Photo by Brian Hoffman
A celebration to honor Willie Mays turned into a wake last week when one of baseball’s all-time greats died two days before the big event. Mays passed on Tuesday, June 18, with his Giants set to play the Cardinals at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. on Thursday.
As most of you know by now, Mays grew up near the ballpark built in 1910. It was home of the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons, a team Mays played for before signing with the New York Giants. Last week’s game between the Giants and Cardinals was set for a day after Juneteenth and, while all Negro League players were remembered for the occasion, this one was special for Willie Mays.
He was one of my favorites. Willie was still in his prime when I was a little kid developing a love for baseball. I was 7 years old when I started collecting baseball cards in 1960 and I recall showing my cards to a friend of my dad who was visiting. He pulled out a couple cards to look at more closely and made sure I knew Willie Mays was the best player of the bunch.
My dad wasn’t a big baseball fan, but he was a big church guy and every summer our church took a bus to see a Phillies game at old Connie Mack Stadium. My dad always made sure we had a seat on that bus and I was 10 years old when trip organizer Jim Church (yes, that was his real name) informed the congregation we’d be going to see the Phillies play the Giants this summer.
I was thrilled. I would get to see Willie Mays play in person. It’s 61 years later but I still recall watching his every move in warmups, all in brilliant color. We didn’t have high-def games on big TVs in 1963, everything was black and white but beautiful nonetheless to a 10-year-old fan.
I’ll tell you what I remember most. The Giants had runners on second and third and Mays was due up, but Phillies manager Gene Mauch ordered an intentional walk to load the bases, setting up a force at every bag. The move backfired when Orlando Cepeda drilled a grand slam home run off the auto dealer billboard atop the leftfield pavilion roof. If I close my eyes I can still see it now.
Mays was always my favorite “non-Phillie” player. In the intro to the Game of the Week they would show him making that catch in right center where he climbed the chain link fence at Candlestick Park and soared over Bobby Bonds to make the most incredible catch of a baseball I have ever seen.
I actually got to meet the man in 1985. That year the owners of our local Carolina League team, the Salem Redbirds, were two guys from New York who grew up idolizing Mays when he played for the New York Giants. They brought him to Salem for “Willie Mays Day” and had a Redbirds’ jersey No. 24 to present him, which I’m certain he was thrilled to receive.
That afternoon, prior to the game, Willie toured the Veterans Hospital in Salem and visited with patients. The late Jon Kaufman, who was a good friend of mine and assistant GM for the Redbirds, was assigned to accompany Mays to the VA. It was funny to hear Jon tell the story about how Mays kept hurrying him along and ordering him what to do. Then, just as Jon was getting totally agitated with our famous guest, Willie took off his watch and gave it to one of the patients.
That night Willie came early and signed autographs in front of the clubhouse at what is now Kiwanis Park in Salem, then home to the Redbirds. A long line of folks waited to meet the all-time great and he pleasantly chatted and signed until rain started to fall. Willie was to throw out the first ball but the game was rain-delayed and he started to get annoyed because he was supposed to catch a flight that evening. Finally the rain stopped, Willie threw out the ball and left the ballpark before the game even started.
And it was a probably a good thing he did. We were a Texas Rangers farm team at the time and one of their top pitching prospects, Mitch Williams, was Salem’s starting pitcher. Williams, who had a good career in the big leagues, was known to be wild and he didn’t get out of the first inning. I don’t remember who the Redbirds were playing but he walked a few and hit a few more and Salem was down five or six runs before Willie even got to the airport. That season in Salem Williams pitched 99 innings and struck out 138 but walked 117.
It was sad to see Willie pass last week. Although most of us aren’t going to make it to 93, he was a player I admired in my youth and when you lose someone like that your own mortality really hits you. Losing Jerry West and Willie Mays in the same month! Where has the time gone?
And so, Thursday’s game was not so much a celebration for Mays, but of Mays. You saw all the highlights over and over, catching that ball over his head in the World Series against Indians, running the bases with his hat flying off, hitting tape measure home runs and strutting around the bases like the King of Baseball that he was.
Yeah, I may be getting older, but I saw the “Say Hey Kid” play live and in person and that’s a memory I’ll always cherish. He was, indeed, a Giant.
