Remembering Willie Mays
The Say Hey Kid gave us a lot to celebrate during—and especially after—his legendary career
I never got see Willie Mays play. All I could rely on were grainy highlights, gaudy statistics, and stories. And there were so many stories.
About his patented basket catch. About The Catch. About playing stickball with kids in the streets of Harlem. About mentoring generations of Giants players.
It's hard to know what to make of stories about yesterday's sports heroes. They could all hit 700-foot home runs and throw 126 miles per hour. It almost becomes mythology. But it always felt a little more real with Mays.
Maybe it's because of how alive his legacy remained today, 51 years after he retired. An over-the-shoulder catch is still a Willie Mays-style grab. The "Say Hey Kid" remains as memorable as any nickname. And the Giants honored Mays at every turn, with the address of their ballpark, a statue out front, and a place in all three World Series parades.
I was initially hit with a wave of disappointment that Mays won’t get to see the Giants and Cardinals play this week at Rickwood Field, where he played for the Birmingham Black Barons. But there’s no better place to honor his life and legacy than the field where it all began, with his team on the field.
Willie Mays was a giant. He always will be.
If you’re looking for more tributes:
• John Shea, Mays’ unofficial biographer, in the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Tom Verducci in Sports Illustrated.
• Mays’ New York Times obituary.