June 19, 2024
"An exuberant style of play and an effervescent personality made Mays one of the game’s, and America’s, most charismatic figures..."
"... a name that even people far afield from the baseball world recognized instantly as a national treasure.... Mays propelled himself into the Hall of Fame with thrilling flair, his cap flying off as he chased down a drive or ran the bases. 'He had an open manner, friendly, vivacious, irrepressible,' the baseball writer Leonard Koppett said of the young Mays. 'Whatever his private insecurities, he projected a feeling that playing ball, for its own sake, was the most wonderful thing in the world.'... 'Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants,' Leo Durocher, his manager during most of his years at the Polo Grounds, said when Mays was elected to the Hall of Fame.... 'He never had to be taught a thing. The only other player who could do it all was Joe DiMaggio.' But even DiMaggio bowed to Mays. 'Willie Mays is the closest to being perfect I’ve ever seen,' he said."
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Growing up in San Francisco in the '60s, he was my idol.
Willie Mays, Duke Snider, Mickey Mantle...New York in the 50s. It was the center of the baseball world.
Too bad his name didn’t scan as two iambs. He would have better fit into the lyrics of Mrs Robinson. Unlike DiMaggio, who was a penny-pinching prick.
I loved how he made his famed basket catches look easy. What an athlete!
Basket catch explained-
https://www.sportingnews.com/us/mlb/news/willie-mays-basket-catch-history/3c6c489e8589dc6efc4840da
It was the love for Willie Mays, well deserved, that I observed as a child that made it hard for me to understand the story of Jackie Robinson and other blacks growing up at the time. It was clear then, many people were overlooking skin color. Now a days, schools teach kids to notice skin color first and make assumptions from there.
660 home runs and.301 batting average.
Tomorrow is a special game in Birmingham, AL to honor all living Negro League players.
Mays was functionally blind at the time of his death.
I gotta say...I've never been a National League fan, having grown up in Detroit. But as much of the nation back then, growing up you played, listened to, and loved baseball. Sure, I loved all the major sports, but back then, baseball was #1- and it wasn't even close. How things change.
But even though I wasn't a National League fan, I knew all of the players on all teams, because the players did not have free-agency, so the teams were kept together. And you definitely knew the greats in both leagues. And Willie Mays was one of the all-timers. Everyone knew, and loved Willie Mays. He was iconic. And so...this one seems more melancholy to me. It is not only the passing of a great player, but seems to indicate the passing of an era to me. I know...I know...everyone passes and we see these notices daily. But some- like Willie Mays- represent an era more than others. Willie played during my young days. He was that era. And now that era passes along.
Hmm. Some catch me more than others.
He didn't end up driving a beer truck, but neither did he make hundreds of millions of dollars like today's premium stars. On the other hand, just living in a body that well put together is its own mega million prize.....I guess posterity has spoken, and we can now say that of Mickey Mantle, Duke Snyder, and Willie Mays, Mays was the greatest....Mickey Mantle had the coolest name, but a novelist couldn't come up with three cooler names.
Mays always seemed happy to be playing. If you see someone having a good time, you're gonna like what you see.
I didn’t even know he was sick.
Temujin said...
I gotta say...I've never been a National League fan, having grown up in Detroit. But as much of the nation back then, growing up you played, listened to, and loved baseball. Sure, I loved all the major sports, but back then, baseball was #1- and it wasn't even close. How things change.
...
Did you see Mays in the 1971 All-Star Game at Tiger Stadium? I did. I've still got the program. He started in Centerfield, sharing the outfield with Hank Aaron and Willie Stargell/Roberto Clemente. Mays was like a scientist, playing CF in an old ballpark with a very deep CF (and an exposed flagpole) on a breezy night where he was unfamiliar with the stadium.
There were more than 20 future Hall of Fame players in that game.
Temujin said...
"I gotta say...I've never been a National League fan, having grown up in Detroit. But as much of the nation back then, growing up you played, listened to, and loved baseball. Sure, I loved all the major sports, but back then, baseball was #1- and it wasn't even close. How things change."
Yeah. That was life. That was summer. You played every chance you got. In the vacant lots in the street. If you could get enough guys you'd all bike over to the park with a real baseball diamond and spend all day there until it got dark. Willie Mays was a big part of that era.
He was the greatest! Watched in play in Candlestick when I lived in the Bay Area during high school. Those were the days.
"Yeah. That was life. That was summer. You played every chance you got. In the vacant lots in the street. If you could get enough guys you'd all bike over to the park with a real baseball diamond and spend all day there until it got dark."
