Willie Mays, the long-lasting baseball legend whose exceptional profession spanned 22 seasons, has died, the San Francisco Giants introduced Tuesday. He was 93.
Mays “handed away peacefully this afternoon,” the Giants stated in a publish to social media.
“All of Main League Baseball is in mourning immediately as we’re gathered on the very ballpark the place a profession and a legacy like no different started,” Main League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in an announcement Tuesday night. “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 impressed generations of gamers and followers as the sport grew and really earned its place as our Nationwide Pastime.”
Michael Nagle / Getty Photos
Mays had issued an announcement Monday saying he can be unable to attend Thursday’s Giants tribute recreation towards the St. Louis Cardinals, being performed at Rickwood Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama, in commemoration of Mays and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, with whom Mays started his skilled profession in 1948.
The MLB stated Thursday’s recreation will now embrace a “pregame ceremony honoring the lifetime of Willie Mays.”
Nicknamed the “Say Hey Child,” Mays spent the vast majority of his profession taking part in middle subject for the Giants, first in New York after which after the crew moved to San Francisco. Throughout Recreation 1 of the 1954 World Sequence, the one championship he would win, Mays made “The Catch” — an over-the-shoulder snag of a fly ball that’s nonetheless thought of the best catch within the historical past of the sport.
From then on, Mays was a cultural icon.
As a toddler, Mays realized to play baseball from his father, Cat Mays, in Westfield, Alabama. A single dad and a steelworker, Cat performed on the native metal mill’s baseball crew and made time to show his son find out how to play the sport he himself had aspired to play professionally.
At 16, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons. After graduating from highschool in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants.
“I arrived in New York Metropolis on a Friday at 4 o’clock,” Mays recalled throughout his Corridor of Fame induction ceremony in 1979. “Scared to demise with three bats in my little briefcase, my glove, I did not have a uniform, I did not have a hat.”
It did not take lengthy to search out his footing. Mays was named Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr after his first season.
Bettmann by way of Getty Photos
His profession was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted by the Military in the course of the Korean Conflict. He was assigned to Fort Eustice in Virginia, and spent most of his time taking part in on navy baseball groups, in response to the Society for American Baseball Analysis.
He was discharged in March of 1954, and rejoined the Giants for what would turn out to be a championship season, through which he additionally received his first of two MVP awards.
Bettmann by way of Getty Photos
He moved with the crew to San Francisco in 1958, led them to a World Sequence look in 1962 — dropping to the New York Yankees in seven video games — and have become the crew’s captain in 1964. He received his second MVP award in 1965.
Mays was traded to the New York Mets for the 1972-73 season, which might show to be his final.
Getty Photos
He completed his taking part in profession with 660 residence runs, the sixth most of all time.
He was a 24-time All-Star, tied for second most of all time, and received 12 Golden Glove awards.
Mays was a first-ballot Corridor of Famer, receiving 97% of the vote when he grew to become eligible in 1979.
Regardless of the commerce from the Giants, for the remainder of his life there was all the time a particular place for him within the San Francisco clubhouse, the place a go to from Mays typically impressed youthful gamers.
A landmark statue was erected in 2000 in his honor exterior of what’s now known as Oracle Park. The statue is surrounded by 24 palm bushes, in homage to his quantity 24, which was additionally retired by the group. The statue is a small reminder of a person who was lengthy considered baseball’s best dwelling legend, even when that wasn’t essentially a label he cared for.
“I by no means like that,” he stated in 2011. “If you’re the best ballplayer, you say, ‘you are the best ball participant.’ Slightly not the ‘dwelling ball participant’. What good is that? After I first heard it, I stated ‘Wait a minute. You males I received to be handed away earlier than you guys give me credit score for doing one thing?'”
However all through the years, Mays’ mixture of velocity, energy and protection led many to think about him the best of all time, dwelling or lifeless.