Willie Mays Was My Dad's Favorite Baseball Player

As you may know by now, baseball legend Willie Mays passed away today at the age of 93.

Mays death comes only after he informed the San Francisco Chronicle he would not be in attendance at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama tomorrow night for the game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals honoring the Negro Leagues as well as his own legacy. Mays began his professional career as a teenager with the Birmingham Black Barons before signing with the New York Giants. The game will now be for all intents and purposes a public memorial to Mays. 

There are those who considered Mays the greatest to ever play baseball - even higher than Babe Ruth as was the case with Maury Allen's 1980 book Baseball's 100: A Personal Ranking of the Best Players in Baseball History. Wherever he ultimately ranks, Mays is usually in the Top 3 along with Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.

In 23 seasons, with the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets, Mays was named to 24 NL All-Star Teams, won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves for his play in centerfield, earned 2 NL MVPs in 1954 and 1965, drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, led the NL in HR four times, led the NL in stolen bases four consecutive seasons and even managed to steal 23 bases as a 40-year old. While Mays only collected more than 200 hits once in his career, he finished with nearly 3,300 hits (3,293). A lifetime .301 hitter, Mays belted 660 HR and drove in 1909 RBIs. If Mays hadn't missed part of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season due to military service, he surely would have topped 700 HRs. 

Willie Mays was also my Dad's favorite baseball player. That was certainly true of lot of Dads especially those who grew up in and around New York. During my Dad's formative years, New York was home to three MLB teams - New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants with the latter team being his favored squad. Dad had the opportunity to spend many an afternoon at the Polo Grounds in the hope of meeting the Say Hey Kid. While this did not come to pass, he would meet Stan "The Man" Musial after a Giants-Cardinals game was rained out. But that's another story for another day. 

For now, courtesy of the I leave you with "The Catch" from Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. R.I.P.