Mays was known as the greatest ballplayer who ever lived by many.
Hall of Fame player Willie Mays sits during San Francisco Giants 2014 World Series Ring ceremony before the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park on April 18, 2015 in San Francisco, California.
With his exhilarating blend of power and speed, the Hall of Famer smashed 660 career home runs , tallied 3,283 hits and won four stolen base titles. Bay Area fans were initially cool to the New York import when the team moved West in ‘58. Local fans tended to gravitate more toward homegrown stars like Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. But in the end, Mays proved impossible to resist.
Along the way, Mays laughed easily and chattered constantly, just like he did while playing stickball on the streets of Harlem, which he often did after games at the Polo Grounds. He signed to play for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, when he was 17. Mays played three seasons in the Negro Leagues, where he learned to play with a zest capable of attracting large crowds. This was also where Mays mastered the art of turning a deaf ear to the immense prejudice he encountered from the segregated South. He never reacted to taunts from the stands, nor was he rankled when he was forced to stay in a hotel separate from his white minor league teammates.
“I’ll never forgive myself,” Spahn later quipped. “We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I’d only struck him out.” Mays would go on to win rookie of the year honors while help the Giants overcome a 13-game deficit to catch the Brooklyn Dodgers. Mays was on-deck when Bobby Thomson hit the so-called “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” a three-run homer to give the Giants the pennant.
“I asked him, ‘What are you from 1 percent to 100 percent?’ He said, ‘Maybe 70,’’’ former Amalfitano later recalled. “I said, ‘Well, your 70 is going to be better than whoever goes out there for their 100.’ ” In the aftermath of that narrow defeat, a reporter wondered if Mays would have actually had time to score the winning run, considering how hard McCovey had blistered the ball.Mays never reached another World Series with San Francisco but continued to put up terrific seasons amid the blustery conditions of Candlestick Park.
Simmons also noted that Mays would often stop at first base on a potential double because doing so prevented opponents from issuing an intentional walk to the dangerous McCovey hitting behind him. As a testament to his all-around skills, Mays was the first National League player to reach the 30-30 mark and the first in either league to reach 30-30 in consecutive seasons .“You used to think that if the score was 5-0, he’d hit a five-run homer,’’ Reggie Jackson said.Mays remains the Giants franchise all-time leader in runs, hits, doubles, home runs and total bases — marks threatened, but not surpassed by, his godson, Barry Bonds. He also ranks second in triples, RBI and OPS.
But Mays always rankled at the charge. Years later, he told KCBS sportscaster Steve Bitker: “They said, ‘Well, look at the old man falling down.’ But anybody could have slipped. It was a wet field. … That was one of my big disappointments, when writers can criticize a guy that slips.”
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