Greatest baseball player ever

RIP to the GOAT Willie Mayspic.twitter.com/vBeTIPac1W https://t.co/Bw3gvHwEQx

— Neil C (@RealNeilC) June 19, 2024

I thought he was already dead

You're probably thinking of Willie McCovey, who passed a few years ago.

RIP Wilie Mays!

Missed his 22-year-old season entirely due to military service, or we can at least speculate it might have been him, not Hank, Aaron, to break Babe Ruth's record first.

The bigger problem was that he had to play the bulk of his career in DREADFUL Candlestick Park. Cold, Damp, Swirling winds. Balls just didn't go out like they would anywhere else. EVERYBODY hated Candlestick. Ozzie Smith said "until I played in Candlestick , I had no appreciation for how great a player Willie truly was."

Roger Maris once said of Candlestick "the problem isn't that they built it on the Bay, they should have built it under the Bay". Jack Clark begged to get traded from San Francisco. When asked what would improve Candlestick he replied "Dynamite".

Sorry for the Double Post....Modem Glitch

I never knew that about Candlestick. I remember as a kid though, I always wanted to go to game there when ever the 'Stros would play the Giants. Thought it looked cool.

JABQ04 said:

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I never knew that about Candlestick. I remember as a kid though, I always wanted to go to game there when ever the 'Stros would play the Giants. Thought it looked cool.

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When the Giants moved to SF, they played in old Seals Stadium. It was a nice downtown location, and they could have easily added a second deck to increase capacity. But Horace Stoneham,, the owner, wanted PARKING. Suburban Sprawl and the Auto were the future. There was a shady land deal involved, they only took Stoneham out there in the morning before the winds kicked up. The winds were horrible. a guy would hit a popup, the Shortstop would be calling for it....and it would suddenly blow out to the warning track. The dust from the infield was so bad they sprayed oil on it to keep it down. Stu Miller was a Giant's pitcher. In the 1959 All-Star game, he got blown completely off the mound. Stoneham had a hot water heating system installed under the seats to keep people warm..That promptly failed. He got his parking, but the fans had to walk up a steep hill to get to the Park. Something like 9-10 people died of heart attacks that first year hence the nickname "Heart Attack Hill".
It was just a cold damp miserable place. When the Giants were good they drew decent crowds but most of the time the place was half empty. Jack Clark liked the Bay Area, but he hated playing at Candlestick. He once said "Its always cold...and there are no fans"
And this is why Willie Mays was such a great player. On the road, he was a powerful pull hitter, but at Candlestick he had to hit to the opposite field. Left to Left Center, the ball rarely went out. If he plays anywhere but Candlestick, he reaches 715 Homers long before Henry Aaron does.

Speaking of Henry Aaron, a great story about one of our favorite Aggies, Davey Johnson. Dave spent 1966-1972 with Baltimore, their Second Baseman. In 73, he gets traded to Atlanta. Aaron notices that Davey is using a heavy bat and asks him why. Well in Baltimore, Frank Robinson used a heavy bat and so he did what Frank did. Aaron told him to get a lighter bat. In the National League he was gonna see a lot of good fastballs, and in that hot high Atlanta air the ball really GOES. In 1972, his last year in Baltimore, Davey hit 17 Home Runs, decent for a Second Baseman. In 1973, Davey Johnson shocks himself and the baseball world. He hits 43 Home Runs. That 73 Atlanta team may be the only where you had 3 players hit 40 plus. Davey had 43, Darrell Evans had 41, Hank Aaron had 40. Other than that, they generally sucked.

Kind of amazing that Willie Mays and Jerry West died just a few days apart. Not that they had any particular connection; but there are only so many legends from that general time period and it's surprising to have two of them die in the same week.

I grew up in the Bay Area, and I really have no idea what hill people would have had to climb to get to the stadium. The Stick was located on a flat right next to the Bay, next door to the Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard. The field itself was actually right about mean sea level (and high tide in January tended to come during football game time, making footing during 49er playoff games interesting.) A good climb to the upper deck, though.

