5 minute read
Literary Lives 12
from 09032021 WEEKEND
by tribune242
Pittsburgh Pirates in the Championship Series in four games.
1972 was a bad year for Willie Mays. He started badly, batting only .184 for the first 19 games. Before the season started, he asked the Giants’ owner, Stoneham, for a 10-year contract, hoping to serve in an off-the-field capacity when his playing days were over. However, the Giants were having their own financial troubles, and Mays had to settle for a two-year contract worth $330,000. He argued with Charlie Fox, the manager, and left the stadium before the start of a double-header on April 30 without telling Fox. Six days later, on May 5, Mays was traded to the New York Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and an amount said to be $100,000. The Mets agreed to pay Mays $165,000 a year for two years, and to pay him $50,000 a year for 10 years after he retired. It was the end of an era.
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Owner Joan Payson of the New York Mets had long wanted to bring Willie Mays back to his major league roots in New York. In his Mets debut against the Giants, he put New York ahead to stay with a fifth inning home run, to receive ecstatic applause from the fans at Shea Stadium. He appeared for 88 games for the Mets in 1972, batting .250 in 244 bats with eight home runs.
In 1973, he turned up a day late for spring training, then left in the middle without notifying manager Yogi Berra. He was fined $1,000. The situation did not improve. He spent time on the disabled list and left the ballpark before a game when he found out that Berra had not put his name on the starting line-up. His all-powerful arm was greatly diminished by the time 1973 rolled around, and he only made the All-Star team because of an intervention by National League President Chub Feeney. Nevertheless, the Mets won the National League East.
On August 17, 1973, Mays hit his final (660th) home run against Don Gullett of the Cincinnati Reds. He had been considering retirement anyway and told the Mets officially in September that 1973 was going to be his last season. He made the announcement to the general public on September 20.
Five days later the Mets honoured him on Willie Mays Day, proclaimed by New York City Mayor John Lindsay. He thanked the New York fans and said goodbye to baseball. In the last 66 games with the New York Mets, Mays batted a career-low of .211 with only six home runs.
Against the Cincinnati Reds in the National League Championship Series, Mays helped restore order to game three after Mets fans began throwing trash at Pete Rose following a brawl that Rose started. Game five was the only one Mays played. He had a pinch-hit RBI single as the Mets won 7 – 2, clinching a trip to the 1973 World Series against the Oakland Athletics. Mays started at centre field at the start of the Series. He stumbled four times in the first two games, including a fielding error in game two that allowed the Athletics to tie the game and force an extra inning.
Mays’ final hit came later in the same game, an RBI single against Rollie Fingers that snapped a 7 – 7 tie in the 12th inning of a 10 – 7 victory. His final at bat came in Game Three, when he pinchhit for Tug McGraw and grounded into a force play. The Mets lost the series in seven games.
On January 23, 1979, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He garnered 409 of the 432 ballots cast. In his induction speech he said:
MAYS receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama on November 24, 2015. (AP Photo by Evan Vucci)
“What can I say? This country is made up of a great many things. You can grow up to be what you want. I chose baseball, and I loved every minute of it. I give you one word – love. It means dedication. You have to sacrifice many things to play baseball. I sacrificed a bad marriage and I sacrificed a good marriage. But I’m here today because baseball is my number one love.”
Willie Mays was probably the greatest baseball player who ever lived. He styled his batting like his childhood hero Joe DiMaggio – standing with his legs apart, evenly balanced, holding his bat high – his right thumb sticking up in the air waiting for pitches. He swung with more power than any other player – adjusting from pulling the ball to hitting to right or centre field. He was the best outfielder of all time, and his arm was so strong that he could make effective throws from the most unlikely locations and body positions from the greatest distances. He was daring and had a knack for stealing bases. He could have been an All-Star in any position. Anyone who played with or against him agreed that he was the best. Even today most modern baseball fans would pick Willie Mays as being the best all-around player in the second half of the 20th century.
Curiously, Mays collapsed sporadically throughout his career. This was inevitably because he played “all out” – all the time. He would suddenly collapse from sheer exhaustion. But he always came back stronger than ever, achieving extraordinary feats.
After May retired, he remained at the Mets as hitting coach until the end of 1979. He took a job at Bally’s Park Place casino in Atlantic City in October 1979 as a greeter, but he returned to baseball in 1985 and was named Special Assistant to the President and General Manager of the Giants in 1986. He signed a lifetime contract with the team in 1993, helped get support for building Pac Bell Park (now Oracle Park), which opened in 2000 and founded the “Say Hey Foundation” which promotes youth baseball. There is a nine-foot-tall statue of Mays in front of the main entrance.
A friend of several United States Presidents, Willie Mays was invited to the White House during Gerald Ford’s administration to have dinner with Queen Elizabeth II in 1976. He was the Tee Ball Commissioner in 2006 during George W Bush’s presidency and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by President Barack Obama.
As his old manager, Leo Durocher of the Giants, said: “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 Mays was better.”
