Willie Mays

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Player Ever</B></div> <bR> <div>             At the beginning of “Ed Meets His Maker” we are told that Willie Mays is “the greatest baseball player ever”.  So, was he?</div> <div>             Born in Westfield, Alabama in 1931, Willie Mays began his professional career in the Negro Leagues.  In 1951, he joined the New York Giants and went on to win Rookie of The Year honors.  Thereafter, during a brilliant twenty-one year career, Mays won twelve gold gloves, four National League batting crowns, and three stolen base titles.  For eight straight seasons from 1958 through 1966, he reached a total of 100 in both runs and RBI.  In 1965, Willie joined Babe Ruth, Jimmy Foxx, Ralph Kiner and Mickey Mantle as the only players at the time to have hit more than fifty home runs in a season, finishing his career with a total of 660 homers.</div> <div>             In addition to his multitude of records and honors, Willie brought an infectious enthusiasm not only to the ballpark where he was universally-loved by teammates, but to the streets of Harlem as well, where in the 1950’s the beloved “Say Hey Kid” could be found playing stickball with neighborhood kids.  Mays’ departure from New York when the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958 was nothing short of a disaster to a generation of New York baseball fans.</div> <div>             Willie Mays also had a flare for the dramatic.  His first hit as a rookie in 1951 was a home run.  Then in 1954, he signaled his return to baseball from a two year stint in the Army with a home run in his first at-bat.  He went on at age twenty-three to be named the National League’s Most Valuable Player, carrying the Giants to their first World Series triumph with a major league leading .345 batting average, 41 homers, 110 RBI's and 119 runs scored.  </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="1ee20eb0.jpg" border=0 width="288" height="235" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>The Catch</B></div> <bR> <div>             Equally emblematic of Willie May’s “greatest player ever” stature were his feats in center field, where he became baseball’s all-time leader in outfield put-outs & chances, with his signature basket catch and occasional bare-handed grab of a fly ball.  Perhaps most memorable of all his plays - often referred to by baseball historians simply as “The Catch” - occurred in the first game of the 1954 World Series.   Willie saved that game for the Giants when, running full speed directly at the centerfield wall, he executed a sensational over-the-shoulder catch some 460 feet from home plate.  </div> <div>             Arguments endure about who was the greatest baseball player ever, with judgments often clouded by team loyalties and nostalgic personal recollections.  But Willie Mays was the quintessential “five-tool” player, who elevated the level of play of all around him; the true mark of the greatest baseball player ever.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 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