Willie Mays, the greatest all-round player in baseball history, who helped to breach racial barriers – obituary (2024)

Willie Mays, who has died aged 93, was one of the best baseball players in the history of his sport; alongside his fellow black players, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, he also helped to dismantle racial barriers with his grace, power and effervescent personality.

While most observers would probably place him behind Babe Ruth in the baseball pantheon, there was no better all-rounder. Mays was what coaches call a “five-tool player”, excelling in the five physical categories of speed, throwing, fielding, hitting for power and hitting for average (the batting average is the number of hits divided by the number of at-bats).

He was named on 24 All-Star teams in 18 seasons (more than one such team was sometimes named each year), and across his 23-year career he hit 660 home runs, had 3,293 hits and a batting average of .301.

But while none of those figures are chart-toppers – he comes in at sixth on the all-time home runs list, though he did score four in one game in 1961 – it was Mays’s all-round talents that marked him out. Aside from his hitting prowess and consistency, he had a facility for stealing bases that helped to revive what had been a dying art (a base is stolen when a player manages to progress from one base to the next under the pitcher’s nose). Most importantly, he was a centre-fielder with a magic glove and an exquisitely accurate throwing hand, and from 1957 he won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves for defensive excellence.

Willie Mays, the greatest all-round player in baseball history, who helped to breach racial barriers – obituary (1)

In 1954 he pulled off what became known simply as “the Catch”. In Game 1 of the best-of-seven World Series his New York Giants side were tied 2-2 against the Cleveland Indians in the eighth inning. With the Indians batting, Vic Wertz let fly a mighty shot that seemed to be a home run all the way. But Mays made an astonishing on-the-run, over-the-shoulder catch, then whipped the ball with laser-like accuracy to second base, preventing the Indians from scoring.

The Giants went on to win that match, and the next three, for a 4-0 clean sweep – though Mays was annoyed when sportswriters described his throw as merely “instinctive”.

“All the while I’m runnin’ back, I’m planning how to get off that throw,” he recalled. “To keep my momentum, to get it working for me, I have to turn very hard and short and throw the ball from exactly the point that I caught it.”

The glove with which Mays made his famous catch and throw was eventually put on display at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Willie Mays, the greatest all-round player in baseball history, who helped to breach racial barriers – obituary (2)

His sunny character made him immensely popular in the sport and beyond, and he was known as the “Say Hey Kid”, for his habitual greeting of “Hey”.

His exuberant personality was matched by an undeniable flashiness on the field of play: he would often make unconventional catches, holding his glove at waist level for his trademark “basket catch”, and he would slide to the ground as he took the catch to make it look trickier than it was. He admitted to wearing a cap a size too big so it would fly off as he ran for a catch or sprinted round the bases.

He said his showy style stemmed from his days in the Negro leagues: “We were all entertainers, and my job was to give the fans something to talk about each game.”

Willie Howard Mays Jr was born on May 6 1931 in Westfield, Alabama, near Birmingham, to unmarried teenage parents; his father, William “Cat” Mays, was a young steelworker and stylish semi-pro baseball player, while his mother, Annie Satterthwaite, was a 16-year-old star runner at high school. When he was a baby she moved away and went on to have 10 more children, though Willie kept in touch with her into adulthood.

Willie Mays, the greatest all-round player in baseball history, who helped to breach racial barriers – obituary (3)

Brought up by his father and two aunts, he was, like his mother, a star athlete, at Fairfield Industrial High School. He was also a baseball prodigy, nurtured by his father, and at 17 joined Birmingham Barons in one of the Negro leagues; he was initially unable to join the team on road trips until school was out for the summer.

In 1947 the major leagues began to take on black players, and three years later the New York Giants paid the Barons $10,000 for Mays, who had just turned 20. He was voted National League Rookie of the Year that season, but with war raging in Korea he was drafted – though he spent the best part of two years in the army playing baseball at an army camp in Virginia.

He returned in 1954 – and after five titles in a row for their city rivals, the New York Yankees, the Giants reached the World Series against the Cleveland Indians, with Mays making his famous “Catch”.

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In 1957 the Giants moved to San Francisco – and although Mays would soon become revered in the Golden Gate City, his initial reception was hostile. When he tried to buy a house in a white area there was uproar among neighbours who feared a drop in property prices. The city’s mayor offered to put up Mays and his wife in his own home, shaming the house vendors into going ahead with the sale. When the Mays did move in, a co*ke bottle containing a hate message was hurled through their front window.

But he was reluctant to make waves, and his hero Jackie Robinson, who did campaign for civil rights, scorned his cosy public image and criticised him for not lending his heft to the struggles for social justice. “I can’t stand on a soapbox and preach,” Mays responded. “It isn’t my nature.” He did his bit, he insisted, by mentoring young black players.

If Mays made one mis-step in his career, it was going on too long. By the early 1970s he was one of his sport’s best-paid players, earning $165,000 a year, but his talents were in decline, and he was traded to the New York Mets, who reached that year’s World Series – but a Mays error in Game 2 proved crucial in handing the momentum to the eventual champions, the Oakland As. He retired immediately afterwards.

