This biography profiles his childhood, life, baseball career, achievements and timeline. Willie would’ve been first, the greatest home run hitter of all time, if he hadn’t played in that windy hellhole, Candlestick Park, on blustery Candlestick Point, at the edge of San Francisco Bay. [ The Oldest Living Major League Baseball Players ] “He doesn’t have access to all the players and the people for that taste of baseball, which he just lives for.”. And that famous catch in the World Series. After a two-out error in the ninth, Oakland removed Rollie Fingers for the left-handed Darold Knowles, with the left-handed Wayne Garrett coming up as the tying run. “Go get his autograph.”. More bio, uniform, draft, salary info Mays' 156.2 career WAR is right behind Ruth and Barry Bonds, but his game was more complete than either of them. No one else could’ve done it.” Dad would look up, his back turned toward me, waiting for the invisible ball to drop. Baseball Hall of Famer. We’re currently in process of confirming all details … Mays retired after the 1973 season with a lifetime batting average of .302 and 660 home runs. Willie caught a few more fly balls at belt level, judging the arc, watching it nestle into his glove as if it were a floating leaf. The Red Sox became the last major league team to integrate, with Pumpsie Green in 1959. “Oh, they had me easy,” Mays said of the Red Sox as he talked with Shea for this column. Willie born under the Taurus horoscope as Willie's birth date is May 6. I said, ‘No, I’ll go where they paid my family.’”. Please ignore rumors and hoaxes. He also interviewed opponents, historians, current stars like the Angels’ Mike Trout and the former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to twenty years in prison on four counts of crack cocaine distribution and one count of use of a f His Dad Played Baseball. He was done signing. His height is 1.8m tall, and his weight is 82 kg. “I kick myself,” Mays says in the book. View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen. Willie Mays Alive Born: 5/6/1931 in Westfield, Alabama, USA Age: 89 Full name: Willie Howard Mays Nickname: The Say Hey Kid Noted For: center fielder, member of the New York Giants (1951-57), San Francisco Giants (1958-72), and New York Mets (1972-73). “There’s Willie.” My father pointed to the man we both loved. We will never know what might have happened if Mays himself had been running from first on the double he hit in Game 7 of the 1962 World Series with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning. I took a picture from the stands, though I could barely identify Willie’s face in the subsequent photo. Garrett popped out, and Mays never played again. See who joins him among MLB's top five greatest living players. Willie Mays’s height and weight. Mays shares the record, with Hank Aaron and Stan Musial, for most All-Star Games — 24, naturally — and the book conveys how seriously he embraced his role as an entertainer. A few players would come over to the stands, sign whatever was thrust into their hands, spit tobacco, and then go back to shagging fly balls and joking with each other in the bright light of summer. He trotted back to the outfield, raised both his arms from mid-center, and waved. Willie Mays. Mays has collaborated on books before, but “24” feels like a valedictory address in which the speaker is too humble to brag, but waves of guests take the stage to give stirring testimony. Nonetheless, Dad still embraced the San Francisco Giants and so they became our family team, all of us following my father’s lead. He told me stories of Willie playing stickball in the street with kids near the old Polo Grounds, smashing a pink rubber ball into the shape of an egg with one whack of the broomstick bat. As the coronavirus pandemic keeps him homebound, the greatest living baseball player is missing visits to the ballpark, as well as opportunities to promote a new book on his life. My Cousin Made Me Go Bald When I Was Eight Years Old, Spitting in a tube for ancestral bragging rights — and finding none, My Family Lives Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Every Day, Gift-Giving Was My Family’s Love Language — and Our Coping Strategy. He wiped his brow with his glove. Willie Mays Aikens (born October 14, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. “He played centerfield,” the newsman said, “for San Francisco, formerly the New York Giants.”. I hadn’t been abandoned as my father had. Willie Mays | Hank Aaron | Frank Robinson (write-in) | Sandy Koufax Mays' greatness is not just about those 660 home runs. When Dad died, I thought I’d take the photo for myself. Add Willie's birthday or the date he died to see a list of historic events that occurred during Willie's lifetime. Willie Mays is a.) Mays does not dwell on the racism he experienced in his career, before and after stardom: He was taunted as a minor leaguer in Trenton, N.J., and initially turned down for a home he wanted to buy in San Francisco because of his race. I knew the Giants solely as a team from San Francisco that came into New York every June and August to play against the Mets. San Francisco Giants center fielder Willie Mays had what on a normal day might be considered an average performance against the Houston Astros on … Refresh the page for new events. “People said, ‘How the hell can you do that?’ I don’t know. But as I neared, Willie suddenly turned. “I found out with both Bush and Clinton, their childhood heroes were Willie Mays,” Shea said. As he returned to the dugout he waved once more and smiled. He stood there, watching the sliding runner just getting back to the bag. AKA William Howard Mays, Jr. He also made one of the iconic defensive plays ever and was a superior baserunner. Upon his Hall of Fame induction, Mays was asked to name the best player that he had seen during his career. They are both still alive. If you have any unfortunate news that this page should be … “My thing is keep talking and keep moving,” Mays told Shea the other day, but those activities are complicated. Willie Mays defined the position. No one has to go to the army now. Baseball legend Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants are saddened to share the news that Mae Louise Allen Mays, Willie's wife of 41 years, passed away peacefully in her sleep this morning in the couple's Bay Area home after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. Mays played in major league baseball very soon after the colour bar ended, and he probably never received the respect due him based upon his skills. Mays’s final hit was a go-ahead, extra-inning single in Game 2 of that World Series, though the lasting image of the end of his career is his fall in center field while battling the sun. Shea presents Mays’s words in bold, letting him steer the narrative before Shea’s extensive reporting fills in the gaps. “The great centerfielder, whose cap flew off every time he ran the bases was cut down by a sudden heart attack.” The radio … The Boston Red Sox had a farm team that shared Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., with the Black Barons, Mays’s team as a teenager in the Negro Leagues. Willie Mays, in full Willie Howard Mays, byname the Say Hey Kid, (born May 6, 1931, Westfield, Alabama, U.S.), American professional baseball player who was exceptional at both batting and fielding. He added later that it had all worked out for the best: “I didn’t like the ballparks in the American League. Barry Bonds, I said aloud, though I was home alone. He didn’t play centerfield, he ruled it. “I would’ve tried for home. He’d take me and my younger brother and a few of my cousins — only boys — to a couple of games each year. “The great centerfielder, whose cap flew off every time he ran the bases was cut down by a sudden heart attack.” The radio newscast reported as I stepped out of my shower. Willie looked into the sun, smiling. “If it had been me, they would’ve had to throw me out coming home,” Mays said. Trusted friends like Shea can come see him, but the daily give-and-take at the ballpark is missing. Willie Mays is one of only five National League players to have had eight consecutive 100-RBI seasons. About to publish his life memoir, and c.) One of the 66 holders of American Airlines lifetime unlimited flying 6. Willie is alive and kicking and is currently 89 years old. There’s no way I would’ve stayed on third. He's not dead yet, even if some people got … Willie Mays is the greatest baseball player alive, but there is so much more behind the man known as the Say Hey Kid. Also asked, is Willie Mays still alive? He flipped the ball back to the infield with ease and grace. In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to 20 years in prison on four counts of crack cocaine distribution and one count of use of a firearm during drug trafficking. He had established himself as one of the top sluggers in the game before drugs derailed his career. Perfect. Eleven years later, across the bay in Oakland, Mays had another chance to come up as the potential final out of a World Series Game 7, this time as a member of the Mets against the A’s. On the night of April 29, 1961, at dinner in Milwaukee, Willie Mays ate some bad barbecue. “When I went to the All-Star Game over there” — in 1961 — “they wanted me to say that I wanted to be a Red Sock. He was so far away. President Barack Obama with Mays, left, and Giants General Manager Brian Sabean, right, during a White House celebration of the Giants’ victory in the 2010 World Series. Mays reads body language the way he once tracked fly balls, so in-person interviews are the only kind he can comfortably give. Still alive, b.) Mays never comes across as bitter, even though he was also discounted as a young player despite talent that colorblind scouting could not possibly