The Importance of Willie Mays' 90th Birthday

Willie Mays, The Say Hey Kid and Major League Baseball's greatest living player, is celebrating his 90th birthday today.

Mays is not the oldest person to have ever played MLB. On that score, Mays is the 74th oldest living MLB player. Until yesterday he had been 75th. Sadly, former Milwaukee Braves great Del Crandall has left this mortal coil. But many remain with us. Several members of the 1960 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates are older than Mays - Dick Groat, Vernon Law and Elroy Face (who are 90, 91 & 93, respectively). Mays' former Giants teammate Billy Gardner is 93 while rival Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Carl Erskine is 94. There are even a couple of centenarians - journeyman first baseman Eddie Robinson and the aptly named George Elder who played in 41 games for the St. Louis Browns back in 1949.

But Mays is the oldest living Hall of Famer and since April 2020 10 of his fellow Cooperstown honorees have passed away - Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, Joe Morgan, Tommy Lasorda, Phil Niekro, Don Sutton and Hank Aaron compounding the sorrow of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the midst of all this sadness and Joe DiMaggio long gone the nation turns its lonely eyes to Willie Mays to be baseball's elder statesman.

He has long had the credentials - 1951 NL Rookie of the Year, two NL MVPs more than a decade apart (1954 & 1965), a World Series ring in 1954 along with an over the shoulder basket catch which secured his fame not to mention 12 Gold Gloves, 24 NL All-Star Team selections becoming the first player to win the All-Star Game MVP twice (1963, 1968). This achievement has since been matched by Steve Garvey, Gary Carter, Cal Ripken, Jr. and Mike Trout. A Giant on both coasts he would end his career back in New York as a Met. In all, Mays had 3,283 hits for a lifetime batting average of .302 with 660 HR and 1903 RBIs. Had he not missed two seasons due to military service there is a case to be made that Mays might have eclipsed Aaron in both HRs and RBIs. 

Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 with 94.7% of the BBWAA vote, this triumph was marred by MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn shortsighted decision to put Mays and Mickey Mantle on the ineligible list because they worked as greeters in an Atlantic City casino. Kuhn's successor Peter Ueberroth wisely overturned this foolish edict. Baseball is a better place with Willie Mays in it and it is about we appreciate him while he still walks among us.

As amazing as Mays' catch was back in 1954 perhaps even more amazing was the catch he made on Old Timers Day at Shea Stadium in 1981 when he was a mere lad of 50. Happy 90th with many more catches to come.