[135], Before the 1963 season, Mays signed a contract worth a record-setting $105,000 per season (equivalent to $929,364 in 2021). More bio, uniform, draft, salary info [78][79] The Giants won the game in the 10th inning on a three-run home run by Dusty Rhodes, with Mays scoring the winning run. [117][118] Mays had one of his best games on April30, 1961, hitting four home runs and driving in eight runs against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium. Batting against Ralph Terry, he hit a ball into the right-field corner that might have been deep enough to score Alou, but Giants third base coach Whitey Lockman opted to hold Alou at third. He was the runner-up for the MVP in 1958 after hitting a career-high .347, and again in 1962 after leading the Giants to another World Series with 49 home runs and 141 RBI. "After I got back into the lineup, I never felt strong again for the rest of the season," he recalled. In 2007, Mays was voted onto the Rawlings All-Time Gold Glove Team, the player from the earliest era chosen. Like. Many popular songs reference Mays. [225] Though teams of black All-Stars assembled those two seasons, they drew fewer fans and opted not to assemble in 1961, when Mays again decided not to barnstorm. [8] Mays played in the National League (NL) between 1951 and 1973 for the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. [108] In 1959, Mays batted .313 with 34 home runs and 113 RBIs, leading the league in stolen bases for the fourth year in a row. He hit 660 home runs. Games as OF", "Career Leaders & Records for WAR Position Players", "Mays' Locker Was Source of AmphetaminesMilner", "Hall of Fame center fielder Duke Snider dies at 84", "Willie, Mickey and The Duke Mantle Wins This Battle", "Today in Baseball History: When Mantle and Mays were banned from baseball", "For Mazzilli, nothing like meeting Mays", "Mets retire Willie Mays' No. The Series, An Illustrated History of Baseball's Postseason Showcase, 19031993, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 8 January 2023, at 18:17. [316] However, James S. Hirsch wrote in The New York Times in 2021 on the occasion of his 90th birthday that his vision was merely "compromised" by glaucoma and that he was still able to watch games on television with difficulty. This is because of a discrepancy in the RBI total for, Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke), List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball, List of Major League Baseball home run records, List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders, List of Major League Baseball career putouts as a center fielder leaders, List of Major League Baseball career putouts as an outfielder leaders, List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders, List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders, List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders, "Mays at 75: The Say-Hey Kid has lots of fond memories, few regrets", "Reams of Sports: Mays Challenges for Rookie Honors, "New film remembers long-gone West Jefferson community of Westfield, home of Mays, Clemon", "Baseball Great and the Fort Eustis Connection", "Chicago Cubs at New York Giants Box Score, June 25, 1954", "Players with at least 30 HR by All-Star Game", "Philadelphia Phillies at New York Giants Box Score, April 21, 1957", "New York Giants at Chicago Cubs Box Score, May 21, 1957", "St. Louis Cardinals at San Francisco Giants Box Score, September 28, 1958", "San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds Box Score, June 24, 1960", "San Francisco Giants at Philadelphia Phillies Box Score, September 15, 1960", "San Francisco Giants Team History & Encyclopedia", "San Francisco Giants 14, Milwaukee Braves 4", "Willie Mays Finally Has Love of San Francisco Giants Fans", "Willie Mays Says Watch Pirates Next Season", "1962 San Francisco Giants Batting Statistics", "Houston Colt .45s at San Francisco Giants Box Score, September 30, 1962", "Willie Mays Postseason Batting Gamelogs", "July 2, 1963 Milwaukee Braves at San Francisco Giants Box Score and Play by Play", "Letting Off Steam confrontations between players, fans and umpires", "Los Angeles Dodgers at San Francisco Giants Box Score, August 22, 1965", "San Francisco Giants at Houston Astros Box Score, September 14, 1965", "A complete list of every 50-homer season", "San Francisco Giants at Los Angeles Dodgers Box Score, September 7, 1966", "They Wuz Robbed: Tales of Head-Scratching MVP Voting", "San Francisco Giants at Cincinnati Reds Box Score, June 7, 1967", "Houston Astros at San Francisco Giants Box Score, July 14, 1967", "Mays Honored as Top Player of 1960s by Sporting News", "Montreal Expos