Not anymore. You never see pick up games. Why the Latin players are dominating the majors.
Grew up in the Bay area in the 60's, was a huge Mays fan as a 7 year old, listening to games on my transistor radio, often while lying in bed at night. Giants announcers Hodges and Simmons brought the games to life.
Baseball was king in those days, as others have said. During summer, 6 of us kids would walk down to the all-dirt Hampton park baseball field and play 3 on 3 baseball, with right field closed. Then in the late afternoon, mom would pick us all up in the station wagon and drive us home.
Don’t forget that he lost the better part of two prime years of his career to the Army. If not for that he probably,would have broken Ruth’s record.
What Temujin said at 0712.
I grew up a Yankee fan; my father took me to games at the old Yankee stadium on River Ave in The Bronx. I can still name the starting lineup for the late 50s team, having watched a lot of their games on channel 11 with my best friend on summer afternoons. Mel Allen, Red Barber, Phil Rizzuto announcing. Today's Yankees? I know there's a great player names Judge, but the only Yankee pitcher I can name in Mariano Rivera, who I know no longer plays for them, but has a poetic, musical name.
He played in one of the old Negro Leagues when he was 17, then interrupted his career because he'd promised his mom he'd finish high school.
He was 39 when he did this:
https://youtu.be/TDmwdJug57c?si=Z5l3j8KBtAQw71o6
AMDG is exactly right.
That article in the Sporting News contains this clunker:
"With the game tied at 2-2 Cleveland's Vic Wertz sent a blast off San Francisco's Don Liddle that seemed destined to fall."
Ummm...the Giants (and Don Liddle) were in New York in 1954.
Riverdale (GA., AKA Reeferdale) Recreation Center, 1974. AABC 13-14 yr old tournament. Old National vs Fayetteville. Guy Stargell (Later a Ga. Bulldog tight end) nephew of Willie shows up with Willie AND Willie! They beat us two times, 2-0. But Willie Mays! I got used to seeing Willie Stargell around. That was cool.
I love this quote attributed to Willie Mays:
"When they throw it, I hit it; when they hit it, I catch it."
Can be applied to many aspects of life.
It was the love for Willie Mays, well deserved, that I observed as a child that made it hard for me to understand the story of Jackie Robinson and other blacks growing up at the time. It was clear then, many people were overlooking skin color.
Children wouldn't have seen the whole perspective. Mays was initially turned down when he tried to buy a house in SF, and even a beloved guy like him had to live with stuff getting thrown through his window.
Mays died yesterday.
Today, the Wednesday SF Chronicle newspaper has no reporting of Willie's death. Online, sure, but not in print. The greatest player to be part of this POS city and no one would work late for the hold-in-your-hand print version. The City That Knows How. The City That Blows Chow.
R.I.P. Mr. Mays. There were none better.
"Top of the fifth,
Say hey Willie Mays hits a three bagger
down the right field line.
But he's out trying to stretch it to a homer
as Roseborough tags him on the bottom of the spine
with a crack you can hear all the way back
up to San Francisco, open your hospital."
My college friends and I went to see the Giants play the Phillies in Shibe Park. We were not rich so we got seats in the upper deck out past 3rd base. Willie Mays came to bat and pulled a line drive foul pat 3rd base. It flew into our section and hit a seat back. Sounded like an explosion and the seat wobbled when it hit. As you can see here by me writing about it, I’ll never forget that foul ball.
Willie mays was before my time, I vaguely remember a World series in the early 70s where he was playng - the Mets? And the announcers were talking about how old he was and how he couldn't field the ball.
As Mays himself, he was lucky to start his career in NYC. He became the darling of the Press Corps and when he was in SF constantly played the LA Dodgers so he kept in the media's eye. By comparison, Hank Aarron (who was just as good) would be forgotten if he hadn't broked the HR record and played his career in Milwaulkee and Altanta.
Btw, how many people remember Stan Musial? He was up there with Mays in the 50s, as was Eddie Mathews and Duke Snieder (sic).
Reviewing the stats, its almost certain Mays would've broken Ruths record 1st, if he hadn't played in cold windy Candlestick.
Getting back to playing in NYC in the 50s and 60s and how it helped your media exposure. Earnie Banks was one of the greats. Who remembers him? Probably 10% of Mays 2024 fame. But he was twice MVP and hit 521 HRs. But he played in CHicago.
Willie Mays and Joe Dimaggio were always, to me, dueling paradigms of excellence. Joe had the knack for making everything look smooth, almost effortless. Willie was the one you had to watch, because he was spectacular.
FWLIW, Ted Williams was the best hitter I ever saw.
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