There have been players who were the best players of their time, and there have been players who were great representatives of the game of baseball.
Willie Mays did both, and he did them at the highest level.
Mays, who died on Tuesday at the age of 93, embodied everything you want, not only in a superstar but also in a person. And the swagger, flair and grace he showed over four decades in baseball endeared him to the people of New York, San Francisco and the rest of the nation.
Mays was the greatest baseball player the world has ever seen. Perhaps the best it will ever look. Looking through the list of achievements and accolades for The Say Hey Kid, it’s hard to imagine a player being able to do everything he accomplished, even in a 23-year career:
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1951 NL Rookie of the Year
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1954 World Series Champion
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3,293 hits
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660 home runs
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12 golden glove awards
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2 NL MVP awards
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24 All-Star Game selections
Offensively, Mays was a force at the plate. He was the second player in MLB history to join the 600 home run club, after Babe Ruth, and his 660 home runs still rank sixth all-time.
Defensively, Mays had no equal. He was without a doubt the best center fielder in baseball. Before Ken Griffey Jr., Andruw Jones and Torii Hunter, there was Mays, who roamed the Polo Grounds and vast midfield like a gazelle, making the impossible look mundane. His 12 Gold Glove Awards by a midfielder remain the most ever at the position.
Mays’ over-the-shoulder catch more than 500 feet from home plate in the 1954 World Series, robbing Vic Wertz of a potential game-winning hit, is considered the greatest catch in baseball history. Seventy years later it is still known simply as ‘The Catch’.
Red Sox great Ted Williams was as good as any player and is enshrined in Cooperstown in the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Williams may have made the most accurate statement in baseball history: “They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays.”
No. 24’s total of 24 All-Star nods is surpassed only by his old friend Hank Aaron’s 25. The ability to sustain greatness for as long as Mays did is something that should never be taken for granted.
It’s far too easy to call Mays a legend. That’s not because the term is incorrect or disrespectful. But for perhaps the greatest baseball player ever, it just doesn’t do him justice.
We would also be remiss if we didn’t point out that Mays’ excellence came at a time when Black players faced extremely difficult challenges with bigotry, racism, and a society that did not embrace them as people. Mays, who made his debut four years after Jackie Robinson broke the MLB color barrier, was not only one of baseball’s first black superstars; he was one of the first black superstars in American professional sports. And his ability and grace resonated with black sports fans from coast to coast.
Mays was your favorite player’s favorite player, and that’s something that haunted him for decades, both while he played and long after he retired. When Mays played, he did so with a joy, energy and passion that resonated with generations of baseball fans and generations of baseball players. The reaction he got from a fan who had watched him play for 23 years was the same reaction he would get from a player who grew up following him. The reverence and appreciation for everything Mays meant to baseball never ceased.
When he was 15, playing for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field, Mays began a long, successful journey to become part of the pantheon of baseball’s immortals. In doing so, he left the game and the world in a much better state than he found it.
And even after a Hall of Fame career, that’s what made Mays great. In a room with the best players in the world, they all knew he was the best, both while playing and afterwards.
Willie Mays was not a legend. He was and forever will be an icon.
