October 8, 1973, I was 7 years old and my father pulled me out of school to take me to my first MLB game, game 3 of the NL playoffs. Back then even though you didn't have field level tickets you could still go there to watch batting practice. My father got Willie's attention and told him we shared the same birthdate. Willie said, "Say hey" swallowed my hand in his and gave us an autograph. He is the best there ever was, the best there ever will be.
I was born the year Willie Mays first played for the New York Giants. When I was six, the team moved to San Francisco, about eighty miles from where we lived. When I was ten, the Giants came within a whisker of winning the World Series; had Willie McCovey's liner skipped into center field beyond Bobby Richardson's reach, Matty Alou would have scored easily with Willie Mays, who by this time was my childhood hero, right behind him with the winning run, ending the game and the Series. Alas, Richardson, who was playing out of position, snared the liner. The following summer, my sister, then a student at San Francisco State College, took me to my first major league baseball game. Willie Mays got an RBI single in the third inning that day, although the game's hero was Willie McCovey, who homered off Ray Sadecki of the St. Louis Cardinals with one on in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the Giants ahead in the game for good. Later that year, I saw a game at Candlestick where McCovey hit three homers; Mays also hit a home run that day, a majestic, Ruthian shot into the left field bleachers. The whole day was wonderous for an eleven-year-old boy. I saw Mays hit another magnificent homer against t the Cubs at Candlestick in the second game of a doubleheader on September 12, 1965 that was almost a carbon copy of the one I saw him hit two years earlier. I knew at the time that home run was the 499th of his career. The following night, in a televised game played in Houston, Mays hit his 500th career home run while I was watching. The Giants had just taken over first place from the Dodgers after Labor Day and it looked like they would win the pennant, but, unfortunately, the Dodgers fought back valiantly and regained first place before the end and went on to win the World Series. That was heartbreaking. Within two years, my dad was transferred to corporate headquarters in Burbank, in the Los Angeles area. I made a half-hearted effort to realign my allegiances to the Dodgers, but that effort failed terribly. I remained a loyal Giants' fan. It didn't help my adjustment to LA that the climate is hot and sticky, the air infested with automobile manure and that also smelled terrible and the prevailing culture of the San Fernando Valley of the late 1960s was a smug white supremacy and shallow consumerism that I found offensive. But that's another story.
RIP to the GOAT. I am honored to say that I met Willie walking in the street in NYC in 1981, and he was very kind and gracious to me when I asked him for his autograph....which I treasure to this day.
What a great tribute piece of Willie Mays. You captured it all with the photos, video clips, stories and stats. And your closing was perfect. Well done.
lol Babe Ruth played in a segregated baseball against guys who could barely throw over the speed limit and didn’t lose a year and a half of his career to the War in Korea.
@@canofcorn4380 LOL! Babe Ruth played against Walter Johnson and Cy Young, and won 94 games *As A Pitcher* . He was the best left handed pitcher in baseball from 1915 to 1917 and only started playing every day when he was traded to the Yankees in 1920. Even then the Yankees would occasionally bring him in from right field to pitch when the starter got in trouble. His last game as a relief pitcher was played in 1933! His 714 home runs during the dead ball era were amazing, but you go ahead and play the race card if you need to.
Ruth was revolutionary, amazing, and great for the game but he is no where close to Mays level. Johnson and Young were great pitchers but couldn’t hold a candle to the guys Mays was playing against like Bob Gibson and Sandy Koufax. Just like today pitchers and hitters have gotten better over time, not worse. Not to mention the majority of guys Ruth played against weren’t Johnson or Young they were bag boys, carpenters, and and steel mill workers. Mays played against athletes whose one job all year round was playing baseball.
@@canofcorn4380 As a pitcher, Ruth's lifetime ERA was 2.28. What was Mays' ERA? And don't give me that BS about bag boys, carpenters, and and steel mill workers. Athletes are athletes, regardless of when they lived. Why don't you just admit that you can't accept that Ruth was the GOAT because he was white?
Hey just wanted to say thanks for the engagement, each comment helps my content grow and I do truly appreciate it. I am sorry that you don’t know ball at all. Maybe if you weren’t so hung up on race you could understand this argument better. Ruth played with athletes no better than your average high school player. Simple fact of the matter, athletes weren’t as good then as they were in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or today. Not taking anything away from him, as I have said multiple times now. The level of competition just wasn’t as good and if he played when Mays did he wouldn’t be able to hang nearly as well. Was Ruth asleep great player yes, was he the GOAT certainly not. But then again maybe if you didn’t care so much about race maybe you could see that. Anyways thanks again for the free engagement, wish you all the best.
