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When folks ask me how good of a participant Willie Mays was, I give them a maybe odd reply.

The San Francisco Giants mainly gave Mays to the New York Mets for virtually nothing in 1972, and a properly previous his prime 41-year-old Mays was the finest total hitter – as measured by his means to get on base and hit for energy – on that stable Mets squad.

In fact, the extra regular approach to know the way good Mays was is that he stays, statistically, the most effective participant who performed his total profession within the final century and is within the Corridor of Fame.

However should you really need to know the way nice Mays was? You needed to watch him play.

I couldn’t assist pondering of my Father once I discovered of Mays’ passing final night time on “The Supply.” I discussed him virtually instantly. You see, my Father watched Mays play when he got here up as a rookie for the New York Giants in 1951. He thought-about Mays the most effective participant he ever noticed from the second he laid eyes on him in that inaugural 12 months.

Harry Enten reacts to dying of Willie Mays

Mays supercharged that ‘51 Giants squad and helped them overcome a 13.5-game deficit in mid-August to win the NL pennant over their crosstown rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, because of the Shot Heard ‘Around the World. It stays, in my view, the best comeback in baseball historical past. Mays received Rookie of the Yr that season.

It was three years later, nevertheless, when Mays grew to become a baseball legend. After serving within the navy for over a season, the person nicknamed the “Say Hey Child” – who had an awesome tune written about him enjoying on that identify – dominated the Nationwide League.

He led the league in batting common, slugging share (a measure of energy), triples (one of many final measures of pace and energy) and on-base plus slugging (OBPS), which mixes all of it into one metric.

And but, I don’t assume most bear in mind Mays’ 1954 MVP season for his offensive exploits; folks like my Father bear in mind him for a play he made throughout Recreation 1 of the 1954 World Collection.

Let me set the scene: the sport is tied 2-2 within the eighth inning. The Cleveland Indians have runners on first and second with nobody out. Cleveland energy hitter Vic Wertz is on the plate, and he hits a protracted fly ball into the really cavernous heart discipline on the Polo Grounds in New York.

Mays, who roamed heart discipline for over 20 seasons, went again greater than 400 toes and made a troublesome, over-the-shoulder catch appear straightforward. He then fired the ball again into the infield to make sure that no runs would rating.

The Giants would go on to win the sport and sweep the collection in 4 video games. It was their swan tune in New York, as they moved to the West Coast after the 1957 season.

Mays by no means understood why folks thought that catch was wonderful. For him, it was comparatively routine.

What was distinctive about this catch, past being within the World Collection, was that video cameras captured it in an period from which we don’t have many recordings.

That quick splice of movie is our model of attending to see Mays play. It’s our uncommon glimpse into a person whose defensive prowess was excess of that one catch.

Mays was the most effective defensive participant at any place that total season within the Nationwide League, in accordance with superior statistics.

He’s, by these identical metrics, a top-five defensive outfielder of all time, and these statistics – given we don’t have a number of video from the period – don’t even actually have in mind his clearly nice arm.

The truth that I’m speaking in regards to the protection of a person who for a protracted time frame was third all-time in house runs – and stays sixth – tells you every thing you must know.

Mays wasn’t simply protection, although he excelled at that.

He wasn’t nearly hitting for energy, although he excelled at that.

He wasn’t simply hitting for common, although he excelled at that.

He wasn’t nearly pace, although he excelled at that and led the league in stolen bases 4 instances.

Mays was every thing – and he was so for over 20 years. Mays was, as my good friend and esteemed sports activities columnist Neil Paine calculated, the most full ballplayer in historical past.

Baseball followers speak about discovering five-tool gamers – those that hit for energy and common, have pace and defensive talents by way of vary and arm – like a miner looking for gold. Properly, we discovered our gold in Mays.

However once more, Mays is extra than simply numbers. He was certainly one of our final hyperlinks to a number of eras of baseball historical past.

Mays oversaw the growth of baseball to the West Coast in 1958, when it had beforehand been performed on the Main League degree solely east of the Mississippi River. He was the primary celebrity on the West Coast.

Mays was additionally the final celebrity with us who made his identify enjoying in New York throughout the Fifties. It was baseball’s golden period; a time when America got here out of World Struggle II with a booming financial system and through which baseball continued to outrank soccer as America’s favourite sport and hobby.

And if Mays wasn’t adequate, he truly added just a few hits to his storied, record-book profession just a few weeks in the past when Negro League statistics have been built-in into the MLB file books. Mays was one of many final dwelling stars who began his profession within the Negro Leagues in 1948 for Birmingham Black Barons.

I prefer to joke that Mays was so nice that he was nonetheless compiling hits on the age of 93.

Certainly, he remained a success with anybody who noticed him play. Lengthy after his profession was over, Mays – when he would come again to New York – lived down the road from us within the Bronx. My Father would see him on walks and knew he needed to get his autograph.

Mays gave my Dad that autograph, and he saved it in his workplace till he handed. Mays is a giant motive why my Father was one of many few individuals who wore a New York Giants baseball cap all through his later years. I purchased no less than three of them for my Dad as a result of he had one on his head on a regular basis and actually wore them out.

It’s a connection I attempt to keep on to at the present time whether or not it’s by carrying a New York Giants baseball hat on tv or by answering “the New York Giants” when requested what baseball staff I root for.

Now, excuse me as I’m going try to discover that Mays autograph to honor the best participant anybody I do know noticed play.