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Happy Birthday Wishes for the ‘Say Hey Kid’
Willie Mays celebrated his 90th birthday. One of the legendary baseball players is still with us. Willie Howard Mays, born on May 6, 1931, is one of the greatest players in baseball history.
His 22-year career, with the exception of one year with the Mets, was spent with the New York/San Francisco Giants.
Published in SportsMays finished his career batting .302 with 660 home runs, the sixth-most of all time, and 1,903 RBI. He holds MLB records for most putouts (7,095) and most extra-inning home runs (22). He also had 338 stolen bases.
Over his career, he was selected to 24 All-Star Games, tied for the second-most of all time. Mays was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999 and ranked second on The Sporting News‘s “List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players”, behind only Babe Ruth. He was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. “If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you in the eye and say Willie was better,” manager Leo Durocher said. – from Wikipedia
And he combined that astounding talent with an infectious enthusiasm for the game. The Say Hey Kid indeed.
I was fortunate enough to see him play my beloved Reds at Crosley Field. What an athlete.
Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks Doug. He was one of my hero’s growing up and still is (and I’m white…how can that be?). I always wanted to pull off the “over the shoulder bucket catch.” Never did.
Gasp! He’s still among us? That’s great news!
Yeah, seems like all of my childhood heros (Mantle, Aaron, Banks, Frank Robinson) are all gone. The end of an era…
“22 year career”, “24 all-star games” … how did that work? Were there years with multiple all-star games?
That is interesting.
Not at all. For a number of years (1959-1962) there were two all-star games each season.
Thanks for answering the question.
Age has its advantages; not many, but some…
Yeah, you should be more like Nancy Pelosi. Now she’s a real fan…
https://dailycaller.com/2021/05/08/pelosi-wrong-photo-black-baseball-player-willie-mays-birthday/
Seriously, is there anything that this woman cannot screw up???