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Willie Mays, the long-lasting baseball legend whose exceptional profession spanned 22 seasons, has died, the San Francisco Giants introduced Tuesday. He was 93.
In a submit to social media, the Giants stated Mays “handed away peacefully this afternoon.”
“All of Main League Baseball is in mourning at present as we’re gathered on the very ballpark the place a profession and a legacy like no different started,” Main League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred stated in an announcement Tuesday night. “Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie impressed generations of gamers and followers as the sport grew and actually earned its place as our Nationwide Pastime.”
Nicknamed the “Say Hey Child,” Mays spent nearly all of his profession taking part in middle area for the Giants, first in New York after which after the workforce moved to San Francisco. Throughout Recreation 1 of the 1954 World Collection, the one championship he would win, Mays made “The Catch” — an over-the-shoulder snag of a fly ball that’s nonetheless thought of the best catch within the historical past of the sport.
From then on, Mays was a cultural icon.
As a toddler, Mays discovered to play baseball from his father, Cat Mays, in Westfield, Alabama. A single dad and a steelworker, Cat performed on the native metal mill’s baseball workforce and made time to show his son learn how to play the sport he himself had aspired to play professionally.
At 16, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons. After graduating from highschool in 1951, he was signed by the New York Giants.
“I arrived in New York Metropolis on a Friday at 4 o’clock,” Mays recalled throughout his Corridor of Fame induction ceremony in 1979. “Scared to loss of life with three bats in my little briefcase, my glove, I didn’t have a uniform, I didn’t have a hat.”
It didn’t take lengthy to search out his footing. Mays was named Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr after his first season.
His profession was interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted by the Military throughout the Korean Warfare. He was assigned to Fort Eustice in Virginia, and spent most of his time taking part in on navy baseball groups, in keeping with the Society for American Baseball Analysis.
He was discharged in March of 1954, and rejoined the Giants for what would change into a championship season, wherein he additionally received his first of two MVP awards.
He moved with the workforce to San Francisco in 1958, led them to a World Collection look in 1962 — dropping to the New York Yankees in seven video games — and have become the workforce’s captain in 1964. He received his second MVP award in 1965.
Mays was traded to the New York Mets for the 1972-73 season, which might show to be his final.
He completed his taking part in profession with 660 house runs, the sixth most of all time.
He was a 24-time All-Star, tied for second most of all time, and received 12 Golden Glove awards.
Mays was a first-ballot Corridor of Famer, receiving 97% of the vote when he turned eligible in 1979.
Regardless of the commerce from the Giants, for the remainder of his life there was at all times a particular place for him within the San Francisco clubhouse, the place a go to from Mays usually impressed youthful gamers.
A landmark statue was erected in 2000 in his honor outdoors of what’s now known as Oracle Park. The statue is surrounded by 24 palm timber, in homage to his quantity 24, which was additionally retired by the group. The statue is a small reminder of a person who was lengthy considered baseball’s biggest dwelling legend, even when that wasn’t essentially a label he cared for.
“I by no means like that,” he stated in 2011. “If you’re the best ballplayer, you say, ‘you’re the best ball participant.’ Fairly not the ‘dwelling ball participant’. What good is that? After I first heard it, I stated ‘Wait a minute. You males I acquired to be handed away earlier than you guys give me credit score for doing one thing?’”
However all through the years, Mays’ mixture of velocity, energy and protection led many to contemplate him the best of all time, dwelling or useless.
This story was initially revealed by CBS News at 9:11 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 18.
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