Willie Mays

Willie Howard Mays Jr. (May 6, 1931 – June 18, 2024), nicknamed "The Say Hey Kid" was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He spent almost all of his 22 season career playing for the New York and San Francisco Giants before finishing with the New York Mets. His career began in 1951 and he retired in 1973.

Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama, near Bessemer, Alabama.

Mays was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in 1979 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015.

In 1999, Mays placed second on The Sporting News's "List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players", placing second to Babe Ruth.^[1] Later that year, fans elected him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.^[2] In 2020, The Athletic ranked Mays at number 1 on its "Baseball 100" list.^[3] In 2022, MLB.com writers voted Mays as being the greatest player in Giants franchise history.^[4]

Roberto Clemente said of Mays: "To me, Willie Mays is the greatest who ever played."^[5]

Mays died of heart failure on June 18, 2024 in Palo Alto, California at the age of 93.^[6]

References

↑ "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players: No. 2, Willie Mays". The Sporting News. April 26, 1999. Archived from the original on April 16, 2005.
↑ "The All-Century Team". MLB.com. Archived from the original on January 19, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2007.
↑ Posnanski, Joe (April 13, 2020). "The Baseball 100: No. 1, Willie Mays". The Athletic.
↑ "Every MLB team's greatest player ever". MLB.com. January 8, 2022.
↑ Wagenheim, Kal (1974). Clemente!. Pocket Books. pp. 194–95. ISBN 978-1558765276.
↑ Shea, John (June 19, 2024). "'Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants legend and MLB all-time great, is dead'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 19, 2024.

Other websites

Media related to Willie Mays at Wikimedia Commons Quotations related to Willie Mays at Wikiquote

Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
Willie Mays article, Encyclopedia of Alabama Archived 2013-10-06 at the Wayback Machine
May 1951: Minneapolis Tribune account of Mays' first home game as a Minneapolis Miller
Willie Mays: Say Hey! Archived 2009-10-04 at the Wayback Machine – slideshow by Life magazine

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[1] "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players: No. 2, Willie Mays". The Sporting News. April 26, 1999. Archived from the original on April 16, 2005.

[2] "The All-Century Team". MLB.com. Archived from the original on January 19, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2007.

[3] Posnanski, Joe (April 13, 2020). "The Baseball 100: No. 1, Willie Mays". The Athletic.

[4] "Every MLB team's greatest player ever". MLB.com. January 8, 2022.

[5] Wagenheim, Kal (1974). Clemente!. Pocket Books. pp. 194–95. ISBN 978-1558765276.

[6] Shea, John (June 19, 2024). "'Willie Mays, San Francisco Giants legend and MLB all-time great, is dead'". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 19, 2024.

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