Posted on 05/06/2024 4:03:45 PM PDT by FLNittany
What are your best Willie Mays memories?
I always felt kind of sorry for Vic Wertz.
Great stuff. Thanks.
One of my memories: Back in the days of yore when they had the “Game of the Week” broadcasts (with Curt Gowdy and others), one of the highlights that they would show every week was of Bobby Bonds trying to track down a long fly ball in right center field in Candlestick Park that was headed for a home run. Bonds didn’t quite make it there, but Willie Mays arrived at about the same time and jumped, catching the ball above the fence, but being knocked unconscious by the collision with Bonds. Bonds reached over and got the ball, which was still in Mays’ glove.
That’s my favorite as well.
I have a friend who played center field in high school. One day he misjudged a fly ball, and it was going over his head, but he caught up with it and made the catch over his head. We call him ‘Willie”.
I am not that young (60), but Willie was already retired by the time I was watching baseball. So he would show up on commercials for Schaefer Beer and Tab Cola.
However, my father was a New York Giants and later New York Mets fan, so he liked Willie Mays an awful lot.
When I recall watching Willie Mays, as a Dodgers fan, it was with fear since he was always sandwiched between, McCovey, Cepeda, Davenport, Bonds and the Alou brothers. He was so athletic and swung so hard that he was forever losing his cap. I’ve seen a lot of ballplayers since the ‘50s but none better than Willie.
Only time I crossed paths with him was when he was at an event signing baseballs (with The Mick). I had the same assignment photographing there the second day, too, so I took some childhood baseball cards. He refused to sign them, thinking I wanted to sell them.
He was my favorite foe of my Milwaukee Braves, so I forgave him. Think I did get a signed ball.
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