Willie Mays, the iconic baseball legend whose remarkable career spanned 22 seasons, has died, the San Francisco Giants announced Tuesday. He was 93.
Mays “passed away peacefully this afternoon,” the Giants said in a social media post.
“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we gather on the ballpark where a career and legacy like no other began,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement Tuesday evening. “Willie Mays brought his all-around talent from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned his place as our national pastime.”
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Mays had issued a statement on Monday he would not be able to attend Thursday’s Giants game against the St. Louis Cardinals will be played at Rickwood Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama – commemorating Mays and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagueswith whom Mays began his professional career in 1948.
The MLB said Thursday’s game will now include a “pregame ceremony honoring the life of Willie Mays.”
Nicknamed the “Say Hey Kid”, Mays spent most of his career in center field for the Giants, first in New York and then after the team moved to San Francisco. During Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the only championship he would win, Mays made “The Catch” – an over-the-shoulder snag of a fly ball that is still considered the greatest catch in history of the game.
From then on, Mays was a cultural icon.
As a child, Mays learned to play baseball from his father, Cat Mays, in Westfield, Alabama. Cat, a single father and steelworker, played on the baseball team at the local steel mill and made time to teach his son how to play the game he had wanted to play professionally.
At the age of 16, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons. After graduating high school in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants.
“I arrived in New York City at four o’clock on a Friday,” Mays recalled at his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1979. “Terrified with three bats in my little briefcase, my glove, I had no uniform, I had no hat .”
It didn’t take long for him to find his feet. Mays was named National League Rookie of the Year after his freshman season.
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His career was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, he was assigned to Fort Eustice in Virginia and spent most of his time playing on military baseball teams.
He was fired in March 1954 and rejoined the Giants for what would become a championship season, during which he also won his first of two MVP awards.
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He moved with the team to San Francisco in 1958, led them to a World Series appearance in 1962 – losing to the New York Yankees in seven games – and became the team’s captain in 1964. He won his second MVP award in 1965.
Mays was traded to the New York Mets before the 1972-73 season, which would prove to be his last.
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He finished his playing career with 660 home runs, sixth all-time.
He was a 24-time All-Star, ranked second all-time and won 12 Golden Glove awards.
Mays was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, receiving 97% of the vote when he became eligible in 1979.
Despite the trade from the Giants, there was always a special place for him in the San Francisco clubhouse for the rest of his life, where a visit from Mays often inspired younger players.
A monumental statue was erected in his honor in 2000 outside what is now called Oracle Park. The statue is surrounded by 24 palm trees, in tribute to its number 24, which was also decommissioned by the organization. The statue is a small reminder of a man who was long considered baseball’s greatest living legend, even if that wasn’t necessarily a label he cared about.
“I never like that,” he said in 2011. “When you’re the best ballplayer, you say, ‘You’re the best ballplayer.’ Preferably not the ‘living ball player’. What’s the point? When I first heard it, I said, ‘Wait a minute, guys, I have to be dead before you give me credit for doing anything?’
But over the years, Mays’ combination of speed, strength and defense has led many to consider him the greatest of all time, living or dead.
