Did Willie Mays play other sports?
The early years Willie was born in May 1931, just west of Birmingham, Alabama. He proved to be precocious from the start, playing among the older teens when he was 10 or 12 years old. He was a three-sport athlete who saw football as his favorite sport, with basketball next and baseball third.
Who was better Babe Ruth or Willie Mays?
As great as Ruth was, he simply wasn’t as good as William Howard Mays, the greatest baseball player of all time. Proponents of Ruth will say Ruth is by far the best player. He not only hit 714 career home runs, but he also won 94 games as a pitcher and very likely could have made the Hall of Fame as a pitcher.
When did Willie Mays play his last game?
09-09-1973
Willie Mays
| High School: | Fairfield Industrial High School (Fairfield, AL) | |
|---|---|---|
| Bats: | Right | Right |
| Height: | 5-11 | 180 |
| First Game: | 05-25-1951 (Age 20) | |
| Last Game: | 09-09-1973 |
What kind of baseball did Willie Mays play?
Mr. Mays played baseball on the all-black teams of the segregated South, as had his father before him. Mrs. Mays had been a champion sprinter in her school. When Willie was growing up, his father worked in a steel mill, and played on a semi-professional team sponsored by the mill.
When did Willie Mays retire from the Mets?
He collected his second MVP award after socking a career-best 52 home runs in 1965. Traded to the New York Mets during the 1972 season, Mays helped the team advance to the World Series in 1973 before announcing his retirement.
When did Willie Mays move to San Francisco?
When the Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958, Mays had to struggle to win over a new hometown crowd. In 1962, he led the Giants to another pennant victory and, in 1964, became team captain. In 1966, the Giants signed him to a new contract, making him, for a time, the highest-paid player in the history of the game.
When did Willie Mays get reinstated to the Giants?
Reinstated by Commissioner Peter Ueberroth in 1985, Mays was named a special assistant to the Giants organization the following year, a position that became a lifetime appointment in 1993. In 2000, the Giants dedicated a statue of the baseball icon outside the team’s new ballpark at 24 Willie Mays Plaza.