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In the 1980s he was banned from baseball for a few years because, along with another legend of the game, Mickey Mantle, he was being paid by casinos to entertain their customers. When the ban was lifted, the Giants gave him a lifetime contract as an adviser.

In 2009 the US president Barack Obama took Mays with him on Air Force One when he flew to the All-Star Game in St Louis. He told Mays that if it had not been for figures like him and Jackie Robinson, “I’m not sure that I would get elected to the White House.” In 2015 Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Willie Mays married Marghuerite Wendell Chapman in 1956; they adopted a son, who survives him, but divorced in 1963; he married, secondly, Mae Louise Allen, a child welfare worker. She died in 2013.

Willie Mays, born May 6 1931, died June 18 2024

Willie Mays, the greatest all-round player in baseball history, who helped to breach racial barriers – obituary (2024)

FAQs

What was Willie Mays best known for? ›

Mays won two MVPs, was named to 24 all-star teams, and won 12 Gold Gloves—cementing him as the greatest defensive center fielder in baseball history. Mays would go on to be hitting instructor for the Mets until 1979. That year he was also selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first ballot.

Why was Willie Mays known as the say "hey kid"? ›

Mays began his career with the New York Giants in 1951, four years after Jackie Robinson played his first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He became known as the “Say Hey Kid” because of his youth, exuberant style of play and habit of greeting people with the phrase, “Say Hey.”

Was Willie Mays the goat? ›

What we do know is that no one who played against the best baseball players in the world ever dominated them as much as Mays did, for as long as Mays did, with as much style as Mays did. He was a giant of the game. He was the GOAT before we called them GOATs. He was the Greatest Ballplayer Who Ever Lived.

Where was Willie Mays when he died? ›

Willie Mays, the spirited center fielder whose brilliance at the plate, in the field and on the basepaths for the Giants led many to call him the greatest all-around player in baseball history, died on Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 93.

What was Willie Mays greatest catch? ›

However, Mays made an over-the-shoulder catch while on the run to record the out, and his throw back to the infield prevented one of the runners from advancing. The Giants won the game 5–2 in extra innings, and eventually the World Series. The Catch is regarded as one of the greatest plays in baseball history.

Is Willie Mays the oldest living baseball player? ›

Mays was the oldest living Hall of Fame player at 93 when he died. The honor now belongs to Luis Aparicio, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound shortstop who dazzled with his glove and led the American League in stolen bases in each of his first nine seasons.

Was Willie Mays better than Babe Ruth? ›

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.

Is Willie Mays a legend? ›

As a ballplayer, Willie Mays was arguably the greatest of all time — baseball's GOAT. But he also starred in another endeavor — as an important California civil rights pioneer.

What is the trivia about Willie Mays? ›

Led the National League in stolen bases from 1956 thru 1959; was the first player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season. Moved into second place on the all-time home run list with his 535th homer in August of 1966; remained second behind Babe Ruth until Hank Aaron overtook him in 1972.

What record does Willie Mays hold? ›

Mays was an All-Star 24 times, tying for the second-most appearances in history. He led the NL in home runs four times and in slugging percentage five times while batting over .300 and posting 100 runs batted in (RBIs) ten times each.

Is Willie Mays related to Barry Bonds? ›

Barry Bonds on his lifelong relationship with his Godfather, Willie Mays.

Was Willie Mays in the Hall of Fame? ›

Mays' 1979 Hall of Fame enshrinement was a mere formality. He received 409 of 432 votes cast -- 94.7 percent, one of the highest ever to that point. In a news conference held shortly after his election to Cooperstown, Mays was asked to name the greatest player he ever saw.

What was Willie Mays famous quote? ›

In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.

Why was Willie Mays called to say "Hey kid"? ›

His nickname's origin isn't certain. It's often attributed to The New York Journal American's Barney Kremenko who used the nickname in reference to Mays' way of greeting his teammates. "[Mays] would blurt, 'Say who,' 'Say what,' 'Say where,' 'Say hey,'" Kremenko recounted. "In my paper, I tabbed him the 'Say Hey Kid.'

How much money did Willie Mays make per year? ›

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 15 (AP)—The San Francisco Giants signed a superstar and a top supporting player today They gave Willie Mays a 1964 contract calling for a reported $105,000, and they also enrolled Orlando Cepeda for about $52,000.

Who is better Babe Ruth or Willie Mays? ›

Objectively, Ruth (183.1 WAR) had a higher WAR than Mays (156.1), so in one sense the ranking is based on substance. On top of this, the former is the superior contributor by most statistical measures including home runs, OPS, OPS+, and pitcher wins.

Did Willie Mays make the Hall of Fame? ›

He may have been baseball's greatest living Hall of Famer — not just at the time of his death this week, but from the moment he was inducted in 1979. Mays' combination of hitting, baserunning and defensive brilliance was so extraordinary that simply calling him an all-time great feels insufficient.

When did Willie Mays hit his first home run? ›

1951 (May 25) — Major league debut. 1951 (May 28) — First major league hit after 0-for-12 start — a home run off Milwaukee's Warren Spahn.

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