Willie Mays handed away peacefully on Tuesday afternoon, the Giants introduced. One of many best gamers of all-time and a legend within the sports activities world, Mays was 93.
“All of Main League Baseball is in mourning at the moment as we’re gathered on the very ballpark the place a profession and a legacy like no different started,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred mentioned in a press release alluding to Thursday’s recreation between the Giants and Cardinals at Birmingham’s Rickwood Discipline, the house of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise.
From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie impressed generations of gamers and followers as the sport grew and really earned its place as our Nationwide Pastime. … Thursday’s recreation at historic Rickwood Discipline was designed to be a celebration of Willie Mays and his friends. With disappointment in our hearts, it can now additionally function a nationwide remembrance of an American who will ceaselessly stay on the quick record of essentially the most impactful people our nice recreation has ever identified.”
A local of Westfield, Alabama, Mays began his skilled profession in 1948. He appeared in 13 video games for a Black Barons workforce that was on its technique to that yr’s Negro World Sequence. As soon as Mays completed highschool the next yr, he acquired curiosity from American League and Nationwide League golf equipment. He signed with the Giants (nonetheless taking part in in New York on the time) on a $4,000 bonus. Mays spent the 1950 season within the minors earlier than making his workforce debut the next yr.
Mays instantly hit the bottom operating. He hit .274 with 20 house runs and dazzling middle subject protection to win the Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr. The Giants would win the pennant on Bobby Thomson’s well-known “Shot Heard ’Spherical The World” towards the Dodgers. Whereas they dropped that yr’s Fall Basic to the Yankees, it wasn’t lengthy earlier than they returned to the World Sequence. Mays missed most of 1952 and the whole ’53 season after being drafted into the Military in the course of the Korean Battle. Upon his return to the taking part in subject in 1954, he established himself as among the best gamers the sport has ever seen.
At 23 years outdated in his first full main league season, Mays hit .345 with an MLB-best .667 slugging share en path to the NL MVP award. The Giants received 97 video games to move again to the World Sequence. In Sport 1, Mays made maybe essentially the most iconic defensive play in main league historical past. His over-the-shoulder basket catch just a few toes in entrance of the middle subject wall on the Polo Grounds — a play that will dwell on in historical past as “The Catch” — doubtless saved two runs in what was then a tied recreation within the eighth inning. The Giants would go to win in 10 innings and sweep the Indians to win the fifth championship in franchise historical past.
The rosters round Mays dipped after that season. They wouldn’t return to the Fall Basic till 1962 regardless of their middle fielder’s all-around dominance. Mays hit 51 house runs in 1955, the primary of thrice he would lead the majors in that regard. He paced the Nationwide League in stolen bases in 4 straight seasons from 1956-59 whereas main the league in OPS thrice throughout that decade. Mays was established as arguably one of the best participant within the majors by the point the franchise moved to San Francisco upfront of the 1958 season.
The Say Hey Child earned an All-Star nod throughout his first MVP season in 1954. His mixture of otherworldly expertise and unimaginable sturdiness — he’d play in at the very least 140 video games in every subsequent yr till 1968 — despatched him again to the Midsummer Basic in 19 straight seasons. Mays was chosen as an All-Star 24 instances and in 20 separate seasons (there have been a number of All-Star groups for just a few years within the early 60s). Solely Henry Aaron reached the All-Star Sport extra continuously in his profession.
MLB launched the Gold Glove Award in 1957, 4 seasons into Mays’ profession with the Giants. He’d earn the honors within the award’s first 12 seasons. That ties him with Roberto Clemente for essentially the most amongst outfielders in league historical past regardless of the honors not coming into existence till Mays’ age-26 season.
Mays would have had a robust Corridor of Fame case primarily based on his glove alone. He’s additionally among the many finest hitters of all time. He hit .296 or higher in every season from 1954-65. He by no means hit fewer than 29 homers in that stretch. Mays ranked within the prime 10 in MVP voting in all however one yr between 1954-66, ending among the many prime 5 on 9 events. He received the MVP as a 34-year-old in 1965 behind a .317/.398/.645 batting line with an MLB-leading 52 house runs. He was the runner-up to Maury Wills in the course of the Giants’ pennant-winning ’62 marketing campaign. Mays didn’t have an awesome offensive displaying within the World Sequence, although, and San Francisco got here up a run quick in a seven-game collection loss to the Yankees.
Between 1954-66, a stretch that represented one of many best peaks in MLB historical past, Mays compiled a .315/.390/.601 slash line with 518 homers as the sport’s preeminent outfield defender. Whereas his manufacturing in his late-30s wasn’t fairly at that distinctive customary, Mays remained an elite hitter previous his fortieth birthday. He led the NL in walks and on-base share at age 40 in 1971, the ultimate season during which he’d prime 100 video games.
Mays’ time with the Giants got here to an in depth in Might 1972 when San Francisco traded him to the Mets. He completed his profession as a task participant with New York, returning to the World Sequence in his remaining season. Mays retried after the ’73 marketing campaign and moved into teaching with the Mets. He’d later work in an advisory function with the Giants, a franchise with which he’s so synonymous that Oracle Park’s official handle is 24 Willie Mays Plaza.
That concluded a taking part in profession that spanned components of 23 seasons within the main leagues (together with his abbreviated stint with the Black Barons). Mays performed in additional than 3000 MLB video games, the ninth-most in historical past. He’s on nearly each leaderboard. Mays was thirteenth all-time with 3293 hits. He’s twelfth in runs batted in (1909) and seventh in runs scored. Mays is considered one of 9 gamers to succeed in the 600-homer mark and sits in sixth place on the all-time leaderboard with 660 longballs. On the time he retired, solely Aaron and Babe Ruth had extra.
Mays was an apparent name for Corridor of Fame induction when he was first eligible in 1979. The exemplar of a five-tool participant, he’s on the quick record in debates in regards to the best all-around gamers in baseball historical past. Amongst place gamers, Mays is just narrowly behind Barry Bonds and Ruth in Baseball Reference’s Wins Above Substitute metric with an estimated 156 profession WAR. No single statistic will ever definitively reply the query of the “finest participant of all-time.” Followers can debate the place Mays exactly stacks up towards Bonds, Ruth, Aaron, Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and so forth. It’s inconceivable to have that dialog with out mentioning him.
After all, Mays’ reverence in baseball circles goes properly behind the stat sheet. He’s an icon, a fan favourite of many on each coasts throughout his heyday. Mays was one of many first Black gamers to emerge as a famous person as soon as MLB groups started to combine within the late Nineteen Forties and the early a part of the 50s. His affect transcended baseball into broader American tradition.
Mays and Yogi Berra had been among the many recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. MLBTR joins others all through the sports activities world in sending condolences to his household, associates, family members and the numerous followers whose lives he impacted by almost eight many years as a face of baseball.