at San Francisco Giants Box Score, July 18, 1970", "New York Mets at San Francisco Giants Box Score, May 31, 1971", "Turn back the clock: Willie Mays played a vital role on '73 mets", "Cincinnati Reds at New York Mets Box Score, August 17, 1973", "1973 World Series Game 2, Mets at Athletics, October 14", "1973 World Series Game 3, Athletics at Mets, October 16", "All-Star Game Records: Career All-Star Game Hitting Records", "Ten Reasons Willie Mays is the Greatest Ever", "100 Greatest Baseball Players by The Sporting News: A Legendary List by Baseball Almanac", Don Zimmer, Who Spent 60 Eventful Years in Baseball, Dies at 83, "Career Leaders & Records for Runs Batted In", "Career Leaders & Records for Def. [155] He finally set the record May4. Willie Mays's birthstone is Emerald. Ungraded </p> [106][107] In September 1959, the Giants led the NL pennant race by two games with only eight games to play, but a sweep by the Dodgers began a stretch of six losses in those final games, dooming them to a third-place finish. While McCovey was on the disabled list, the Giants traded Willie Mays to the Mets, which marked the start of the club's efforts to rid itself of its aging, high-salaried players. Willie Howard Mays (May 6, 1931-) is arguably the greatest centerfielder that major League Baseball has ever seen. [234] He ran the bases daringly, becoming the only modern player to score from first base on a single to left field, and another time scoring from first base on a McCovey bunt (without an error). [133][211] The Mets lost the series in seven games. Warren Spahn, off whom Mays hit his first career home run, was now his teammate. how well do you know about Willie Mays? [125] Mays said in 1959 that he did not mind the booing, but he admitted in a 1961 article that the catcalls were bothering him. [178] Oracle Park, their stadium, is at 24Willie Mays Plaza. He ended his career with a return to New York after a mid-season trade to the New York Mets in 1972, retiring after the team's trip to the 1973 World Series. He had only 70RBI for the year, the first time since 1958 he had failed to reach 100. [224] The team travelled around the southern United States the first two years, attaining crowds of about 5,000 in 1955 but drawing less than 1,000 in 1956, partly because of the advent of television. Vernard Adams, the Hillsborough County, Florida medical examiner, reported that Mays had hypertensive heart disease and that heart disease was most likely the cause of his death following the first autopsy on June 29, 2009. Willie Mays Sr, or Cat as he was known, played in an industrial baseball team league for the mills and factories around Birmingham, Alabama and by all accounts was a decent player with good speed. When Joe McDonald became the Mets' General Manager in 1975, he threatened to fire Mays for this. I sacrificed a bad marriage and I sacrificed a good marriage. Sportswriters have argued about whether the technique made him a better fielder or just made him more exciting to watch, but the basket catch did not prevent Mays from setting a record with 7,095 outfield putouts. [82][83] Mays led the league with 51 but finished fourth in NL MVP voting. In the 1970's, Mays was good friends with Gambino Crime Family caporegime Greg DePalma, often playing golf with him. [277][278] He signed a lifetime contract with the team in 1993 and helped to muster public enthusiasm for building Pac Bell Park, which opened in 2000. [38], Mays's flashy style of play stemmed partly from his days in the Negro leagues. His father, William Howard, was a steelworker who mined in the all-black town of Fairfield, only thirteen miles from Birmingham. Q: Does billy mays have any siblings? Willie Mays' siblings are Sarah and Ernestine. [299] The plot of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "In the Cards" (aired 1997, story set in 2373) centers around the son of Captain Sisko (a noted baseball aficionado) attempting to obtain as a gift for his father a vintage 1951 Willie Mays rookie card. Willie Mays was among the San Francisco Giants paying tribute to legend Willie McCovey on Nov. 8, 2018. "To me, Willie Mays is the greatest who ever played," Roberto Clemente said. [48], Against the Reds in the NLCS, Mays helped restore order in Game3 after Mets fans began throwing trash at Pete Rose following a brawl Rose and Bud Harrelson had started. [239], Fellow players and coaches recognized his talent. [310] Wilt Chamberlain had given Mays her number in 1961, and they dated off and on the next several years. He spent a month this year with his old team, the San Francisco Giants, at spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., where baseball's greatest