Willie Howard Mays Jr. ( born Willie Howard Mays, Jr , born May 6, 1931) is an American professional baseball player who played in the Major League Baseball as a centerfield . During his career, he played in the teams New York / San Francisco Giants and New York Mets . In 1979, for his services, Mays was included in the baseball Hall of Fame .
| Willie mays | |||
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| Centerfield | |||
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| Personal data | |||
| Date of Birth | May 6, 1932 (87 years old) | ||
| Place of Birth | Westfield, Alabama , USA | ||
| Professional debut | |||
| May 25, 1951 for the New York Giants | |||
| Selected Statistics | |||
| Beat rate | 30.2% | ||
| Hits | 3283 | ||
| Home Run | 660 | ||
| Runs batted in | 1903 | ||
| Teams | |||
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| Awards and Achievements | |||
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| Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame | |||
| Included | 1979 | ||
| Voting | 94.7% (first vote) | ||
Mace participated in matches of all the stars of Major League Baseball twenty-four times and twice became the most valuable player in the match . During his career, he made 660 home runs - the third indicator at that time and the fourth at the moment. He won the Golden Glove Award 12 times. In 1999, he took second place in the list of 100 greatest baseball players of Sporting News magazine, and later this year he was included in the national team of the centenary of Major League Baseball. Mace is one of five NL players who have knocked out over 100 RBIs for eight consecutive seasons.
The early years
Mace was born May 6, 1931 in Westfield ( Alabama ). His father, named after US President William Howard Taft , played for the Negro baseball team of the local steel mill [1] . His mother, Annie Satterwright, was involved in basketball and athletics at school [2] . However, his parents were not officially married. As a child, Mays often remained in the care of her mother’s younger sisters, Sarah and Ernestine, and later Sarah became his model of a woman in Willie’s life [3] . From an early age, his father began to attract his son to baseball and at the age of five, Willie played with his father in the yard, and at the age of ten he was already allowed to sit on the bench at the matches of his father’s team [4] .
While studying at the Fairfield Industrial School, Mays participated in many sports, gaining an average of 17 points in basketball, knocking an antler further than 40 yards in American football , and also playing as a quarterback [5] .
Professional career
Negro Leagues
Mace's professional career began in 1947. While still in high school, in the summer he began to play for the Chattanooga Chu Chus club from Tennessee . However, he soon left the team and returned to his home state, where he began to play for the Birmingham Black Barons from the Negro American League . Thanks to him, “Barons” were able to become champions of the league and take part in the World Series of Negro League in 1948, in which they lost to “ Homestead Grace ” with a score of 4: 1. In the season, Mays had an average sales of 26.2% of batings and he showed an excellent defensive and baseball game. However, performances for professional teams blocked his path for performances in Alabama's school sports teams. Because of this, he started having problems with the school administration, which wanted Willy to play for the school, which would improve the team's results and attract more fans to the stadiums [6] .
Over the next few years, scouts from several Major League Baseball clubs sent their scouts to watch Mace play. The first to discover Willie Scout was the Boston Braves Bad Mogh, who had been watching him for a year, and then told his management about it. The Braves offered the Barons for the young player $ 7,500 in cash and then another $ 7,500 over the next 30 days, as well as $ 6,000 for Willie himself. However, the owner of the Barons, Tom Hayes did not want to give up his player, believing that he would help his team spend a good season. In addition to the Braves, Mace became interested in the Brooklyn Dodgers scouts, who sent a representative to close the deal. However, New York Giants signed a contract with Willie, who signed Mace for $ 4,000 and sent him to his Level B farm club in Trenton , New Jersey. [7]
Minor Leagues
After a season average of 35.3, Mays kicked the ball in his first season in Trenton, and he started the 1951 season at the AAA Minneapolis Millers Club of the American Association . The Millers, where he performed with two more future members of the baseball Hall of Fame, Hoyt Wilhelm and Ray Dandridge , did not stay long. Knocking out with a percentage of 47.7 in 35 games, he was called up to the Giants main team on May 24, 1951. This news came to him when he was at the cinema in Sioux City ( Iowa ). While watching the movie on the screen appeared a large inscription "WILLY MEYS, CALL YOUR HOTEL" [8] . And the very next day he made his debut in Major League Baseball, taking part in the match against Philadelphia. Mace moved to Harlem ( New York ), where Frank Forbes, a former Harlem Rens player, became his mentor.
Major League
New York Giants (1951-1957)
Mace’s career in the Premier League did not start very well - in the first 12 batings, he did not beat a single hit. However, already 13 times he knocked out a home run after filing a future member of the Warren Span Hall of Fame [9] . Span later joked, “I will never forgive myself. "We could get rid of Willie forever if I only made him a strikeout then." Over the course of the season, Mays began to improve his performance little by little and finished the regular season with an average hit rate of 27.4%, 68 RBI and 20 home runs and won the Rookie of the Year award. In August and September, the Giants competed with the Dodgers for the title of the conference champion, and thanks to Mace's good play, his team was able to win several important victories [10] . In the season, the Giants were able to reach the World Series , where they met with the New York Yankees . In the first game of the series, Mays, along with Hank Thompson and Monte Irwin, formed the first African-American bunch in outfield in the history of World Series [11] . In the series itself, Willie did not perform very well, and the Giants lost to the Yankees in six matches.
After a successful season in Major League Baseball, Mays became a celebrity in Harlem. He often played urban baseball with his children, and it was claimed that Mace could knock out a rubber ball 300 feet away from the broomstick [12] [13] .
Notes
- ↑ James S. Hirsch. Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend. - Scribner , 2010. - P. 11. - ISBN 978-1-4165-4790-7 .
- ↑ Hirsch, p. 12
- ↑ Hirsch, p. 13
- ↑ Hirsch, p. 15
- ↑ Willie Mays Quotes
- ↑ Hirsch, p. 38-48
- ↑ June 22, 1950 letter from Eddie Montague to Jack Schwarz
- ↑ The Giants of the Polo Grounds by Noel Hynd (1988). New York: Doubleday. page 358. ISBN 0-385 23790-1
- ↑ ESPN.com: Mays brought joy to baseball
- ↑ Willie Mays , by Matt von Albade, Tempo Books, Grosset & Dunlop, Inc. NY. copyright 1966, pp. 60-75 first printing, August 1966, Library of Congress Number 66-17205
- ↑ Willie Mays , by Arnold Hano, Tempo Books, Grosset & Dunlop, Inc. NY. copyright 1966, p.80 first printing, August 1966, Library of Congress Number 66-17205
- ↑ Jim Rednour, Willie Mays Learned To Hit Curveball Playing Stickball with Kids During Rookie Year In The Bigs Retrieved April 9, 2011,
- ↑ Willie Mays & Stickball in Harlem Retrieved April 9, 2011
Literature
- David Pietrusza, Matthew Silverman & Michael Gershman, ed. (2000). Baseball: The Biographical Encyclopedia . Total / Sports Illustrated .
- Willie's Time: A Memoir of Another America , by Charles Einstein
- Willie Mays , by Arnold Hano, Tempo Books, Grosset & Dunlop, Inc. NY. copyright 1966, first printing, August 1966,
- The Series , an illustrated history of Baseball's postseason showcase, 1903-1993, The Sporting News , copyright 1993, The Sporting News Publishing Co. ISBN 0-89204-476-4 /