Willie Mays, the spirited middle fielder whose brilliance on the plate, within the subject and on the basepaths for the Giants led many to name him the best all-around participant in baseball historical past, died on Tuesday. He was 93.
At his loss of life, which was introduced by the San Francisco Giants on social media, he had been the oldest residing member of the Baseball Corridor of Fame. No explanation for loss of life was given.
In 22 Nationwide League seasons, with the Giants in New York and San Francisco and a quick finale with the Mets, preceded by a 1948 stint within the Negro leagues, Mays compiled extraordinary statistics. He hit 660 profession dwelling runs and had 3,2832 hits and a .302 profession batting common.
However Mays did greater than personify the entire ballplayer. An exuberant model of play and an effervescent character made him one of many sport’s — and America’s — most charismatic figures, a reputation that even folks far afield from the baseball world acknowledged immediately as a nationwide treasure.
Charles M. Schulz was such a fan that Mays typically got here up by title in Schulz’s “Peanuts” cartoon. (Requested to spell “maze” in a spelling bee, Charlie Brown ventured, “M … A … Y… S.”) Woody Allen’s alter ego in “Manhattan” ranked Mays No. 2 on his listing of joys that made life worthwhile. (Groucho Marx was No. 1.) In 1954, the R&B group the Treniers recorded “Say Hey (the Willie Mays Music).”
“After I broke in, I didn’t know many individuals by title,” Mays as soon as defined, “so I’d simply say, ‘Say, hey,’ and the writers picked that up.”
Mays propelled himself into the Corridor of Fame with thrilling aptitude, his cap flying off as he chased down a drive or ran the bases.
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