Why Willie Mays, not Babe Ruth, was baseball’s greatest player | CNN (2024)

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Among students of baseball, there has long been widespread belief that Willie Mays was the game’s greatest all-around player.

That might come as a surprise to those who are casual fans, or not fans at all, when they read obituaries this week that describe Mays, who died Tuesday at the age of 93, as the greatest. Babe Ruth was the common answer to the game’s “greatest player” title starting more than 100 years ago, when he smashed home run records and lifted the popularity of the game to the point it became known as the national pastime. And Ruth’s exploits as a Herculean slugger came after part of his career was as one of baseball’s top pitchers, making him a rare two-way great.

But Mays achieved greatness in many more aspects of the game than Ruth, even if he never threw a pitch.

“Willie Mays was the player who did everything better than anybody else,” said sportswriter Joe Posnanski. “That’s not to say he did every single thing better. Maybe he was not the greatest baserunner. But he was one of the best. Maybe not the greatest hitter, but again, one of the best. One of the best fielders. You put all of those things together and you have the most perfect player who ever lived.”

Posnanski, whose 2021 best selling book “The Baseball 100” ranked the game’s greatest players, ranked Mays as No. 1 and Ruth as No. 2.

There is a term in baseball to describe Mays’ rare kind of greatness — “a five-tool player,” one who can hit for average, hit for power, field, throw and run.

“I don’t know if they invented the term to describe him. But he epitomized it like no one else,” said Jayson Stark, a baseball writer for The Athletic and a member of the writer’s wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays, seen here of the New York Giants in 1955, had 660 career home runs and won 12 Golden Gloves in 23 major league seasons.

Mays as a 13-year-old.

Willie Mays holds a baseball bat in the clubhouse of the American minor league team Minneapolis Millers on May 19, 1951. Mays played a short stint with the team, then affiliated with the New York Giants.

Mays gets his plane ticket to New York to join the New York Giants, in Omaha, Nebraska on May 24, 1951.

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From left: Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Thompson hold bats on their shoulders in Yankee Stadium in 1951. The New York Giants trio made up the first all-Black outfield in World Series history. All three men were playing with the New York Giants in the World Series.

Mays is sworn into the US Army by Capt. William F. Donegan on May 19, 1952. One year into his Major League career, after having won the National League Rookie of The Year in 1951, Mays joined the Army. He served from 1952 to 1954.

Mays bids goodbye to his baseball shoes, while also holding his Army-issued boots, at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on May 29, 1952.

Mays, then a physical training instructor at Fort Eustis, Virginia, leads soldiers through a calisthenics session on February 19, 1953. At the time, Mays, then 21, was seeking a dependency discharge from the Army as the sole support for his mother and nine siblings.

Released from the Army after two years of service, Mays waves to an assembled crowd during a spring training session in Phoenix, Arizona on March 4, 1954.

Mays plays stick ball with kids in New York's Harlem neighborhood in 1954.

Mays makes a leaping, one-handed catch off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Duke Snider on August 15, 1954.

Jackie Robinson, left, congratulates Mays, after Mays' New York Giants beat Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers 7-1, to make the World Series against the Cleveland Indians, on Septebmer 1, 1954.

Mays yells "Say hey!" before the second game of the 1954 World Series. Mays was known as "The Say Hey Kid" for the way he enthusiastically greeted others.

Sprinting toward the center-field wall, his back fully turned to the plate, Mays catches a ball over his shoulder during the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians, on September 29, 1954. Mays then fired the ball back into the infield, preventing two runners from scoring. The play is one of baseball's most celebrated feats.

Mays, right, gets batting tips from Joe DiMiaggio, at the 32nd annual dinner of the Baseball Writers at the Waldorf Astoria in 1955. Mays, the reigning National League MVP, won the Scribes' Sid Mercer Award as "Player of The Year."

Margherite Wendell poses with Mays, hours after their wedding at her home in East Elmhurst, New York, on Feburary 14, 1956. The couple was married from 1956 until their divorce in 1963.

