Willie Mays

Willie Howard Mays Jr. was born on 6 May 1931 in Westfield, Alabama, a primarily Black company town near Fairfield. His father, William Howard "Cat" Mays, played industrial-league baseball and later worked as a railway porter and in the steel mills. His mother, Annie Satterwhite, was a gifted high-school basketball and track athlete. His parents never married and separated when Willie was about three. He was raised by his father and two aunts, Sarah and Ernestine, and called Buck by family and close friends. Cat put a glove in his hands early. By ten Willie was sitting on the bench with his father's industrial team. His boyhood heroes included Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Stan Musial. Church, industrial-town baseball, and multi-sport play shaped him before Negro league paydays arrived while he was still finishing school.

He attended Fairfield Industrial High School, starring in basketball as a county scoring leader among Black schools, in football as quarterback, fullback, and punter, and in baseball. Playing mostly home games for the Birmingham Black Barons let him stay in school. He graduated in 1950, which cleared the way for a major-league contract the Giants had waited to offer. The public record used here does not show a college career. The diploma and the Giants contract arrived in the same year.

Brief Chattanooga and Birmingham Black Barons years led to the Giants organization. He helped Birmingham reach the 1948 Negro World Series. After graduating in 1950 he signed with the New York Giants. Minor-league stops included Trenton, where he was the first Black player in the Inter-State League, and Minneapolis. He debuted on 25 May 1951, started 0-for-12, then homered off Warren Spahn, won National League Rookie of the Year, and was on deck for Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round the World. Drafted in the Korean War era, he was inducted on 29 May 1952, spent much of his time at Fort Eustis, Virginia, refining the basket catch in service ball, and was discharged on 1 March 1954. That season he won the batting title at .345, hit 41 home runs, earned NL MVP, and led the Giants to a World Series sweep of Cleveland. Game 1 produced The Catch, his over-the-shoulder running grab of Vic Wertz's drive in deep Polo Grounds center field. He became the prototype five-tool star: hit for average and power, run, throw, and field. He won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves after the award's creation, appeared in a record-tying 24 All-Star Games, led the NL in home runs four times and stolen bases four times, and became the first National Leaguer to post a 30-30 season. He hit 51 home runs in 1955, four in one game on 30 April 1961, and a career-high 52 in his second MVP year, 1965, when he also hit his 500th home run. Named captain on 21 May 1964, he was, according to biographer James S. Hirsch, the first African American captain of a National or American League club. He reached 600 home runs on 22 September 1969 and his 3,000th hit on 18 July 1970. After the Giants moved to San Francisco he won over West Coast fans. Traded to the New York Mets on 11 May 1972, he announced retirement on 20 September 1973 and finished with a final World Series. Career line: .301, 3,293 hits, 660 home runs. First-ballot Hall of Fame election followed on 23 January 1979 with 94.68 percent of the vote. He later rejoined the Giants as a special assistant and signed a lifetime contract in 1993.

He married Marghuerite Wendell Chapman in 1956. They adopted son Michael in 1959 and later divorced in the early 1960s. In 1971 he married Mae Louise Allen, a child-welfare worker, who died on 19 April 2013 after years with Alzheimer's that he helped care through. He later lived in Atherton, California, with caregivers as glaucoma limited driving and golf, and he died in a Palo Alto care home. Barry Bonds, son of Giants teammate Bobby Bonds, was his godson. In his New York years he was a Harlem stickball celebrity, known for playing with neighborhood kids as well as for Polo Grounds excellence.

Unlike Jackie Robinson, Mays rarely led public civil rights battles. He argued that his job was to play baseball at the highest level. He said he was a ballplayer, not a politician, a writer, or a historian, and that he could do best for his people by doing what he did best. Critics including Robinson and Hank Aaron wished he had spoken more. Housing discrimination met him when the Giants moved west and a San Francisco home offer was blocked by neighbors. Excellence on the field remained the public contribution he chose to make.

The Giants retired number 24 in 1972. The Mets retired 24 on 27 August 2022. Oracle Park's address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza, guarded by a towering statue. MLB renamed the World Series MVP Award for him in 2017. All-Century Team selection and debates about the greatest all-around player keep his standard alive. Mentorship of young players and the Say Hey Foundation extended his reach beyond box scores. President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom on 24 November 2015. A public celebration of life filled Oracle Park on 8 July 2024, with military honors for his Army service. Rickwood Field in Birmingham hosted a Negro leagues tribute game on 20 June 2024 in his honor, after he had said he could not travel.

National League Rookie of the Year in 1951. National League Most Valuable Player in 1954 and 1965. Twelve consecutive Gold Gloves. Twenty-four All-Star selections. Hickok Belt. Sporting News Player of the Decade for the 1960s. National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, first ballot, 94.68 percent. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Inaugural honoree of the Roberto Clemente Award, then called the Commissioner's Award. Multiple honorary degrees. 1954 World Series champion. 1954 batting title. Career line .301, 660 home runs, 3,293 hits.

He appeared on What's My Line?, The Donna Reed Show, and Bewitched. The Treniers recorded Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song). Bob Dylan and John Fogerty songs nodded to him. Charles Schulz drew Peanuts references. HBO released Say Hey, Willie Mays! A 1951 rookie card plot on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine sent a deep-space homage. Sportswriters popularized the Say Hey Kid nickname around his early Giants years, linked to his friendly hey greetings. Exact coinage is attributed in different accounts to writers or to manager Leo Durocher. Family and teammates also called him Buck.

A greeter role at Bally's Park Place led Commissioner Bowie Kuhn to push him, and Mickey Mantle, out of baseball until Peter Ueberroth reinstated them in 1985. At the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials, John Milner said liquid amphetamine was in Mays's Mets locker. Mays denied using drugs and said he sought vitamins to keep playing. Biographer James S. Hirsch notes use was never proven.

He died of heart failure on 18 June 2024 in a Palo Alto, California, care home, aged 93. Reporting including the San Francisco Chronicle, summarized on Wikipedia, gave heart failure as the cause. Son Michael and the Giants announced he passed peacefully among loved ones. A day earlier he had said he would not travel to Birmingham for MLB's Rickwood Field Negro leagues tribute. Tributes came from presidents, players, and fans. The Rickwood Field game proceeded in his honor on 20 June 2024. Oracle Park hosted a public celebration of life on 8 July 2024. Resting place details were not made a focus of major public obituaries reviewed for this profile.