Posted on 10/03/2016 9:31:56 AM PDT by Impala64ssa
Baseball icon Vin Scully paid the ultimate compliment to former MLB great Willie Mays as the Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster prepares to call his final game on Sunday.
Before Saturday's game against the rival San Francisco Giants, Scully spent some time with one of the team's -- and baseball's -- all-time greats, with both men clearly giddy during the exchange.
The best part, though, is Scully telling Mays "You've always been my favorite player, even though you wore the wrong uniform."
We'll miss you, Vin.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxsports.com ...
Say Hey!!! My idol as a kid!!
I watched the last game he played in May 1972, as a Met. At the end of the game the presented him with a brand spanking new Dodge Charger, wonder if that car is still around?
Where do the years go? Willie Mays is 85 years old.
Willie was/is my favorite baseball player ever since I saw him play in the Polo Grounds. IMO Mays is the greatest baseball player who ever lived. He had it all.
If anything a better fielder than a hitter. Incredible athlete. Listened on the radio. Also loved the entire Dodger team but Willie was the exception, even better than the Duke.
Never been a Scully fan. Too nasal and too Dodger
for me. I do agree with Vin about Willie Mays. As
a country kid I only got to go to a couple of ballgames
in my childhood. At Candlestick I saw Willie take a
walk to first. The pitcher overthrew a pick off throw
and Willie somehow made it to third. Again the pitcher
tried a pick off throw. This time the ball got by the
third baseman. Willie slid under the tag at home.
What memories.
Yeah, but, would the media reflect my personal reverence for Al Kaline in light of Al’s personal respect of Ty Cobb?
Nah...
I find (timeline) Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and Al Kaline some of the greatest players in the game...EVER.
Willie Mays is an equivalent. Take away melanin content and we have a level playing field. Isn’t that the intent of “racial equality”?
My Dad hated Willie Mays.
Then again, he was a Tribe fan. (1954, Polo Grounds. Vic Wertz, and all that)
:)
Did Willie ever steal home?
42!
We had the Duke, Mickey, and Willie in NY at the same time. Those were the golden years. Willie missed two years while serving in the Army. And the move to windy Candlestick from the Polo Grounds affected the number of home runs he could have amassed.
Willie Mays is the best player that lived. Roberto Cemente was close. Mays was dominate in every aspect of the game. First he hit over 600 home runs when pictures ruled the game and steroids weren’t invented.
But he also had over 3000 base hits and over 300 stolen bases. And in the field he was the most dominate center fielder ever with his trademark basket cage. He caught everything from left center to right center, deep and short.
Plus he was always positive. Like Ernie Banks, he was a great spokesman for the game.
At a game in Candlestick in 1971, Willie was on 3rd then the hitter lofted a soft fly to left. Willie just stood on the base with his hands on his hips until the fielder caught the ball. Then, when the left fielder threw a rainbow back into the infield, Willie sprinted home. As a 15 year-old Mets fan at that game I didn’t like what he did, but I learned a lot about a great ballplayer.
Mickey was a “”Yankee”” and thus, his name couldn’t be mentioned in our house. Stan, the man, was another great of that era, but, of course, more favored by us westerners.
Old Bums fan.
Loved 42.
Yogi was right,
he was OUT!
See post #8.
As to 42 my personal attitude is that he soiled
his own memory with unnecessary race baiting. I
recall that he criticized young Giant Jim Ray Hart
for not being “down for the struggle “. Willie
came to Jimmy Ray’s defense.
Mine, too. I saw him for the first time in 1962, when I was 8. One year for Christmas, I got a Giants uniform with 24 on the back, and I wore it to several games.
Broke my heart when the Giants traded him to the Mets, and it was broken again with his missteps during the '73 World Series.
Willie never weighed more than 210 lbs, and he hit over 600 homers.
He hit the game winning home run in the greatest pitchers' duel in baseball history, on 7/2/63. It was in the bottom of the 16th inning off Warren Spahn. The final score was 1-0, and both pitchers (fellow HOFer Juan Marichal) pitched complete games.
Marichal went seven innings (gave up two runs) in his next start, on 7/7/63. Warren hurled a complete game shutout the same day, at the sprightly age of 42.
Willie did not play his last game as a Met in 1972 iirc.
Willie finished is career at a Met in the 1973 World Series.
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