Mays, then of the San Francisco Giants, plays catch with 14-month-old Herbert Henderson, at the home of Henderson's parents, in San Francisco, California on November 14, 1957. Mays was staying with the Henderson's while house hunting.

Mays gets a kiss from his dog Pepe while moving into their new San Francisco home on January 15, 1958.

Mays, seated at right, interacts with young fans while sitting with fellow San Francisco Giant Willie McCovey in the dugout of Candlestick Park in 1960.

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Mays shakes hands with television host Ed Sullivan as the pair talk about the All-Star Game and Mays' batting average on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Mays watches the ball he had just hit go over the left field fence at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, on April 24, 1966. The home run was May's 511th in his National League career and tied a record held by the late Mel Ott.

Mays with Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron on August 3, 1969.

Mays cries after he is bid farewell by New York Mets' owner Joan Whitney Payson during a ceremony for Mays at Shea Stadium in New York City on September 26, 1973. After one year with the Mets, Mays retired from professional baseball.

Teammates douse Mays with champagne in their locker room at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on October 1, 1973. The Mets had just defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-4 to take the National League East division championship.

Mays waves to the crowd as the San Francisco Giants retire his No. 25 jersey, during Willie Mays Day before San Francisco's game against the New York Mets at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 20, 1983.

Mays throws out the last pitch, as former and current San Fransisco Giants players watch, at 3Com Park at Candlestick Point in San Francisco on September 30, 1999. The Giants were scheduled to move into their new stadium, Pacific Bell Park, the following spring.

Mays stands next to a statue of himself during its dedication by the San Francisco Giants, at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, in front of Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2000.

San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds outfield, center, hugs Mays while Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey stands nearby, on April 17, 2001. Mays was Bonds' godfather. On the day of Mays' death, Bonds shared a post on Instagram, saying: "I am beyond devastated and overcome with emotion. I have no words to describe what you mean to me -- you helped shape me to be who I am today. Thank you for being my Godfather and always being there. Give my dad a hug for me. Rest in peace Willie, I love you forever."

From left: First lady Laura Bush, Mays and President George W. Bush watch "Tee Ball on the South Lawn" at the White House in Washington, DC on July 30, 2006. The game featured teams from Little League's Challenger Division, organized for mentally and physically disabled children.

Mays is honored prior to the 78th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on July 10, 2007.

President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Mays about Air Force One en route to the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis on July 14, 2009.

Mays waves to the crowd after he is given a birthday cake from San Francisco Giants announcer Jon Miller for Mays' 81st birthday at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on May 6, 2012.

President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to Mays at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 24, 2015.

Mays greets VIP attendees during the inauguration ceremony for Mayor London Breed on the steps of City Hall in San Francisco, California on July 11, 2018.

The Life of Baseball Giant Willie Mays, in pictures

Stark wrote an appreciation of Mays on Thursday, citing 22 different little-known statistics that demonstrate Mays’ greatness. Stark noted that Mays is the only player to ever lead his league in all 10 of these key offensive categories: hits, runs, home runs, triples, stolen bases, batting average, on base percentage, slugging percentage total bases and walks.

Mays is also the only player with more than 300 home runs, 300 stolen bases, 3,000 hits and a lifetime .300 batting average — all milestone marks in the sport.

But even Stark acknowledges the numbers don’t really do Mays justice.

“I honestly don’t think you need to tell this story of Willie Mays with the numbers,” he said.

Many who cite his greatness also speak about the joy he brought to the game.

“Baseball is a game that is meant to be enjoyed, and there has never been a player more joyful than Willie Mays,” said Posnanski.

“There was a sense of joy and charisma that was unmatched,” said Stark. “He could turn millions of people into baseball fans by himself.”’

Ruth was also a larger than life player who packed stadiums, popularizing the home run to almost single-handedly change the way the game was played. But there was something about how happy Mays was on the field that captured the public’s imagination in a different way. His greeting to people, “Say hey!” led to his nickname the Say Hey Kid. And he always seemed to be a kid playing a child’s game at a great level, throughout a career that lasted 23 years.