have overlooked. Looking at his professional playing career of the legendary African American baseball legend who entered the Hall of Fame of Baseball in 1979, his net worth over the course of his playing career is assumed to be around $3 million. The answer is yes, and we can use history that includes Willie Mays as a guide to get us back there. Willie’s career was near its end. Willie Mays current age 90 years old. The week after Dad’s burial I spent a few hours looking through belongings, searching clothes and his papers. Mays is also close to former President Barack Obama, who flew with Mays to an All-Star Game on Air Force One, gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and is the subject of a full chapter in “24.” Mays says in the book that he was scared while watching Obama’s victory speech after the 2008 election, because he feared an assassination. I found my father’s birth certificate and the army discharge, a few pictures of me and my siblings as infants. 6,292 likes. If you saw Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run you would of seen Willie Mays congratulating Bonds in person for he is his godfather, and you would have seen Aaron giving a televised congratulations to Bonds on his 756th home run. In normal times, Mays would now be a regular presence at the Giants’ home games, sharing stories and laughs. I called his name but already he was too far away, in the middle of the outfield, a white haze of sky and the deafening roar of jets streaming into their landing pattern over Shea, the passengers yearning for home. That’s what I thought. Robert Riger/Getty Images. He was also the highest-paid player for three consecutive years-1959, 1960, 1961 with the yearly wage of $75 thousand, $80, thousan… Mays was his favorite. Willie Mays is a retired American professional baseball player who was a center fielder with the New York and San Francisco Giants for the most of his career. “Bush told me that he didn’t want to be a president, he wanted to be Willie Mays.”. Willie came to the railing only once in all those years. Shea first proposed the idea some 15 years ago to Mays, who envisioned the book as something to be taught in classrooms. Rookie Status: Exceeded rookie limits during 1951 season Full Name: Willie Howard Mays Nicknames: Say Hey Kid. Because he hit the best pitchers of his era. My lips twisted into scorn. The 2020 World Series is in jeopardy now, like the season itself, another American standby threatened by the pandemic. Shea collected anecdotes from several important figures who have since died, including Mays’s former Giants teammates Willie McCovey, Alvin Dark and Johnny Antonelli and the former Giants owner Peter Magowan. Kids shouted his name and clamored to be seen. I asked my mom if she’d seen the picture, but she never knew where it had gone. I looked again a few weeks later, but still couldn’t locate the lost photo. Military service: US Army (drafted 1952, discharged 1954) Willie Mays was one of the best baseball players ever, maybe the best. Apache/2.4.29 (Ubuntu) Server at deadoraliveinfo.com Port 443 Mays turned 89 last week, and he is homebound in Atherton, Calif., because of the coronavirus pandemic. “I could’ve gone to Yogi and said, ‘I’ve got to pinch-hit, man.’ I think he would’ve said, ‘OK, go ahead and pinch-hit.’ I think that’s what he would have said, because we had that type of relationship. He could have gone a bit deeper — especially about his godson, Barry Bonds, the home run king tainted by links to performance-enhancing drugs — but controversy is not Mays’s style. In addition he won four stolen base and three triples titles, six top-three finishes in National League batting races, and he played in a whopping 24 All-Star games (tied with Stan Musial and Hank Aaron for most ever). But the photograph of Willie Mays I’d taken years ago on that beautiful afternoon, a small figure lost in a sea of green, a man already aware of his end, had disappeared. You know, it's important to also note who is still alive besides waiting for the famous to die and then saying how great they were. Willie Mays is widely considered among the five best players ever. Mays has always pictured a different outcome. We’d arrive at Shea Stadium hours before starting time, hoping for autographs from the players as they took batting and fielding practice. I just saw him running home rather than running to second.”. His cap was off, his thinning hair revealing a sweaty, shining scalp. It is hard for me to believe that Hall of Famer Willie Mays — considered by some to be the greatest all-around player in the history of Major League Baseball — turned 89 on Wednesday. He took questions through Shea for this column, as the constraints of the day have curtailed what should be a celebratory publicity push for his book. The Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays, was the ultimate five-tool star over 22-year career. Willie Mays. Mays replied, "I don't mean to be bashful, but I was." “You’re out!” He smiled at me and closed his eyes. Birthplace: Fairfield, AL. “Mays ranks fifth on the all time home run list,” the voice continued, “currently led by his godson, Barry Bonds.”