Who in their right mind didn't admire Willie Mays... As a kid in Shreveport Luzianna 68-69, the Giants played the Indians at the Shreveport Braves AAA field. Why the Giants and not the Braves, I've never known why. My first MLB autograph came from: crawling out on top of the dugout to obtain Mays' autograph. Back in those days, no one got thrown out of a game for doing as much, tho' it was frowned upon. As I came down off of the dugout roof, Security never said a single word, as they were busy stopping a large group of kids from doing the same. My Father bought tickets right behind the Giants dugout, so it was an easy feat. As a young adult, I reclaimed my love for obtaining autographs. My Mom had put all of my collectibles in a trunk when I left home. To my dismay, she cut out the Mays autograph from the notepad Willie wrote on, (same with Sudden Sam McDowell). Mom then taped it on the scorecard, destroying any value it had. When you look close at Willie's scribbled signature, you'd never know whose it was. In fact, Willie scribbled his signature so badly, as an adult I had to obtain another readable autograph. 2 months later we moved from Shreveport to Merced CA, just an hour south of Frisco/Oakland, where I was able to take in more Giants and Athletics games in 69/70. Willie was a very approachable superhero. Some say: Mays may very well be the greatest CF'er of all time, sorry Mantle fans for saying as much. I only say this due to Willie's longevity as well as his amazing stats over his career. Mantle was plagued by injuries, and there has never been any doubt in my mind had Mantle not been injured so young in his career he too would have played longer and had even greater numbers. During batting practice that day, Mays literally hit a ball over the LF wall and through the wooden scoreboard! Now that's a feat I've never seen since. By the way: I had no clue how to keep score-
When questioned about his most prominent contribution to his game Mays stated that he did it all with his own body a remarkable achievement to my way of thinking. As much as I admired Mays though Number 7 will always be my favorite Centerfielder. When Mantle had together he was twenty flight.
The Mick was the reason I became a Baseball/Yanx fan in the first place. We'll never know the numbers he may have put up if Joe D had not called off Mickey during a fly ball in the '51 WS which caused Mantle to catch his cleats in a drain tile/sprinkler head and resulted in him shredding his knee...the player who hit that fly ball was a young rookie named.....Willie Mays. I'll never forgive DiMaggio for that. He was way past his prime and after that WS he would retire. Mickey as a RFer was told before that game to "cover for the old man" in the outfield because Joe was old and slow and had essentially become a statue if CF...this is yet another Mantle story of "what could have been". If not for that injury, I believe The Commerce Comet would have retired as one of the top three players to have ever played the game. I'm sure you know this story as well as I...but meh, I felt like reminiscing.
