Posted on 05/10/2021 7:11:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Willie Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," turned 90 on May 6. Although this is belated, it is a sincere "happy birthday" to the greatest living baseball player to play on the many greens in our nation's ballparks and stadiums.
To say Mays was a "five tool" player is to vastly understate his true, God-given talents and honed skills. It's no wonder that he was a fierce competitor on the field while entertaining baseball fans for decades. Thus, he could hit with an amazing lifetime batting average (.302), show incredible power (660 home runs), run with Olympic speed on the base paths (and in the cow pastures), throw (making a 195 Assists), and field (11 Gold Gloves). All this, plus 24 All-Star appearances and two MVPs.
What made Mays stand out above all the other "five tool" players was his uncanny sense of what he had to "improve on" or what the team needed most from him in any given year. Leo Durocher, Mays's first MLB manager with the Giants, stated, "If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases, and performed a miracle in the field every day, I'd still look you in the eye and say Willie was better."
The one tragedy of living so long is that Mays lost so many of his Cooperstown teammates: Henry Aaron, Al Kaline, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Joe Morgan, and Lou Brock. They're playing doubleheaders inside the Pearly Gates. At least that's how most baseball card–collecting kids who watched these players perform imagined Heaven would be for them.
Thankfully, Mays still graces our presence. And God willing, for at least another 90 years. Or more.
In addition to his record, Mays stands as a reminder to American fans how positively the athletes of yesterday contributed to race relations
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Love you Willie, and DON’T take the vaxx!
>>the greatest living baseball player to play on the many greens in our nation’s ballparks and stadiums.
How many of those stadiums are still standing, let alone being used as ballparks today?
MLB forced cities to replace their legendary halls of old.
HEY!!!
Greatest player in the history of baseball, IMHO. There were no weaknesses in any part of his game, and who knows how many additional home runs he’d have hit if he didn’t have to play in Candlestick Park.
Love you, Willie...McCovey, Horton, Davis, Stargell, whoever you are. You all look alike! Right Nanzi?
I was about to think it was mandella effect thing as I was thinking Billie Mays died from a drug Overdose or something...
then my mind realized it was the baseball player...
Nah, that’s George Kirby.
Most stadiums are not built to last 100 years, they need to be replaced, as to who pays for the new ones that is a different conversation
The problem is some are not lasting 25 years.
The Catch was a baseball play made by New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays on September 29, 1954, during Game 1 of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan, New York City. During the eighth inning with the score tied 2–2, Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz hit a deep fly ball to center field that was poised to score the runners on base.
There would be a case for calling him the greatest ever, but the same could be said for Babe Ruth (who spent the first quarter of his career as a Hall of Fame pitcher), Honus Wagner or Ty Cobb (both of whom also did it all).
However, For the 1950-60s era, I don't think Willie Mays had an equal.
when baseball was the American Pastime.
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