Learn all about legendary baseball icon Willie Mays, considered the most versatile player in sports history.
The San Francisco Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets for next to nothing in 1972, and the clearly aged 41-year-old Mays was the standout hitter – based on his ability to get on base and show power – on that rugged Mets team.
Traditional statistics rank Mays as the greatest player of the last century, spending his entire career in the Hall of Fame, but to truly understand his greatness, one had to be present at his games.
I remembered the news of his death after hearing The Source. I couldn’t help but think of my father’s stories. He had seen Mays during his rookie season in New York with the New York Giants in 1951 and immediately declared him the best player he had ever seen.
Mays infused energy into that ’51 Giants team and helped them overcome a significant 13.5-game deficit to their neighbors, the Brooklyn Dodgers, in mid-August to capture the NL Championship, thanks to the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” This remains, in my opinion, the most impressive comeback performance in baseball history. Mays was named Rookie of the Year that year.
Three years later, Mays firmly established his place in baseball history. The man known by the nickname “Say Hey Kid,” who had a song based on that nickname, ruled the National League.
He led the league in batting average, slugging percentage, triples (an important measure of speed and power), and on-base plus slugging (OBPS), which synthesizes all of these elements into a single metric.
However, I doubt most people remember Mays’ 1954 MVP season for his offensive accomplishments; people like my father remember a play he made during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Let me describe the scene: the game is tied 2-2 in the 8th inning. The Cleveland Indians have runners on first and second base with no outs. Heavy hitter Vic Wertz is at bat, and he hits a long fly ball into the extraordinarily wide center field of the Polo Grounds.
Mays, who patrolled center field for more than 20 seasons, retreated more than 400 feet and made a challenging behind-the-back catch look like child’s play, then threw the ball back into the infield to avoid scoring.
The Giants won the game and the Series in four games. This was their last appearance in New York, as they relocated to the West Coast after the 1957 season.
Mays couldn’t imagine why people would find this catch unusual. To him, it was nothing special.
What was extraordinary about this catch, besides the fact that it was in the World Series, was that it was made during a time of limited shooting.
This scant footage is our substitute for watching Mays play, and serves as a rare glimpse into a man whose defensive skills surpassed the single catch.
Mays was the best defensive player in the National League that year, according to advanced statistics.
He’s among the top-five defensive outfielders of all time based on those metrics, and those stats – given that we have limited footage in this era – don’t even begin to match his obviously strong throwing power.
In fact, it’s remarkable that I’m talking about the defense of a man who had the third-best home run total for an extended period of time – and remains sixth.
Mays wasn’t just defense, although he excelled in that area.
He wasn’t just about hitting power, although he was excellent at that too.
He wasn’t just about beating the batting average, although he was excellent there too.
He wasn’t just about speed, although he had led the league in that area four times too.
Mays was everything, and he was brilliant at it for over 20 years. Mays was, as my friend and respected sports columnist Neil Paine calculated, the most balanced baseball player in history.
Baseball fans look for five-tool players — those who play for power and batting average, speed and defensive ability — like miners looking for gold. We found our treasure in Mays.
But Mays is more than just numbers. He was one of our last links to various times in baseball history.
Mays initiated the westward expansion of baseball when it had previously been limited to the major league level on the east coast. He was the first star to emerge on the west coast.
Mays was also the last star from the New York era of the 1950s, a time when America was recovering from World War II, had a thriving economy, and baseball continued to be America’s favorite pastime.
And if Mays hadn’t endured enough already, he added several more hits to his legendary pitching career when Negro League statistics were recorded in the MLB record books. Mays was one of the last remaining star players, having begun his career in Birmingham with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro League in 1948.
It’s a laugh I’m happy to share – Mays was so great that he was still adding hits when he was 93 years old!
This man never lost his charm, even when his career was over. You see, when he came back to New York, he lived near where we lived in the Bronx. My father would meet him on walks and had to get his autograph.
Mays gave my father his autograph, and he kept it in his office until the end. Mays played a significant role in my father’s later lifestyle, as he was one of the few people to wear a New York Giants baseball hat during his golden years. I bought several of these hats for my father, as he wore them until they were stretched out.
I try to maintain that connection even when I’m wearing a New York Giants baseball hat on the TV screen or by claiming I support that team when someone asks.
So now I’m going to find that Mays autograph to pay tribute to the greatest player I’ve ever seen.
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2024-06-24 08:45:46
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