‘The catch’

And as great a hitter as Mays was, the most famous moment of his career might have come in centerfield at the Polo Grounds in New York, where his Giants played before moving to San Francisco in 1958. In the first game of the 1954 World Series, against a heavily favored Cleveland team, he caught a fly ball an estimated 425 feet from home plate, with his back to the plate, and then wheeled and threw the ball back to the infield in one motion to stop a runner from scoring.

It is widely talked about as the greatest catch in the history of the game, even though Mays himself said he made numerous catches that were better. Stark said when he quoted longtime baseball announcer Vin Scully as saying during the 1992 World Series that a catch the previous day by Toronto Blue Jays centerfielder Devon White had been better, it caused an outcry. People wouldn’t accept there could be a better catch than Mays’ catch. Even White said his catch couldn’t be compared to Mays’ catch. White’s catch was soon widely forgotten, while Mays’ catch is still discussed and referred to regularly by fans nearly 70 years after the fact.

FILE - New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays, with his back to the plate, gets under a blast off the bat of Cleveland Indians first baseman Vic Wertz to pull the ball down in front of the bleachers wall in the eighth inning of Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, still widely considered baseball's greatest catch.

“The Willie Mays catch will always be its own thing,” said Posnanski.

“Name any other player with 600 home runs whose most famous play is a catch,” said Stark. “That just doesn’t happen.”

Mays played more games in center field than any other player in history and caught more balls in the outfield. He threw out nearly 200 baserunners from the outfield. But defense is still not as appreciated by some fans and statistical measures as offensive ones, says Gary Gillette, a baseball historian and editor of The Baseball Encyclopedia. He said it’s one of the reasons that Mays’ greatness isn’t as fully appreciated as it should be.

“Whether you create a run or prevent a run, you’re helping your team to win equally,” he said.

Respecting important intangibles

Gillette says Mays also had one key edge over Ruth when comparing their accomplishments: Ruth played in a segregated era and therefore didn’t compete against the best Black ballplayers. Mays was one of the players who helped integrate baseball in the 1950s, starting his career in 1951 just four years after Jackie Robinson broke the game’s disgraceful color barrier.

“Very few people try to adjust for (Ruth’s career in a segregated game),” said Gillette.

Mays also didn’t play in most of the 1953 season or any of the 1954 season while serving in the Army in Korea. In the 1955 and 1956 seasons, he hit 41 and 51 home runs, respectively, suggesting he would have totaled well over the 55 home runs in two lost seasons to overtake Ruth’s then-record 714 career home runs. It would therefore be Hank Aaron, not Mays, to be the first to eclipse Ruth as the home run leader.

“(Mays’) 660 home runs was great, but it wasn’t more than Babe,” said Gillette.

FILE - New York Giants' centerfielder Willie Mays flashes smile in clubhouse at the Polo Grounds in New York after clouting his 20th triple of the season in 1957.

So Mays’ greatness was often not fully appreciated, especially by casual fans. He played most of his career on the West Coast, depriving fans in much of the country from following his success. He only played in four World Series, spread out across his 23-year career. And of course he played in the era before ESPN and highlight shows on cable and the internet, which is how many of today’s fans follow the game.

“The brilliance of Mays day-to-day in the ’50s and ‘60s is practically lost,” said Steve Hirdt, a longtime baseball statistician and historian and senior director of operations and research at Stats Perform. “They were on television, but there was no preservation of most of those broadcasts. The lack of film or video tape when he was at his peak leave current day fans with an incomplete picture of how great he was.”

Hirdt is actually one of the baseball historians who gives an edge to Ruth over Mays because of Ruth’s success as a pitcher. But he says Mays is a very close second in overall greatness. And while he never saw Ruth play, Hirdt says he cherishes the games he saw Mays play.

“Willie was the most exciting player I’ve ever seen, and there’s no one close for second,” he said.