Background

Mays was born on May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama, the son of a steel worker who also played a good center field for the local Birmingham Industrial League semi-pro team. Mays' mother, Ann, was a high school track star, and it was clear from a very early age that Willie had inherited his parents' athletic gifts. The parents of Willie Mays were divorced when he was only three, but Willie continued to live with his father.

Education

Although he worked hard, long hours, Mays, Sr., made time for his son and encouraged the boy's athletic interests and natural talent, trying to steer him in the direction of professional baseball as a means of escaping the life of a manual laborer. He was a pitcher for the Negro amateur leagues himself.

At Fairfield Industrial High School, which did not have a baseball team, Mays was the quarterback of the football team and the highest scorer on the basketball team. Outside of school, he began playing baseball with the semiprofessional Gray Sox at the age of thirteen. By 1948 he had joined the professional Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues as a center fielder at the request of the manager, Piper Davis. In spite of playing professional baseball and traveling around the country, Mays stayed in high school and earned his diploma in 1950.

Despite the fact, that Mays never went to college, he received honorary degrees from several universities. On May 24, 2004, Mays received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Yale University. Dartmouth College also gave him an honorary doctorate. In 2009, he attained another honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree at the commencement ceremony for San Francisco State University.

Career

Mays's father arranged a tryout with the Black Barons in 1948, and the team manager, Lorenzo "Piper" Davis, signed the seventeen-year-old to play during his summer vacation with the proviso that he complete high school. Mays broke in by starting the second game of a doubleheader, much to the dismay of his older teammates, and got two hits against a veteran pitcher. He moved into the starting lineup after the regular centerfielder broke his leg and, over the course of three seasons, profited from Davis's careful instruction to become a promising young player. After Mays graduated from high school on 20 June 1950, the New York Giants paid the Barons $10,000 for the right to sign him to a contract. Still underage, Mays needed his father's consent to accept a signing bonus of $5,000 and a salary of $250 a month.

The Giants assigned Mays to their Trenton, New Jersey, club in the Class B Interstate League, where he batted .353 in eighty-one games and led the league's outfielders in assists.

Mays then began the 1951 season playing for the Minneapolis Millers in AAA ball. The young center fielder was nothing less than a sensation in Minneapolis, where after the season's first sixteen games he was batting .608 and routinely making amazing plays in the outfield.

Such initial success was highly unusual at the AAA level, and Mays's name quickly became familiar to Leo Durocher, the manager of the New York Giants. The Giants were suffering through a mediocre season in 1951, and Durocher saw no reason to delay the elevation of Mays to the major league level. On May 25, 1951, Mays became the starting center fielder and number-three hitter in the New York Giants' lineup. Durocher's confidence in Mays was unbounded, and even after Mays's slow start Durocher never doubted that Mays would remain his center fielder for the next ten years. Like Davis, manager of the Black Barons, Durocher took an almost fatherly interest in enabling the young star to realize his enormous potential.

By mid-August of the 1951 season, neither the Giants nor their young prodigy appeared to be going anywhere fast. Mays showed flashes of brilliance but he was still only a rookie, and the Giants remained thirteen and one-half games back of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the National League pennant race. The Giants went on to sweep a three game series with the Dodgers, however, and after winning sixteen games in a row they managed to catch their rivals on the last day of the regular season and force a play-off for the pennant. In the World Series, the Giants faced their crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees, and after a fine series lost in seven games to the perennial champions. Mays hit only .182 in the series, but in recognition of his 20 home runs and .274 batting average he was named the National League's Rookie of the Year for 1951.

Mays and his fans would first have to endure a two-year hiatus while Mays served in the United States Army. The army did not waste Mays's talents, employing him primarily as an instructor on its baseball teams, but many observers wondered how the lay-off would affect Mays's still-maturing abilities.

Mays returned in 1954 and led the Giants to a world championship while hitting .345, 41 home runs, and winning the Most Valuable Player Award. Mays appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show and the Colgate Comedy Hour and was then hustled off to play winter ball in Puerto Rico for the Giants. The apparently tireless center fielder could have used some rest, but as a favor to the Giants he played all winter in Puerto Rico, also leading that league in hitting and slugging percentage. Giants' management rewarded Mays with a fat new contract, and he entered the 1955 season as an indisputable superstar.

