Baseball Legend Willie Mays Mourned Across MLB
The tributes keep pouring in. From Major League Baseball. From Bernice King, the daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and Billie Jean King, the tennis great. From Billy Crystal, who has a signed ball, and Barack Obama, who called him “an inspiration to an entire generation.”
Willie Mays, a baseball legend and American icon, the Say Hey Kid, and one of the best five-tool players ever, died peacefully Tuesday, the San Francisco Giants announced. He was 93.
NY Mets infielder Bobby Valentine (left) talks with coach Willie Mays during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies in New York City on June 29, 1977.
Mays slugged 660 home runs during a career that started in 1948 with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and ended with the New York Mets in 1973.
“Willie Mays was one of the greatest to ever play the game,” Mets owner Steve Cohen and wife Alex Cohen said in a statement. “Willie ended his Hall of Fame career in Queens and was a key piece of the 1973 NL championship team. Mays played with a style and grace like no one else.
“Alex and I were thrilled to honor a previous promise from Joan Payson to retire his iconic No. 24 as a member of the Mets in 2022. On behalf of our entire organization, we send our thoughts and prayers to Willie’s family and friends.”
Mays began his big-league career in 1951 with the New York Giants, hitting 20 homers en route to Rookie of the Year. He would come to be linked – for fans and in song – with two other great center-fielders who played in New York City during his era, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider.
He slashed .301/.384/.557/.940 across 10,924 at-bats while accumulating 156.2 career WAR, fifth all-time behind Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Cy Young and his godson Barry Bonds. He stole 339 bases, leading the league four times. He could play center, too. The legendary late sportswriter Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times once wrote: “Willie Mays’s glove is where triples go to die.”
His most famous defensive play came in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series against the Cleveland Indians when he made a running, over-the-shoulder grab in center of a drive off the bat of Vic Wertz with two on, and the game tied at 2 in the eighth inning. The Giants swept the series for Mays’ only championship.
“I was very cocky. When I say that, I mean that everything that went in the air, I thought I could catch. I was very aware of what was going on,” Mays said during a 2003 visit to AT&T Park, according to the San Jose Mercury News. “When the ball was hit off Don Liddle, the pitcher, I’m saying to myself, ‘Two men are on.’ Yes, I’m talking to myself as I’m running – I know it’s hard to believe that I could do all this in one sequence.
“As the ball is coming, I’m saying to myself, ‘I have to get this ball back to the infield.’ In my mind, I never thought I would miss the ball. I didn’t think that at all. When you watch the play, look at the way I catch the ball. It’s like a wide receiver catching a pass going down the sideline, which is over the left shoulder, on the right side. I had learned about that playing in high school.”
Mays won the National League MVP in 1954 when he led the league in triples (13), batting average (.345), slugging percentage, (.667) OPS (1.078), and OPS+ (175). He also hit 41 homers and drove in 110 runs. He won the award a second time in 1965 when he belted a career-high and league-leading 52 homers and also paced the NL in on-base percentage (.398), slugging (.645), OPS (1.043), OPS+ (185), and total bases (360). That year he also won one of his 12 Gold Gloves.
The Giants traded him to the Mets on May 11, 1972, for pitcher Charlie Williams and $50,000.
With the Mets, playing at the ages of 41 and 42, he hit his last 14 home runs and slashed .238/.352/.394. The final hit of his career was a go-ahead RBI single off Rollie Fingers in the 12th inning of Game 2 of the 1973 World Series against the Oakland Athletics. The Mets won the game 10-7, but lost the series in seven.
Mays retired as a 24-time All-Star (there were two All-Star games some seasons during his career) and was elected a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 1979.
After his playing days, the Giants signed Mays on to be a permanent special assistant to the president. He spent time with the organization’s minor league clubs, attended spring training, and made appearances at team functions.
In 2015, Mays received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama, the highest honor the government can grant a civilian. The only other baseball players to receive the honor at the time were Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra and Stan Musial.
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