living. [129] On September30, Mays hit a game-winning home run in the Giants' final regularly scheduled game of the year, forcing the team into a tie for first place with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Willie Mays appeared as himself in the animated feature Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid, which was broadcast in 1972-1973 as part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie show. "Was it the same feeling?" It is also a business. Before the season began, he had asked Stoneham for a 10-year contract with the Giants organization, intending to serve in an off-the-field capacity with them once his playing career was over. [48] He stole 338 bases in his career. The Giants swept the heavily favored Cleveland Indians for the lone World Series triumph of his career, and the team's last title before relocating to San Francisco after the 1957 season. [231] His signature play was his "basket catch," the technique that displayed Mayss stylistic flash as opposed to the pure raw skill that was on display when he made "The Catch" in the 1954 World Series. [134] It was Mays' last World Series appearance as a Giant. WILLIE MAYS Autographs are WAY Undervalued Right Now! [48] Sabermetrician Bill James thinks Mays was the best centerfielder of all time, naming him the best in the major leagues in the 1950s and the 1960s. [200][201] Having considered retirement all year, Mays finally told the Mets officially on September9 that 1973 would be his last season. [144] On August22, Mays acted as a peacemaker during a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and Dodgers after Marichal had bloodied Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Following his divorce from Margherite, he married Mae Louise Allen in 1971 and were together until she died in 2013. [166] He played 148 games and upped his batting average to .289, accumulating 84 runs scored, 144 hits, 23 home runs, and 79RBI. [192][274] In 1985, less than a year after replacing Kuhn as commissioner, Peter Ueberroth decided to allow Mays to return to baseball. The next year, 70 years ago this summer, a 16-year-old William Howard Mays, Jr., shared a baseball field with his dad for the last time. By the end of the month, he had pushed his batting average to over .300. Barnum and Charlie Chan. "I threw you the first one and now I've seen the five-hundredth," Spahn said. View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject. He did everything well. [153][154] He scored 118 runs, the 12th year in a row he had scored at least 100 runs in a season. The couple adopted a five-day-old baby named Michael in 1959. He stuck with the SF Giants for 20 years until he was. [280] The Giants retired Mays's number 24 in May 1972. Player stats do not include the extensive amount of exhibitions and barnstorming games Negro League teams often played. [97] As he had in 1954, Mays vied for the NL batting title until the final game of the season. [317], Mays with the San Francisco Giants in 1961, New York / San Francisco Giants (19511952, 19541972), World Series champion and NL MVP (19541955), It is not known for certain how Mays became known as the "Say Hey Kid"; sportswriters Barney Kremenko and. When Margherite Wendell Chapman and Willie Mays were together, they lived in San Francisco's Sherwood Forest neighborhood. Snoop Dogg is first cousins with a professional wrestler, Sasha Banks. [180][181] He had 15 home runs and a .290 average at the All-Star break but faded down the stretch, only hitting three home runs and batting .241 for the rest of the year. [54] Mays hit poorly while the Giants lost the series 42. [48][245] Third in home runs with 660 when he retired, he still ranks sixth as of June 2021. [259] "I really didn't need anything," Mays said. [174][175] "I don't feel excitement about this now," he told reporters afterwards. [121] Mays trailed Cepeda by two home runs at the end of August (34 as opposed to 36), but Cepeda outhit him 106 in September to finish with 46, while Mays finished with 40. Share. [48][179] In the NL Championship Series (NLCS) against the Pirates, Mays had a home run and three RBI in the first two games. [133] The Series went all the way to a Game7, which the Yankees led 10 in the bottom of the ninth. So Willie Mays is an athlete that pretty much all of us have heard of, unless you're like that Geico person you've been living under a rock for a while, but Willie Mays is one of the greatest baseball players of all time. 24 in May 1972 [ 259 ] `` I do n't feel excitement this... Ranks sixth as of June 2021 player from the earliest era chosen went all the way a. 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