In 1955, Durocher asked Mays to supply the Giants with power, so he hit 51 homers; the year before, Durocher had been worried that Mays was thinking too much about the fences, so he limited himself to five homers in the last third of the season and won the batting title. When left to follow his own inclinations, Mays would generally hit about 30 home runs while batting somewhere above .300, a pattern he maintained for nearly the whole of his long career.

The 1955 season saw the departure of Durocher as manager of the Giants. He was replaced by Bill Rigney, but under neither man were the Giants considered contenders for another title. Mays would never be as close to a manager as he had been to Durocher, but by this point in his career, he could play for anyone: in 1956, he hit "only" 36 home runs but led the league with 40 stolen bases, the first of four consecutive years in which he stole more bases than anyone else in the National League.

After the 1957 season the Giants left New York for the West Coast, moving the franchise to San Francisco, while the Dodgers shifted from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. Mays was a much-loved figure in New York, and the transition to the West Coast was perhaps harder on him than on his teammates. Californians did not idolize Mays the way New Yorkers had, and he was justifiably disappointed by the reception he received from the San Francisco press, which adopted a somewhat skeptical attitude to the phenomenon of the East. As a center fielder, Mays also had to cope with the wildly shifting winds common at Candlestick Park, the home of the Giants from 1960 onward. Mays eventually learned the tricks of life out west, however, winning over the fans with his routine brilliance on the field and with the bat. In 1961 Mays became the fifth player ever to hit four home runs in a single game; in 1962 he led the Giants back to the World Series with a career-high 141 runs batted in; and in the following year he joined an exclusive club by smashing his 400th career homer. It was at least possible that Mays could one day catch Babe Ruth as the all-time leader in home runs.

The Giants again rose to excellence in the 1965 season under manager Herman Franks, chasing the Dodgers for the pennant all year only to fall two games short at the end. Franks used Mays as team captain and unofficial coach, often consulting with him on player personnel and strategy, and the 33-year-old Mays responded with the last of his truly great seasons. He finished with 52 home runs, including the 500th of his career, and won his second Most Valuable Player award. His performance was especially impressive because the other great stars of the 1950s - including Yankees slugger Mickey Mantle, Dodger outfielder Duke Snider, and Braves southpaw pitcher Warren Spahn - had for the most part ceased to play at their peak levels of performance. Eleven years after his first MVP award, Mays continued to play baseball as well as he ever had.

The only question remaining for Mays was Babe Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. Mays passed the records of many of the game's all-time greats - immortal Yankees first baseman Lou Gehrig's 493, New York Giants outfielder Mel Ott's 511, and four-time American League home run champ Jimmie Foxx's 534 - until at last Mays was alone with the Babe, still 170 homers distant. Mays's many years of continuous effort had taken its toll, however, and after the 1966 season his home runs and batting average both began to taper off. But by the time he wound up his career with the New York Mets in 1973, he had made a strong case for himself as the greatest all-around player in baseball history.

After retiring as a player, Mays was a part-time coach and did public relations work for the Mets. In 1979 Mays took a public relations job with a company that was involved in gambling concerns, with the result that he was banned from baseball-related activities just three months after being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. In 1985, the ban was lifted, and in 1986 Mays became a full-time special assistant to the Giants. In 1993, Mays signed a lifetime contract with the Giants; he currently serves as a Special Assistant to the President and General Manager.

His autobiography, Say Hey (1988), was written with Lou Sahadi.

Achievements

• 

  Willie Mays is considered by many experts, coaches, and fellow players to be one of the greatest players of all-time. Over a 22-year career, he batted .302, stole 338 bases, drove in 1,903 runs, and hit 660 home runs, third on the all-time list. In 1954, Mays was named the National League Most Valuable Player. He won his first of 12 Gold Glove Awards in 1957. It was a record for outfielders. Over his career, Willie was selected to 24 All-Star Games, the second-most of all-time.
  
  He was elected nearly unanimously to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility. Willie was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999 and ranked second on The Sporting News's "List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players." He has been invited to the White House on several occasions and was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Works

More photos

• book

  • 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid

    (Widely regarded as the greatest all-around player in base...)

    2020
  • Say Hey: The Autobiography of Willie Mays

    (The legendary athlete discusses his greatest plays, his g...)

    1988
  • Willie Mays: My Life in and out of Baseball

    (Vintage baseball autobiography of the great player for th...)

