Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays, Jr. (born May 6, 1931) is a former star of Major League Baseball. Mays, nicknamed The Say Hey Kid, played center field throughout nearly all his career and is regarded as one of the finest players ever to have played the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 1979.
Mays as a player
Mays was a tremendous athlete, and every facet of the game seemed to come naturally to him. He could hit for both average and power, finishing his career with a batting average of .302, 660 home runs and 1902 runs batted in. He is among the few players to have hit more than 50 home runs in each of two or more seasons. Unlike some of the game's greatest hitters, Mays was also an outstanding defensive player. After their instigation in 1957, he won 12 consecutive Gold Glove awards for his outfield defense and gained a reputation for making catches that no other player could. He was also an excellent baserunner, swiping 339 bags in his career, making him one of the few members of the 300-300 club. He was also the second member of the 30-30 club for stealing 30 bases and hitting 30 home runs in the same season, a feat he accomplished twice. In addition, Mays led an abstemious lifestyle, neither drinking nor smoking, which contributed to his great longevity. In 21 seasons (excluding one lost partially to military service), he played 150 or more games 15 times, and more than 100 and additional five times.
Career
Mays' athleticism was evident from an early age. At high school he played quarterback on the football team, and was offered college scholarships in both football and basketball. Rejecting both, he began to play professionally as soon as he left school, playing briefly with the Chattanooga Choo-choos before returning to his home town to join the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1947. Wisely, he eschewed signing a contract with the Barons. He was scouted by a number of major league teams, but in 1950 the New York Giants signed him, and sent him to their Class-B affiliate Trenton, New York. After hitting .353 in Trenton, he began 1951 playing for the AAA Minneapolis Millers of the minor league American Association. With the Millers, Mays was immediately a fan favorite with his stellar offense and defensive play. Hitting .477 after 35 games, he was called up to the major leagues in May, 1951, after Giants owner Horace Stoneham took out a full page advertisement in several Minneapolis newspapers, apologising for taking him away from the Millers.
With the Giants, Mays immediately entered a slump, starting his career by getting no hits in his first 13 at bats. Worried, he asked manager Leo Durocher to send him back to the Millers. Durocher, who would be one of Mays's greatest admirers and defenders throughout his career, refused, telling Mays he was the Giants center fielder as long as Durocher was manager. The next day, Mays got his major league first hit, a home run off Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves.
From then on, his hitting steadily improved, although his .274 average, 68 RBI and 20 homers (in 121 games) would be among the worst of his career. Nevertheless, he won the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award, and ended the regular season as a somewhat nervous on-deck batter when Bobby Thomson's famous three run homer won the pennant for the Giants. Mays performed poorly in the 1951 World Series, as the Giants were beaten 4-2 by the New York Yankees, but the series marked the only time that Mays and the aging Joe DiMaggio would play on the same field. Playing a bit part for the Yankees was DiMaggio's heir apparent, and the player most comparable to Mays over their long careers, the 19 year old Mickey Mantle.
Mays served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, but did not see action overseas. He missed part of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season, as the Giants finished 2nd and 5th in the National League. He returned in 1954, and helped carry the Giants to a 97-57 record, the National League pennant and a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. In Game 1 of the series Mays made one of the greatest defensive plays of all time, a brilliant over-the-shoulder catch of a long drive by Vic Wertz, deep in centre field of the spacious Polo Grounds. The play, now known simply as "The Catch", which kept the scores tied. After the Giants' victory, Mays was announced as winner of the National League Most Valuable Player Award and the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year.
Mays moved along with the Giants to San Francisco for the 1958 season. The Giants made the World Series in 1962, only to lose to the Yankees in seven games. Mays won his second of two MVP awards in 1965. He continued to play with that franchise until partway through the 1972 season, when he joined the New York Mets. He played with them until his retirement after the 1973 season. The Mets made the World Series in Mays' final year, only to lose in seven games to the Oakland Athletics.
Mays' number 24 is retired by the San Francisco Giants. Their home ballpark, SBC Park, is located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza and the right-field wall is 24-feet high, both in honor of Mays.
Mays is the godfather of baseball star Barry Bonds.
See also
