The "Remembering The Say Hey Kid" Story

Willie "The Say Hey Kid" Mays

It was an ordinary day.  Reading about the death of one of my all-time favorite baseball players...Willie Mays.  My close friend Bill H., who lived about a block away from my house on North Queen Street in Lancaster, PA , back in the 1950s didn't care much for Willie, since his all-time favorite baseball player was the Yankee's Mickey Mantle.  We went back and forth many a Summer day as to which player was the best.  I couldn't convince him that Willie was better...and he couldn't convince me that Mickey was better.  Well, by now you probably have read that Baseball Hall of Famer, Willie Mays, has died at the age of 93.  Willie Mays was known as the electrifying "Say Hey Kid" whose singular combination of talent, drive and exubrance made him one of baseball's greatest and most beloved players.  Mays' family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced this past Tuesday night that Willie had died earlier in the afternoon in the Bay Area.  His son Michael said in a statement that.... "My father has passed away peacefully and is now among loved ones.  I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years.  You have been his life's blood."  The center fielder was baseball's oldest living Hall of Famer.  He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News' list of the games top stars.  The Giants retired his uniform number 24, and named their AT&T Park in San Francisco as the Willie Mays Plaza.  Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.  "All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career, and a legacy like no other, began," Commissioner Rob Manfred said.  "Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance 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 its place as our 'National Pastime.'  We will never forget this true Giant on and off the field.  

Younger photo of Willie Mays

Few were so blessed with each of the five essential qualities for a superstar -- hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, fielding and throwing.  Willie so joyously exerted those qualities - whether launching homers, dashing around the bases, loose-fitting cap flying off his head; or chasing down fly balls in center field and finishing the job with his trademark basket- catch.  "When I played ball, I tried to make sure everybody enjoyed what I was doing," Mays told reporters in 2010.  "I made the clubhouse guy fit me a cap that when I ran, the wind gets up in the bottom and it flies right off.  People loved that kind of stuff."  Willie played in over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants, and also including one in the Negro Leagues..... where he batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Gloves.  He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice named the National League Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times.  His lightening sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra-base hit in the 1954 World Series - dubbed "The Catch" - remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history.  Just ask anybody who is as old as me!  Between 1954 and 1966, Mays drove in 100 or more runs 10 times, scored 100 or more 12 times, hit 40 or more homers six times, more than 50 homers twice and led the league in stolen bases four times.  His numbers might have been bigger had he not missed most of 1952 and 1953 because of military service.  Yeah....he was a hero in more than just baseball!  Sports writer Barney Kremenko has been credited with nicknaming him "The Say Hey Kid," referring to Mays' spirited way of greeting his teammates.  Willie was born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931, the son of a Negro League player who wanted Willie to follow him.  Young Mays was so gifted an athlete that childhood friends swore that basketball, not baseball, was his best sport.  The Giants signed him after he graduated from high school and sent him to its minor league team in Trenton, New Jersey.  He began the 1951 season with Minneapolis, but after 35 games, was batting .477 and was labeled by one scout as "the best prospect in America."  Giants Manager Leo Durocher saw no reason to wait and demanded that Mays, barely 20 at the time, join his team's starting lineup.  Durocher managed Mays from 1951-55 and became a father figure who at times pampered the young phenom.  Willie was asked about career highlights and mentioned "The Catch"; hitting four home runs in a game against the Braves; falling over a canvas fence to make a catch in the minors; and running into a fence in Brooklyn's Ebbets Field while chasing a bases-loaded drive, knocking himself out, but still holding on to the ball!    Most of the time, he was just happy being on the field, especially when the sun went down.  After all...you're out there by yourself in center field...and I just felt like it was such a beautiful game that I just wanted to play it forever.  

One of the latest photographs I could find of Willie

Well Bill H. ...after reading my story today....you're gonna have to come up with a pretty good story of your own about Mickey Mantle to top this one!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.