Willie Mays, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, dies at age 93

Willie Mays, the iconic baseball legend whose remarkable career spanned 22 seasons, has died, the San Francisco Giants announced Tuesday. He was 93 years old.

Mays “passed away peacefully this afternoon,” the Giants said in a social media post.

“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we gather in the same stadium where a career and legacy like no other began,” Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement Tuesday night. fair. “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 came into its own. place as our national pastime.”

Nicknamed the “Say Hey Kid”, Mays spent most of his career playing center field for the Giants, first in New York and after the team moved to San Francisco. During Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, the only championship he would win, Mays made “The Catch” – an over-the-shoulder hurdle of a fly ball that is still considered the greatest catch in the history of the game.

From then on, Mays was a cultural icon.

As a child, Mays learned to play baseball from his father, Cat Mays, in Westfield, Alabama. A single father and steelworker, Cat played on the local steel company’s baseball team and made time to teach his son how to play the game he himself aspired to play professionally.

At age 16, Mays joined the Black Barons of Birmingham. After graduating from high school in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants.

“I arrived in New York City on a Friday at 4 o’clock,” Mays recalled during his Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1979. “I was scared to death with three bats in my briefcase, my glove, I didn’t have a uniform. , I didn’t have a hat.”

It didn’t take long to find balance. Mays was named National League Rookie of the Year after his freshman season.

His career was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. He was assigned to Fort Eustice, Virginia, and spent most of his time playing on military baseball teams, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.

He was released in March 1954 and returned to the Giants for what would become a championship season, in which he also won his first of two MVP awards.

He moved with the team to San Francisco in 1958, led them to a World Series appearance in 1962 – losing to the New York Yankees in seven games – and became the team’s captain in 1964. He won his second career award. MVP in 1965.

Mays was traded to the New York Mets for the 1972-73 season, which would be his last.

He finished his playing career with 660 home runs, sixth most of all time.

He was a 24-time All-Star, tied for second most all-time and won 12 Golden Glove awards.

Mays was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, receiving 97% of the vote when he became eligible in 1979.

Despite the trade from the Giants, for the rest of his life there was always a special place for him at the San Francisco club, where a visit from Mays often inspired younger players.

A historic statue was erected in 2000 in his honor outside what is now called Oracle Park. The statue is surrounded by 24 palm trees, in honor of its number 24, which was also retired by the entity. The statue is a small reminder of a man who was long considered baseball’s greatest living legend, even if that wasn’t necessarily a label he cared about.

“I never liked that,” he said in 2011. “If you’re the best ball player, you say, ‘You’re the best ball player.’ Rather, not the ‘live ballplayer’. What’s the point? When I first heard that, I said, ‘Wait a minute, do I have to die before you guys give me credit for doing something?’

But over the years, Mays’ combination of speed, power and defense has led many to consider him the greatest of all time, living or dead.