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Opinion by Frederic J. Frommer
6 minute read
Published 7:14 AM EDT, Thu June 20, 2024
Editor’s Note: Frederic J. Frommer, a writer and sports and politics historian, is the author of several books, including “You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals.” Follow him onX. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. Read more opinion articles at CNN.
CNN —
Trying to name the bestbaseball playerof all timeis a fraught exercise, requiring comparing stars across different eras, some of which excluded huge chunks of the population.
Frederic J. Frommer
But for my money, Hall of Famer Willie Mays,who died Tuesday at the age of 93, is the clear choice, for his superhuman combination of speed and power, his incredible defense, his hitting prowess— and his grace on the baseball diamond.
Of course, a case can be made for New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth, and many people have made it. In its list of thetop 100 players of all time, for example, ESPN ranks Ruth No. 1 and Mays No. 2. As David Schoenfield wrote in the Ruth ranking, “The baseball we watch today is Babe Ruth’s game. Many players make an impact, a few become folk heroes, but nobody changed a sport like Ruth did when he joined the Yankees and transformed baseball into a game of power. No player dominated his era like Ruth.”
All true, but here’s why Mays gets my vote. His 660 homers weren’t that far behind Ruth’s 714, but Mays combined that with outstanding speed and defense, two qualities that were not hallmarks of Ruth’s game. In addition, Ruth played in an all-white era (1914-1935), decades beforebaseball integrated in 1947. Mays’accomplishmentsthrough his 23 seasons, by contrast, were against a larger pool of players, including other African Americans, and many more Latino players than in Ruth’s time.
Also, there’s a good chance that Mays might have caught Ruth had he not played most of his career in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, whereswirling windsoften acted like an extra outfielder to knock down fly balls.
“Playing in Candlestick cost me 10, 12 homers a year,”Mays told The New York Times in a 1979 story, when he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. “I’ve always thought it cost me the opportunity to break Babe Ruth’s record.”
The story described Mays as “perhaps the most natural ballplayer of all, one who not only thrived on the joy of baseball but who also projected that joy to all those who cherish the game.” He had a theatrical and creative style that made him, yes, a joy to watch.
Mays always played the game with enthusiasm, even though his career with the New York Giants got off to a rough start. After a single season in the Negro Leagues, where he played for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 at the age of 17, hesigned with the Giants in 1950.
Willie Mays, seen here of the New York Giants in 1955, had 660 career home runs and won 12 Golden Gloves in 23 major league seasons.
Mays as a 13-year-old.
Willie Mays holds a baseball bat in the clubhouse of the American minor league team Minneapolis Millers on May 19, 1951. Mays played a short stint with the team, then affiliated with the New York Giants.
Mays gets his plane ticket to New York to join the New York Giants, in Omaha, Nebraska on May 24, 1951.
From left: Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Thompson hold bats on their shoulders in Yankee Stadium in 1951. The New York Giants trio made up the first all-Black outfield in World Series history. All three men were playing with the New York Giants in the World Series.
Mays is sworn into the US Army by Capt. William F. Donegan on May 19, 1952. One year into his Major League career, after having won the National League Rookie of The Year in 1951, Mays joined the Army. He served from 1952 to 1954.
Mays bids goodbye to his baseball shoes, while also holding his Army-issued boots, at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey on May 29, 1952.
Mays, then a physical training instructor at Fort Eustis, Virginia, leads soldiers through a calisthenics session on February 19, 1953. At the time, Mays, then 21, was seeking a dependency discharge from the Army as the sole support for his mother and nine siblings.
Released from the Army after two years of service, Mays waves to an assembled crowd during a spring training session in Phoenix, Arizona on March 4, 1954.
Mays plays stick ball with kids in New York's Harlem neighborhood in 1954.
Mays makes a leaping, one-handed catch off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Duke Snider on August 15, 1954.
Jackie Robinson, left, congratulates Mays, after Mays' New York Giants beat Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers 7-1, to make the World Series against the Cleveland Indians, on Septebmer 1, 1954.
Mays yells "Say hey!" before the second game of the 1954 World Series. Mays was known as "The Say Hey Kid" for the way he enthusiastically greeted others.
Sprinting toward the center-field wall, his back fully turned to the plate, Mays catches a ball over his shoulder during the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and the Cleveland Indians, on September 29, 1954. Mays then fired the ball back into the infield, preventing two runners from scoring. The play is one of baseball's most celebrated feats.
Mays, right, gets batting tips from Joe DiMiaggio, at the 32nd annual dinner of the Baseball Writers at the Waldorf Astoria in 1955. Mays, the reigning National League MVP, won the Scribes' Sid Mercer Award as "Player of The Year."
Margherite Wendell poses with Mays, hours after their wedding at her home in East Elmhurst, New York, on Feburary 14, 1956. The couple was married from 1956 until their divorce in 1963.
Mays, then of the San Francisco Giants, plays catch with 14-month-old Herbert Henderson, at the home of Henderson's parents, in San Francisco, California on November 14, 1957. Mays was staying with the Henderson's while house hunting.
Mays gets a kiss from his dog Pepe while moving into their new San Francisco home on January 15, 1958.
Mays, seated at right, interacts with young fans while sitting with fellow San Francisco Giant Willie McCovey in the dugout of Candlestick Park in 1960.
Mays shakes hands with television host Ed Sullivan as the pair talk about the All-Star Game and Mays' batting average on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
Mays watches the ball he had just hit go over the left field fence at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, on April 24, 1966. The home run was May's 511th in his National League career and tied a record held by the late Mel Ott.
Mays with Atlanta Braves outfielder Hank Aaron on August 3, 1969.
