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Analysis by Harry Enten, CNN
6 minute read
Updated 6:39 AM EDT, Thu June 20, 2024
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Willie Mays, seen here of the New York Giants in 1955, had 660 career home runs and won 12 Golden Gloves in 23 major league seasons.
Mays as a 13-year-old.
Willie Mays holds a baseball bat in the clubhouse of the American minor league team Minneapolis Millers on May 19, 1951. Mays played a short stint with the team, then affiliated with the New York Giants.
Mays gets his plane ticket to New York to join the New York Giants, in Omaha, Nebraska on May 24, 1951.
From left: Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Thompson hold bats on their shoulders in Yankee Stadium in 1951. The New York Giants trio made up the first all-Black outfield in World Series history. All three men were playing with the New York Giants in the World Series.
Mays is sworn into the US Army by Capt. William F. Donegan on May 19, 1952. One year into his Major League career, after having won the National League Rookie of The Year in 1951, Mays joined the Army. He served from 1952 to 1954.
Mays bids goodbye to his baseball shoes, while also holding his Army-issued boots, at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on May 29, 1952.
Mays, then a physical training instructor at Fort Eustis, Virginia, leads soldiers through a calisthenics session on February 19, 1953. At the time, Mays, then 21, was seeking a dependency discharge from the Army as the sole support for his mother and nine siblings.
Released from the Army after two years of service, Mays waves to an assembled crowd during a spring training session in Phoenix, Arizona on March 4, 1954.
Mays plays stick ball with kids in New York's Harlem neighborhood in 1954.
Mays makes a leaping, one-handed catch off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Duke Snider on August 15, 1954.
Jackie Robinson, left, congratulates Mays, after Mays' New York Giants beat Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers 7-1, to make the World Series against the Cleveland Indians, on Septebmer 1, 1954.
Mays yells "Say hey!" before the second game of the 1954 World Series. Mays was known as "The Say Hey Kid" for the way he enthusiastically greeted others.
Sprinting toward the center-field wall, his back fully turned to the plate, Mays catches a ball over his shoulder during the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians, on September 29, 1954. Mays then fired the ball back into the infield, preventing two runners from scoring. The play is one of baseball's most celebrated feats.
Mays, right, gets batting tips from Joe DiMiaggio, at the 32nd annual dinner of the Baseball Writers at the Waldorf Astoria in 1955. Mays, the reigning National League MVP, won the Scribes' Sid Mercer Award as "Player of The Year."
Margherite Wendell poses with Mays, hours after their wedding at her home in East Elmhurst, New York, on Feburary 14, 1956. The couple was married from 1956 until their divorce in 1963.
Mays, then of the San Francisco Giants, plays catch with 14-month-old Herbert Henderson, at the home of Henderson's parents, in San Francisco, California on November 14, 1957. Mays was staying with the Henderson's while house hunting.
Mays gets a kiss from his dog Pepe while moving into their new San Francisco home on January 15, 1958.
Mays, seated at right, interacts with young fans while sitting with fellow San Francisco Giant Willie McCovey in the dugout of Candlestick Park in 1960.
Mays shakes hands with television host Ed Sullivan as the pair talk about the All-Star Game and Mays' batting average on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Mays watches the ball he had just hit go over the left field fence at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, on April 24, 1966. The home run was May's 511th in his National League career and tied a record held by the late Mel Ott.
Mays with Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron on August 3, 1969.
Mays cries after he is bid farewell by New York Mets' owner Joan Whitney Payson during a ceremony for Mays at Shea Stadium in New York City on September 26, 1973. After one year with the Mets, Mays retired from professional baseball.
Teammates douse Mays with champagne in their locker room at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on October 1, 1973. The Mets had just defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-4 to take the National League East division championship.
Mays waves to the crowd as the San Francisco Giants retire his No. 25 jersey, during Willie Mays Day before San Francisco's game against the New York Mets at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 20, 1983.
Mays throws out the last pitch, as former and current San Fransisco Giants players watch, at 3Com Park at Candlestick Point in San Francisco on September 30, 1999. The Giants were scheduled to move into their new stadium, Pacific Bell Park, the following spring.
Mays stands next to a statue of himself during its dedication by the San Francisco Giants, at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, in front of Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2000.
San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds outfield, center, hugs Mays while Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey stands nearby, on April 17, 2001. Mays was Bonds' godfather. On the day of Mays' death, Bonds shared a post on Instagram, saying: "I am beyond devastated and overcome with emotion. I have no words to describe what you mean to me -- you helped shape me to be who I am today. Thank you for being my Godfather and always being there. Give my dad a hug for me. Rest in peace Willie, I love you forever."
From left: First lady Laura Bush, Mays and President George W. Bush watch "Tee Ball on the South Lawn" at the White House in Washington, DC on July 30, 2006. The game featured teams from Little League's Challenger Division, organized for mentally and physically disabled children.
Mays is honored prior to the 78th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on July 10, 2007.
President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Mays about Air Force One en route to the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis on July 14, 2009.
Mays waves to the crowd after he is given a birthday cake from San Francisco Giants announcer Jon Miller for Mays' 81st birthday at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on May 6, 2012.
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to Mays at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 24, 2015.
Mays greets VIP attendees during the inauguration ceremony for Mayor London Breed on the steps of City Hall in San Francisco, California on July 11, 2018.
