Was Willie Mays the greatest baseball player ever? Many who played with or against him think so. It was common for radio announcers calling Giant games to say, “The only man who could have caught that ball just hit it (after Mays hit a ball).”
I grew up in New York City in the 1950s, but Willie and the Giants left town for San Francisco when I was five, so I never saw him play for the New York Giants. I did see him play against the New York Mets on June 1, 1962, on Willie Mays night at the Polo Grounds, the great centerfielder’s first trip back to play in New York.
But I didn’t have the privilege of seeing Mays regularly in person or on television until he was traded to the Mets in 1972, where he played two seasons until he retired at age 42.
I learned much about his greatness from my father, a native New Yorker who saw Mays play for the New York Giants when the Say Hey kid arrived in 1951. My dad was at the Polo Grounds when Mays hit his first home run, a 450 blast off Warren Spahn.
Perhaps the best way to appreciate Mays is to hear from those who played or managed with or against him. So here are some Willie Mays stories.
Joe Torre: “Willie didn’t like to wait in the box. He wants you to throw the ball right now. Sometimes, I’d put a sign down, but I wouldn’t put anything down. And Willie would talk to you. He’d say, ‘I know what you’re doing. I know what you’re doing.’ It was impossible not to love him even though he scared you to death because he was so good. One time, I tried to distract him by talking to him. I asked him a question at the plate. I don’t remember what it was about, maybe about a restaurant, and he hit the ball out of the ballpark while answering the question. Then he made a half turn to me as he started to first base and told me, ‘I’ll finish the story later.’”
Leo Durocher, Mays’ first big-league manager: “If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases, and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you right in the eye and tell you that Willie was better. He could do the five things you must do to be a superstar: hit, hit with power, run, throw, and field. He also had the other magic ingredient, which turns a superstar into a superstar. Charisma. He lit up a room when he came in. He was a joy to be around.”
Don Zimmer: “In the National League in the 1950s, there were two opposing players who stood out over all the others — Stan Musial and Willie Mays. … I’ve always said that Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw. … He could have been an All-Star at any position.”
Gil Hodges: “I can’t very well tell my batters don’t hit it to him. Wherever they hit it, he’s there anyway.”
Harvey Haddix (to his catcher with Willie Mays at bat): “Look at him. He knows he’s going to hit me, and I know he’s going to hit, so I’m going to walk him.”
Reggie Jackson: “You used to think if the score were 5-0, he’d hit a five-run homer.”
Bill Rigney: “As a batter, his only weakness is a wild pitch.”
Willie McCovey: “I played with him. People have a false impression of what a great player is nowadays. If somebody puts up great numbers, they think he’s great. But if you saw Willie play, you would see games where he would win it for us, and he wouldn’t even get a hit. He did things that nobody else did. That’s what makes a great ballplayer.”
Steve Stone, former Giants pitcher: “He was the best center fielder in the game when he was 39. It’s truly amazing how long he maintained his skills.”
Johnny Bench: “And he never missed one. He was so effortless. Back then, you wanted to put mustard on him. But that was just his natural ability and his grace in performing. In almost every game, it seems like he made an amazing play. You could have had two outfielders, put the other in the infield because Willie covered it all.”
Felipe Alou (who played left or right field next to Mays): “I sometimes found myself watching the game like a fan would watch a game. A ball would be hit, and I would say, like a fan or a broadcaster, ‘Is he going to catch this one?’ He had an amazing first step. He was covering half of the field by himself.”
Peter Macgowan, former Giants president: “He would routinely do things you never saw anyone else do. He’d score from first base on a single. He’d take two bases on a pop-up. He’d throw somebody out at the plate on one bounce. And the bigger the game, the better he played.”
Dusty Baker: “I thought I had a pretty good arm. I thought I would throw Willie out at third base one day. I had him out. He ran right in the way of the ball, and it hit him in the shoulder. I got an error, and he scored. I swear he looked back, saw where the throw was, and ran right into the ball’s path. I told the umpire, ‘He can’t do that!’”
Sandy Koufax: “I can’t believe that Babe Ruth was a better player than Willie Mays. Ruth is to baseball, what Arnold Palmer is to golf. He got the game moving. But I can’t believe he could run as well as Mays, and I can’t believe he was any better an outfielder.”
Say Hey!
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This column first appeared in The Vacaville Reporter on May 6, 2021.