I only ever knew the Stick after the Niners moved in, but my dad said that the winds weren't as bad before they closed in the outfield to add more seats for football. I do remember one night game where the outfield flags (US and state) were actually pointing at each other.

One other note about Candlestick: The World Series quake of 1989. Major earthquake with a packed house. No injuries, ready to play again as soon as they got it inspected. Tip your hat to the architects, engineers, and workers who designed and built her.

One other note on Mays' baserunning, also from my dad: during the years that May's had Willie McCovey batting behind him, he often wouldn't take second on balls that were easy doubles, so that the other team wouldn't intentionally walk McCovey.

Imagine if the Giants had offered Aaron that extra $50...their lineup in the 1960s would have had Mays, Aaron, McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda. (Although if Aaron is playing home games at Candlestick, he might not catch Ruth.)

I'm not old enough to have seen either Mays or McCovey play before they retired.

I did get to see them in an Old Timers' Game in 1987, commemorating the 1962 World Series team. Said game featured a bucket of water being brought to the mound for Gaylord Perry.

To end the festivities, they re-enacted the final at bat of Game 7 - runners on 2nd and 3rd, 2 out, McCovey batting. My dad and I were sitting in the front row of the upper deck in right field, about 10 feet into fair territory.

At some point in the at bat, McCovey hit a towering drive down the right field line. I swear the ball was above the rim of the stadium, seemingly heading for Oakland. The crowd was going absolutely nuts. You might have thought it was a real game. For a brief moment, the ball seemed headed directly for where we were sitting, before curving and landing maybe 5 feet foul.

Willie Mac eventually popped out.

The Giants went on to win the actual game over the Dodgers, 1-0 in 10 innings. Journeyman long reliever/spot starter Mike LaCoss went all 10 for SF. Might just be the best afternoon of baseball I've ever experienced.

A random factoid that I found interesting: after the ending of the 2014 Series, there had been 3 World Series that ended with the potential tying run on 3rd base. The Giants had been involved in two of them.

I was 8 in 1962, the first year I really got into sports. I was a Phillies fan of course, but my dad had made a business to to SF and brought home a Giants cap for me. I wore it everywhere.
That 7th game in the 62 WS is haunting. There were some questionable decisions made by Alvin Dark the manager, and then Whitey Lockman the 3rd Base coach.
First Dark. 0-0 ball game Yankees top of the 5th. NY loads the bases, nobody out. Dark elected to play his infield at Double Play depth. They got their DP but Moose Skowron scored from 3rd. I don't know...in the 7th game, EVERY run is crucial. I guess Dark was thinking "one run no big deal...we've got plenty of room to get that back." But that turned out to be the WINNING run. Moose Skowron was a big slow slugging First Baseman. A ground ball to the infield, you gotta go home with that ball, get the out, then play at Double Play depth because with one out, a DP ends the inning.
Now Whitey Lockman. Bottom 9th Yanks ahead 1-0. Dark sends Matty Alou up to pinch hit. He lays down a nice bunt and gets aboard. Dark has Felipe Alou try to bunt his brother over. He strikes out. Dark then has Chuck Hiller, the 2nd baseman, bunt. He strikes out. Mays at the plate, the Giants last hope. He hits a hard liner down the RF line, fair ball...gonna be extra bases. And Roger Maris makes one of the greatest defensive plays in WS history. He knows that if the ball gets by him and starts rattling around in the corner, Alou scores, and Willie has the possibility of an inside the park Homer. Maris slid down and blocked the ball, gets up, and fires a strike to Bobby Richardson, who fired home to Elston Howard at the plate. Lockman held Alou at 3rd, Willie advanced to 2nd. Willie was pissed. Matty Alou was FAST. and the throw from Richardson to Howard had to be perfect. It wasn't...it was up the line. Matty Alou would have scored the tying run. Willie said that had he been Alou, he would have ignored Lockman and kept on trucking'.
Ralph Terry was on the mound, he had gone all 9 innings. Now he's got 2nd and 3rd 2 away. Ralph Houk comes to the mound. The assumption was he was gonna put McCovey on. BUT...Orlando Cepeda was on deck, and Cepeda scared the crap out of Terry. Terry had given up the WS winning HR to Pirates Bill Mazaroski in 1960. He still had nightmares about that. He told Houk " Let me pitch to McCovey, I promise I'll be careful...if I walk him, I walk him. "
We didn't know it at the time, but that was the beginning of the end of that Yankee Dynasy that went all the way back to the 1920's with the Babe. They got swept by the Dodgers in 63, then lost to the Cardinals in 7 games in 64. Then years in the wilderness...the "Horace Clark Era". They got old, Mantle could barely walk, their farm system dried up, there were more rats than fans at Yankee Stadium. They finally won a WS in 1977, but that was a whole new era...Free Agency...Reggie Jackson.