. Nothing like Willie, godson or not. I thought the National League was stronger than the American League. Mays as a New York Giant in 1954, the year he won his first Most Valuable Player Award and his only World Series title. In 1931, in the year that Willie Howard Mays was born, in March, “The Star Spangled Banner” officially became the national anthem by congressional resolution. Yet the Red Sox passed on Mays, who signed in 1950 with a New York Giants scout, Eddie Montague, for $4,000 and a monthly salary of $250, with the Barons getting $10,000. This is a hassle-free site -- no popups, no sound, no user IDs, no spyware, and no huge graphics. Mae Louise Allen was born on May 26, 1938. His new memoir will remind fans of why we love baseball so much, and also, now, of why we miss it. Enjoy. Matty Alou was running from first and stopped at third, setting up McCovey’s game-ending liner. At age 42, he became the oldest position player to appear in a World Series game. I tossed my sandwich into my brother’s lap and ran down cement steps toward the field railing. Willie Mays began his professional baseball career in the Negro Leagues before joining the New York Giants in 1951. As per our current Database, Willie Mays is still alive (as per Wikipedia, Last update: February 26, 2021). Mays would go out of his way to thrill, making easy plays look difficult, or baiting a runner by slowly pursuing a ball and then firing a strike to nail him at the plate. View Willie Mays's Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos). Frank Malzone of the Boston Red Sox vainly swept with his glove as Willie Mays stole third base in the 1960 All-Star Game. Willie Mays is the best living baseball player and in my mind the best baseball player ever. “I had to go way around in my mind, but I could get him,” Mays said. The Say Hey Kid is currently the oldest living Hall of Fame player! Oakland Athletics catcher Ray Fosse throws up his hands in despair as New York Mets' Willie Mays drives in a run during the 12th inning in Game 2 of baseball's World Series in 1973. “Over his back. “24: Life Stories and Lessons From the Say Hey Kid”. Willie Mays Aikens (born October 14, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman.He had established himself as one of the top sluggers in the game before drugs derailed his career. As we wait, Mays’s life story makes a compelling quarantine read. My father grew up a Giants fan. Baseball is almost like oxygen for Willie Mays. Nati. Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: Black Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Baseball. He spent a month this year with his old team, the San Francisco Giants, at spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., where baseball’s greatest living player served as unofficial clubhouse greeter. His lifetime total of 7,095 outfield putouts remains the major league record. Plus he was in the army for two years. He is still a crowd-pleaser at 89, forever symbolizing the “combination of greatness and joy,” as Clinton says, that explains so much about the allure of sports. Mays hit right-handed, of course, but Manager Yogi Berra left him on the bench. Being born on May 6, 1931, Willie Mays is 89 years old as of today’s date 14th February 2021. It was a striking contrast to his indelible catch at the Polo Grounds in 1954, a moment preserved in a statuette now given annually, in his name, to the most valuable player in the World Series. Not professional ballplayers, anyway. She was 74 years old. Matty slowed down when he got to third. An understatement, I thought; a slight, even. View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject. The annual salary he receives by playing for San Franciso Giants was estimated to be around $ 105,000for three consecutive seasons in 1963,1964 and 1965. Willie Howard Mays Jr. was a Major League Baseball player with the Birmingham Black Barons (1948-1950), New York Giants (1951-1957), San Francisco Giants (1958-1972), and New York Mets (1972-1973). Willie Mays at 89: ‘My Thing Is Keep Talking and Keep Moving’, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/sports/baseball/willie-mays-book.html. Their departure in the fifties for the West Coast was not a sore point for me. Willie Mays Sr, or Cat as he was known, played in an industrial baseball … There were two outs.”. My father always kept that picture propped in front of the wedding portrait on his bedroom dresser. But I said, ‘No, that’s not how to do it.’ I never did that.”. “And he held the man from scoring!” Dad pivoted on his left foot, reared back and threw. 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