The Life of Baseball Giant Willie Mays, in pictures
CNN —
When people ask me how good of a player Willie Mays was, I give them a perhaps odd answer.
The San Francisco Giants basically gave Mays to the New York Mets for practically nothing in 1972, and a well past his prime 41-year-old Mays was the best overall hitter – as measured by his ability to get on base and hit for power – on that solid Mets squad.
Of course, the more normal way to know how good Mays was is that he remains, statistically, the best player who played his entire career in the last century and is in the Hall of Fame.
But if you truly want to know how great Mays was? You had to watch him play.
I couldn’t help thinking of my Father when I learned of Mays’ passing last night on “The Source.” I mentioned him almost immediately. You see, my Father watched Mays play when he came up as a rookie for the New York Giants in 1951. He considered Mays the best player he ever saw from the moment he laid eyes on him in that inaugural year.
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Mays supercharged that ‘51 Giants squad and helped them overcome a 13.5-game deficit in mid-August to win the NL pennant over their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, thanks to the Shot Heard ‘Round the World. It remains, in my opinion, the greatest comeback in baseball history. Mays won Rookie of the Year that season.
It was three years later, however, when Mays became a baseball legend. After serving in the military for over a season, the man nicknamed the “Say Hey Kid” – who had a great song written about him playing on that name – dominated the National League.
He led the league in batting average, slugging percentage (a measure of power), triples (one of the ultimate measures of speed and power) and on-base plus slugging (OBPS), which combines all of it into one metric.
And yet, I don’t think most remember Mays’ 1954 MVP season for his offensive exploits; people like my Father remember him for a play he made during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.
Let me set the scene: the game is tied 2-2 in the eighth inning. The Cleveland Indians have runners on first and second with no one out. Cleveland power hitter Vic Wertz is at the plate, and he hits a long fly ball into the truly cavernous center field at the Polo Grounds in New York.
Mays, who roamed center field for over 20 seasons, went back more than 400 feet and made a difficult, over-the-shoulder catch seem easy. He then fired the ball back into the infield to ensure that no runs would score.
Mays, with his back to the plate, gets under a 450-foot blast off the bat of Cleveland Indians first baseman Vic Wertz to pull the ball down in front of the bleachers wall in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the World Series at the Polo Grounds in New York on September 29, 1954.
The Giants would go on to win the game and sweep the series in four games. It was their swan song in New York, as they moved to the West Coast after the 1957 season.
Mays never understood why people thought that catch was amazing. For him, it was relatively routine.
What was unique about this catch, beyond being in the World Series, was that video cameras captured it in an era from which we don’t have many recordings.
That short splice of film is our version of getting to see Mays play. It’s our rare glimpse into a man whose defensive prowess was far more than that one catch.
Mays was the best defensive player at any position that entire season in the National League, according to advanced statistics.
He is, by those same metrics, a top-five defensive outfielder of all time, and those statistics – given we don’t have a lot of video from the era – don’t even really take into account his obviously great arm.
The fact that I’m talking about the defense of a man who for a long period of time was third all-time in home runs – and remains sixth – tells you everything you need to know.
Mays wasn’t just defense, though he excelled at that.
He wasn’t just about hitting for power, though he excelled at that.
He wasn’t just hitting for average, though he excelled at that.
He wasn’t just about speed, even though he excelled at that and led the league in stolen bases four times.
New York Giants star Willie Mays loses his hat as the slides into third, starting at first on an infield hit in the sixth inning of game against the Chicago Cubs on May 22, 1957, in Chicago.
Mays was everything – and he was so for over 20 years. Mays was, as my friend and esteemed sports columnist Neil Paine calculated, the most complete ballplayer in history.
Baseball fans talk about finding five-tool players – those who hit for power and average, have speed and defensive abilities in terms of range and arm – like a miner trying to find gold. Well, we found our gold in Mays.
But again, Mays is more than just numbers. He was one of our last links to multiple eras of baseball history.
Mays oversaw the expansion of baseball to the West Coast in 1958, when it had previously been played on the Major League level only east of the Mississippi River. He was the first superstar on the West Coast.
Mays was also the last superstar with us who made his name playing in New York during the 1950s. It was baseball’s golden era; a time when America came out of World War II with a booming economy and during which baseball continued to outrank football as America’s favorite sport and pastime.
And if Mays wasn’t good enough, he actually added a few hits to his storied, record-book career a few weeks ago when Negro League statistics were integrated into the MLB record books. Mays was one of the last living stars who started his career in the Negro Leagues in 1948 for Birmingham Black Barons.
I like to joke that Mays was so great that he was still compiling hits at the age of 93.
Indeed, he remained a hit with anyone who saw him play. Long after his career was over, Mays – when he would come back to New York – lived down the street from us in the Bronx. My Father would see him on walks and knew he had to get his autograph.
Mays gave my Dad that autograph, and he kept it in his office until he passed. Mays is a big reason why my Father was one of the few people who wore a New York Giants baseball cap throughout his later years. I bought at least three of them for my Dad because he had one on his head all the time and literally wore them out.
It’s a connection I try to carry on to this day whether it’s by wearing a New York Giants baseball hat on television or by answering “the New York Giants” when asked what baseball team I root for.
Now, excuse me as I go try and find that Mays autograph to honor the greatest player anyone I know saw play.
While visiting the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a group of Willie Mays Scholars look at a display about the Negro League baseball team, Birmingham Black Barons, in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 18.
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