Mays cries after he is bid farewell by New York Mets' owner Joan Whitney Payson during a ceremony for Mays at Shea Stadium in New York City on September 26, 1973. After one year with the Mets, Mays retired from professional baseball.
Teammates douse Mays with champagne in their locker room at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois, on October 1, 1973. The Mets had just defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-4 to take the National League East division championship.
Mays waves to the crowd as the San Francisco Giants retire his No. 25 jersey, during Willie Mays Day before San Francisco's game against the New York Mets at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on August 20, 1983.
Mays throws out the last pitch, as former and current San Fransisco Giants players watch, at 3Com Park at Candlestick Point in San Francisco on September 30, 1999. The Giants were scheduled to move into their new stadium, Pacific Bell Park, the following spring.
Mays stands next to a statue of himself during its dedication by the San Francisco Giants, at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, in front of Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco on March 31, 2000.
San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds outfield, center, hugs Mays while Giants Hall of Famer Willie McCovey stands nearby, on April 17, 2001. Mays was Bonds' godfather. On the day of Mays' death, Bonds shared a post on Instagram, saying: "I am beyond devastated and overcome with emotion. I have no words to describe what you mean to me -- you helped shape me to be who I am today. Thank you for being my Godfather and always being there. Give my dad a hug for me. Rest in peace Willie, I love you forever."
From left: First lady Laura Bush, Mays and President George W. Bush watch "Tee Ball on the South Lawn" at the White House in Washington, DC on July 30, 2006. The game featured teams from Little League's Challenger Division, organized for mentally and physically disabled children.
Mays is honored prior to the 78th Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on July 10, 2007.
President Barack Obama, left, speaks with Mays about Air Force One en route to the MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis on July 14, 2009.
Mays waves to the crowd after he is given a birthday cake from San Francisco Giants announcer Jon Miller for Mays' 81st birthday at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on May 6, 2012.
President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to Mays at the White House in Washington, DC, on November 24, 2015.
Mays greets VIP attendees during the inauguration ceremony for Mayor London Breed on the steps of City Hall in San Francisco, California on July 11, 2018.
The Life of Baseball Giant Willie Mays, in pictures
During his rookie season, 1951, his manager Leo Durocher had so much faith in him that he slotted the 20-year-old into thethird spot in the lineup.Mays started 1-for-25, but quickly turned things around, winning the Rookie of the Year Award with a .274 batting average and 20 homers. That season, the Giants erased the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 13 1⁄2 game lead to win the National League pennant.
“Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants,”Durocher saidwhen Mays was elected to the Hall of Fame. “He never had to be taught a thing.”
Mays’sbreakout season came in 1954, when he won the first of two Most Valuable Awards, leading the league in average (.345), slugging percentage (.667) and triples (13), along with 41 homers. But it was his defense that he’s most remembered for that year, when the Giants faced off against the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.
In the opening game, Cleveland had runners on first and second of a tie game in the top of the eighth inning, when Vic Wertz hit a ball 425 feet deep to center field. In most stadiums, that would be enough to clear the fence for a home run, but the Giants’ ballpark, the Polo Grounds, had a cavernous center field.
With his back to home plate, Mays sprinted like a wide receiver trying to catch a bomb from his quarterback, then made an over-the-shoulder catch — before quickly whirling around and throwing the ball back to the infield. It’s considered one of the most iconic catches of all time, so much so it was dubbed “The Catch.” The Giants won the game, 5-2, in 10 innings, and went on to sweep the Indians in four games.
Mays was always fast, but he would soon add another element to his game. In 1956, he stole 40 bases, the first offour consecutive seasons in which he ledthe league. He would eventually become thefirst player to steal 300 bases and hit 300 homers—the ultimate demonstration of a rare combination of slugging and speed. He’s what folks in the baseball industry call a truefive-tooltalent: mastering hitting, hitting for power, running, throwing and fielding.
Mays finished with 339 steals, and his total of 660 homers wassixth in history, behind Barry Bonds, Hank Aaron, Ruth, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez.
In 1957, Mays won the first of a dozen consecutive Gold Glove awards. He would have had several more,but the award wasn’t created until 1957. After that season, he broke the hearts of New Yorkers when the Giants relocated to San Francisco, along with the Dodgers, wholeft Brooklyn for Los Angeles.
Mays appeared in arecord 24 All-Star Games, and was so respected that Dodgers manager Walter Alston, who would often manage the National League team as the skipper of the defending pennant winners, would ask Mays to fill out the lineup, as ESPN senior writerTim Kurkjian wrote this week.
“Willie Mays is the greatest center fielder ever, the greatest Giant ever and still is, 73 years after his debut, the greatest combination of power, speed and defense in the history of baseball,” Kurkjian said.
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As a child, Mays idolized another player who was known as the best overall player of his era, fellow center fielder Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees. But DiMaggio would eventuallyfawn over Mays.
“Willie Mays is the closest to being perfect I’ve ever seen,” he once said.
If Mays had one blemish, it was staying on too long. In his final season, back in New York City with the Mets in 1973, he hit just .211 at the age of 42. But mostly forgotten is how before that, he played at an elite level even at an advanced (baseball) age, leading the National League with a .425 on-base percent in 1971, when he was 40.
Mays retired following the 1973 season, and it’s a measure of his hold on American society that he’s still revered a half-century later. For many who played in the 1950s and 1960s, he was simply the best.
Among those who came to that conclusion: Mays himself.
“I think I was the best ballplayer I’ve ever seen,” hesaidin 1979, when he was elected to the Hall of Fame. “I feel nobody in the world could do what I could do on a baseball field. I hope I’m not saying anything wrong, but you have to think you’re the best.”
No argument here.
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