a memorial tribute. The Birmingham Black Barons were his first professional team.
"All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began," said Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement.
"Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime."
Mays hit four home runs in a game in 1961 and twice topped 50 in a season – goals never accomplished by long-time home run king Henry Aaron, who topped Ruth’s career record of 714 in 1974.
Mays and Willie McCovey, a left-handed hitter who also landed in Cooperstown, formed one of the game’s most devastating slugging tandems.
"He did so many remarkable things, it actually became routine," said McCovey after hearing of his teammate’s passing. "We were spoiled. He'd make plays that people would talk about for months. We saw those plays every day, so it was no big deal. Hitting four home runs in one game probably was the least of the spectacular things he did."
Nicknamed “the Say Hey Kid” by New York sportswriters because he often greeted them with the word “Hey,” Mays had charisma and charm coupled with an unabashed joy for the game.
“I fell in love with baseball because of Willie, plain and simple,” said San Francisco Giants president and chief executive officer Larry Baer.
“My childhood was defined by going to Candlestick with my dad, watching Willie patrol center field with grace and the ultimate athleticism.”
His defensive skills saved Mays from a return ticket to the minors in 1951. With the rookie mired in an 1-for-26 slump to start his career, Durocher continued to put his name into the lineup on a daily basis, confident his bat would catch up to his glove. He knew that Mays had hit .477 in 35 games for Triple-A Minneapolis, then the top affiliate of the Giants, before his promotion to the majors.
On Oct. 3, 1951, Mays was in the on-deck circle when Bobby Thomson hit his pennant-winning “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” with two men on but first base open. The Brooklyn Dodgers refused to walk him intentionally because Mays was batting behind him.
The horseshoe-shaped Polo Grounds, like the windy confines of Candlestick Park, impeded the power production of Mays but he never complained.
“Winning was more important than hitting a home run to me,” he once said.
So talented that he was a teenager when he joined his father on an industrial-league team, Mays was a member of the Birmingham Black Barons at age 15.
In June 1950, he signed with the New York Giants, reported to Class B Trenton, and soon advanced to Minneapolis.
Durocher was a major influence in his life both at the ballpark and outside it, where he often played stickball in the street with kids who idolized him.
"On the field it's baseball,” he once said. “Off the field it's 'Do you want kids to look up to you?'"
After he retired as a player, Mays rejoined the Giants as a good-will ambassador, advisor, coach, and mentor to such young players as future home run king Barry Bonds, his godson.
Willie Howard Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, the first year he was eligible, with 94.7 per cent of the vote.