    1966
  • My Secrets of Playing Baseball 1967

Views

Mays has his own charity, the Say Hey Foundation, which promotes youth baseball. In 2009, the foundation donated $50,000 in equipment to young players around the Birmingham area.

Quotations: "And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5' 11". So I just picked baseball."

"Defense to me is the key to playing baseball."

"I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act."

"I didn't say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing."

"I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play."

"I think that all athletes should practice. They should practice, because you want to know what's happening as far as - when the game is concerned."

"I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life."

"I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park."

"I'm a very lucky guy. I had so many people help me over the years that I never had many problems. If I had a problem, I could sit down with someone and they would explain the problem to me, and the problem become like a baseball game."

"In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won't be able to do this."

Personality

Mays faced stinging racism during much of his career. However, he is a kind of person, who would rather endure and transcend the slights than speak out. There was a sense of destiny about him from a young age.

Mays used to be a sensitive man in his early years. He loathed being yelled at and would often be on the verge of tears if he wasn't playing well. Willie is also known for his reticence and his distrust of writers.

A frequent airplane traveler, Mays is one of 66 holders of American Airlines' lifetime passes.

Physical Characteristics: Mays has huge hands and forearms like Popeye's. He is 5 ft 10 inches (178 cm) tall and weighs 170 lb (77 kg).

During the 1990s Mays was diagnosed with glaucoma.

Mays doesn't smoke or drink.

Quotes from others about the person

• Roy Campanella: "Do you have to ask? Willie was pretty good and we never really had a regular left fielder all those years, so I guess I can make room for him in there somewhere."
  
  Roberto Clemente: "Willie Mays is the greatest ball player I've ever seen. I never saw Joe DiMaggio play, but if Joe DiMaggio was better than Willie Mays, he belongs in Heaven."
  
  Frankie Frisch: "Mays is no safety-first player, and that's one of the reasons why he's such a great guy on the bases. Those safety-first players are worth five cents a bushel. They stand around counting their money while a guy like Willie is winning the game."
  
  Willie Stargell: "I couldn't believe Mays could throw that far. I figured there had to be a relay. Then I found out there wasn't. He's too good for this world."
  
  Bob Stevens: "It was here that Mays amazed again. He scooped the ball up at the base of the 406-foot sign, whirled and fired. It came in on one bounce, directly in front of the plate, and into the glove of catcher Tom Haller, who put it on the astonished Willie Stargell. It was described by old-timers as the greatest throw ever made in ancient Forbes Field, but it was a costly one. Mays hurt himself on the heroic effort."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  golf

• Athletes

  Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and Stan Musial

Connections

In May 1956 Willie Mays married Margherite Wendell Chapman; they adopted a baby boy in 1958. The couple had a messy, public divorce in 1963. On November 27, 1971 Mays married Mae Louise Allen, a Howard University graduate who knew sports.

Father:

William Howard Mays, Sr.

(September 3, 1911 - August 27, 1999)

Mother:

Annie (Satterwhite) McMorris

(1916 - April 11, 1953)

late spouse:

Mae Louise Allen

(May 26, 1938 - April 19, 2013)

ex-spouse:

Margherite Wendell Chapman

(1926-2010)

Son:

Michael Mays

Friend:

Bobby Bonds

(March 15, 1946 - August 23, 2003)

Bobby Bonds was an American right fielder in Major League Baseball from 1968 to 1981, primarily with the San Francisco Giants.

Friend:

Donna Reed

(January 27, 1921 - January 14, 1986)

Donna Reed was an American film, television actress, and producer. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films.

Friend:

Mickey Mantle

References

• Willie Mays Biography of the African-American major league baseball player for the New York and San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets - Willie Mays.
  1966
• Willie Mays Album A book by Liss Howard.
  1966
• Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age Acclaimed sportswriter Allen Barra exposes the uncanny parallels - and lifelong friendship - between two of the greatest baseball players ever to take the field.
  2013
• Chasing Willie Mays Spanning a baseball fan's life, this memoir explores hero worship, coming of age, and obsession.
  2016
• 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Bill Madden delivers the first major book to fully examine the 1954 baseball season, drawn largely from exclusive recent interviews with the major players themselves, including Mays and Doby as well as New York baseball legends from that era: Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford of the Yankees, Monte Irvin of the Giants, and Carl Erskine of the Dodgers.
  2014