Hello, baseball fans and supporters of our fine local paper! We are at the halfway point of the 2024 MLB season. My beloved Orioles hold a slim 1 ½ game lead over the Big Apple’s Yankees, who slumped badly before the All-Star Break. Cleveland holds a 5-game lead in the AL Central. America’s favorite cheating trash can bangers from Houston have awakened from a terrible start to catch the Seattle Mariners in the AL West. Over in the National League, the three division races are runaways with Philadelphia, Milwaukee, and Los Angeles comfortably ahead. On June 18th, the sporting world lost one of its greatest athletes when Willie Mays died at 93. Let’s look at one of baseball’s all-time best this month.
Mays was born in 1931 in Westfield, Alabama to parents who were both acclaimed athletes. His father was a gifted baseball player, and his mother excelled in high school basketball and track. Willie was good at everything he tried athletically and starred in baseball, basketball, and football in high school. Mays was playing professional baseball for the Negro Leagues Birmingham Black Barons while he was still in high school. The principal found out and wanted to suspend Willie from the football team. A deal was worked out and he was allowed to play home games only. At only 17, he helped the Barons advance to the Negro World Series where they lost to the Homestead Grays. Baseball was slowly integrating, and many teams were interested in Mays. The New York Giants waited until Willie finished high school and signed him to a minor league contract.
Mays was more known for his defense than his bat early on and quickly advanced through the minor leagues until his call-up to the majors in 1951. The Giant’s home field was the oddly shaped Polo Grounds, less than 300 ft to the left and right field fence but a monstrous 483 ft to the center field observation deck. New York had been deficient in center field for years and hoped that Mays would be an improvement. Little did they know that they were getting the greatest center fielder ever. The hitting came around too after a slow start and Willie easily won NL Rookie of the Year. The Giants were 13 ½ games behind in early August but went on a 40-18 tear to tie their bitter rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. A one-game playoff would determine a trip to the World Series. Bobby Thomson hit the famous “Shot Heard Around the World” 3-run homer in the 9th inning to win the pennant for the Giants. They would face the Yankees, with Joe DiMaggio finishing his legendary career and a rookie named Mickey Mantle starting his. The Giants lost the series in 6 games. Shortly after, Mays was drafted into the Army as the Korean War raged. He would miss two seasons as he fulfilled his obligation to Uncle Sam.
Mays returned to the big leagues with a vengeance in 1954. He won the batting title for the highest average and his first Most Valuable Player award. Mays, asked by manager Leo Durocher to steal more bases, upped his total to 24. The Giants returned to the World Series and swept the Cleveland Indians in four straight games. Mays also had one of the greatest catches in history. With men on first and second, Vic Wertz of the Indians hit a blast to the Polo Grounds cavernous center field. Mays took off after it with blazing speed and made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch 425 feet from home plate. He had the presence to turn and throw the ball back to the infield, preventing the two runners from tagging up. In 1956, Willie became only the second member of the 30-30 club, hitting 36 home runs and stealing 40 bases. In 1957, MLB started awarding the Gold Glove award to each position’s best defensive player. Mays won the inaugural award for center field and 12 more in a row after that. Attendance was dwindling at the Polo Grounds and ownership struck a deal with San Francisco to move the franchise after the 1957 season. The move from the short fences at the Polo Grounds to the howling winds of Candlestick Park would be detrimental to Willie’s home run totals.
Unbelievably, Willie Mays was booed by the San Francisco fans the first few years for the unpardonable sin of not being as great as advertised. Mays was not media-friendly and preferred to let his play on the field speak for itself. The howling winds blowing in from the bay made Candlestick Park a power hitter’s nightmare. He was near the top of the league in every other offensive category though and the booing ceased.
The Giants returned to the World Series in 1962 when Mays hit a home run in the final game of the regular season and won the pennant. The series against the Yankees went to the deciding seventh game, with the Yankees prevailing 1-0. In 1965, he was named team captain of the Giants, the first African American to hold that title. 1965 was the year for two different milestones. That September. Mays became the 5th person to hit 500 home runs in a career. He also won his final NL MVP award, hitting a career-high 52 home runs. By the end of the 1966 season, only Babe Ruth had more home runs than Willie. The Sporting News named Mays the player of the decade in 1969. He also joined the exclusive 3000 hits club. At 40, he still primarily played center field but also put in 48 games at 1st base. That is the position that many aging players who have lost a step of speed end up at. The Giants finally made the playoffs again in 1971 but were beaten by the Pirates.
At 41 with his skills declining, the Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets in 1972. He only played in 88 games that year and didn’t contribute anything close to his glory years. He hit his last home run, number 660, in August 1973. The Mets made it to the World Series that year and Mays played center field after an injury to Rusty Staub. His skills diminished, he misplayed several fly balls and made a costly error in Game 2 that enabled the A’s to tie the game and eventually win. He made one more pinch-hit appearance in Game 3, grounding out in his final big league at-bat. In 1979, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot. I watched Mays in an Old Timers Game make a diving catch at age 50 that rivaled any in his prime. He had quite a hard time getting up though. Hope that you enjoyed this look at one of the greats and until next time, I will leave you with a quote from the man himself. “Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business. But what is most truly is is disguised combat. For all its gentility, it’s almost leisurely pace, baseball is violence under wraps.”
