My Baseball Hero , Willie Mays , Dead At 93

One on North America’s great athletes has passed.  

It was in Rural Newfoundland that I learned of Willie Mays.

In the early 1950’s I heard on battery operated radio the American Forces Radio service broadcast American Baseball and through late night reception from stations on the eastern seaboard of the USA. 

And by accident I discovered a 1954 Baseball Digest featuring  Willie on the cover. It was in the house of my father’s friend.

The Associated Press has this to say today:

“Long after “The Catch” and his 660 home runs, and the daring sprints around the bases with his hat falling off, Willie Mays could still command a room like no other.

Mays was a frequent visitor to the downtown ballpark in San Francisco at 24 Willie Mays Plaza with his statue outside the stadium. 

He would often hold court with his contemporaries and the younger generation of players who hung on every word said by a player they were too young to have ever watched play.

His commanding voice and high-pitched laugh were recognizable anywhere. He was simply the “Say Hey Kid” from his days patrolling center field at the Polo Grounds in the 1950s, when baseball ruled New York City, to his death at age 93 on Tuesday afternoon.

As Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. said: “He’ll always be the godfather of all center fielders.”

And 

“There may be players who hit more home runs, won more Gold Gloves, had more hits and captured more World Series titles than Mays. But there never was — and probably never will be — a player as dazzling and entertaining as he was for more than two decades on both coasts.

With a hat too small so it flew off his head as he raced around the field and his signature basket catches, Mays was a showman who could do it all as the consummate “five-tool player.” Perhaps no one combined the ability to hit for both average and power, to run the bases, field and throw like Mays did during his career spent mostly with the Giants in New York and San Francisco.

“Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants,” Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher said. “Mays could do all the things you look for in a player better than anybody I ever saw.”

While Joe DiMaggio famously insisted on being introduced as the “Greatest Living Ballplayer” until he died in 1999, that title had really been held by Mays for more than a half-century.”

And more 

“The numbers are staggering: 660 homers, 3,293 hits, 6,080 total bases, 2,068 runs scored, two MVPs, and 24 All-Star games despite missing nearly two full seasons serving in the Korean War. There were also 12 Gold Gloves even though the award wasn’t even handed out his first five seasons in the majors.”

There was a Willie Mays Song:

“He runs the bases like a choo-choo train

Swings around second like an aeroplane

His cap flies off when he passes third

And he heads home like an eagle bird.”

Always my hero!!!!!