My dad was 20 when the Giants came to SF. According to him, the really amazing thing about Mays was how he played the outfield. My dad said that a lot of the time, it seemed like Mays would be moving to where the ball was going to land before the batter had even hit the ball. He could read the pitch and the swing that well - from center field.

Buncha quotes:

"The only man who could have caught that ball just hit it." - Remembering Willie Howard Mays

"Mays is the only man in baseball I'd pay to see play." Ty Cobb

"Willie Mays is the greatest ballplayer I've ever seen. I never saw Joe DiMaggio play, but if Joe DiMaggio was better than Willie Mays, he belongs in Heaven." Roberto Clemente

"Outside of Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays is the greatest all-around baseball player of my time. Certainly, he's been the most daring. Mays would steal home, a tough play and one in which you've got a great chance to look bad. Willie didn't even think of that, he'd just go. Nine times out of ten, he'd make it." Mickey Mantle
"You used to think if the score was 5-0, [Mays] would hit a five-run homer." Reggie Jackson

"[Mays] scooped the ball up at the base of the 406-foot sign, whirled and fired. It came in on one bounce, directly in front of the plate, and into the glove of catcher Tom Haller, who put it on the astonished Willie Stargell. It was described by old-timers as the greatest throw ever made in ancient Forbes Field." Bob Stevens, San Francisco Chronicle, August 25, 1965

"I couldn't believe Mays could throw that far. I figured there had to be a relay. Then I found out there wasn't. He's too good for this world." Willie Stargell

"They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays." Ted Williams

"Willie Mays, to me, was the best ballplayer I ever saw in my life. …Nobody in the history of baseball is going to see anyone like Willie Mays. Everybody loved Willie in the clubhouse. Willie used to do a lot of things for different players, especially the rookies. Willie used to take players to clothing stores to buy them clothes. Sometimes he would get free clothes, shoes, and stuff, and give them to the players. He was like the mother of the team." - Juan Marichal

"Willie Mays was to me the greatest player I ever watched. People ask me that, and I don't hesitate....he could have been an All-Star shortstop, that's how good an athlete he was...he could run backwards as fast as he could forward." - Don Zimmer

"If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases, and performed a miracle in the field every day, I'd still look you right in the eye and tell you that Willie was better" - Leo Durocher

"The best Major League ballplayer I ever saw was Willie Mays. Ruth beat you with the bat. Ted Williams beat you with the bat. Joe DiMaggio beat you with the bat, his glove and his arm. But Willie Mays could beat you with the bat, with power, his glove, his arm and with the running. He could beat you any way that's possible." - Buck O'Neil

"Hopefully, they can say, 'There goes the best baseball player in the world.' I honestly believe I did everything in baseball that a baseball player can do, and I did it with love." Willie Mays

Another photo of Willie Mays making at insane play.

Ebbets Field, Brooklyn 8/15/54 - Willie Mays robs Duke Snider of a extra base hit as the pennant race between these two rivals starts to percolate once again. But despite Mays heroics the Dodgers beat the Giants 9-4 behind a home run by Snider and two doubles by Jackie Robinson pic.twitter.com/HP45WgF5cI

— Old-Time Baseball Photos (@OTBaseballPhoto) March 19, 2018

Edit: I originally though this was at the Polo Grounds, but it's Ebbets Field.