Willie Mays, “The Say Hey Kid,” who was among the greatest baseball players of all time, won two MVPs, was a 24-time All-Star and made one of the greatest catches in the game’s history, died Tuesday afternoon at 93, the San Francisco Giants announced.
The epitome of the five-tool player — hitting for average, hitting for power, base running, fielding, and throwing — Mays would be on any Mount Rushmore of Major League Baseball. After a few seasons in the Negro Leagues, he broke in with the New York Giants in 1951 before the club relocated to the Bay Area for the 1958 season. He then played there for most of the next 15 seasons. He finished his singular career with the New York Mets in 1973.
He only won the World Series once, in 1954, but made an everlasting mark on the sports in Game 1 of that series. With the score tied in the eighth inning at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, Cleveland’s Vic Wertz launched a drive to the deepest part of the park. Speedy centerfield Mays turned, made a dead sprint toward the outfield wall, and made an over-the-shoulder basket catch. The play remains among the greatest ever.
Here it is:
Always popular with teammates, fans, and the media, Mays had numerous stunning career highlights. He is sixth on the all-time home runs list with 660, 10th in RBIs, 12th in hits, seventh in runs scored, and 10th in games played. He led the league in homers and stolen bases four times and in triples three times. Mays was the National League MVP in 1954 and 1965, won 12 Gold Gloves, was named Rookie of the Year in 1951, and has had his number retired by the Giants and Mets. He was also named one of MLB’s All-Time and All-Century teams.
In 1951, Mays was drafted by the U.S. Army to serve in the Korean War. The athlete reported to For Eustis in Virginia and spent time playing on military baseball teams with other major league players. It was here that Mays learned about basket catch from Al Fortunato. Due to his military service, Mays missed 266 games. He was discharged on March 1, 1954, reporting to the Giants’ training camp the following day.
Mays was a high-profile figure for African American visibility but remained silent on politics and discriminatory practices. Jackie Robinson called out Mays for not doing enough for the civil rights movement, to which he said in the book Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend, “I’m a ballplayer. I am not a politician or a writer or a historian. I can do best for my people by doing what I do best.”
The baseball player also made a few guest shots in TV series, playing himself on Mr. Belvedere in 1988 and two episodes of The Donna Reed Show in 1964. He also appeared as a Giants player in the legal drama Ironside in 1970.
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