Willie Mays died on June 18th, 2024. With him died the last remaining link to an era of baseball known to us in black and white from grainy footage and grainier moral compasses vus-a-vis race relations. Willie Mays was among the last greats to play both Negro League ball and Major League ball. He stared Jim Crow in the face, and Jim Crow lowered his head. He was a multi-time MVP, Gold Glover, a Korean War veteran, an All Star more times than we have gingers and toes combined, and in summary, an American icon.
The greats of the 1950's graced the game at a time when baseball was to undergo profound changes. In 1950, only a few MLB teams featured black players. By 1959, all of them did. In 1950, some teams traveled by air. By 1959, air travel was the only way. In 1950, MLB baseball only existed east of the Mississippi. In 1959, MLB baseball was being played from Boston to San Francisco where Mays was king. In 1950, Boston, Philadelphia and St. Louis had two teams and New York three. By 1959, Kansas City, Baltimore, Milwaukee and of course, Los Angeles and San Francisco had joined the MLB circuit.
The baseball of Berra, Mantle, Banks, Aaron, Snider, Clemente and Mays was the demarcation line between the mostly North American affair of old, and the international game we have today. The baseball of the 1950's and 1960's was the baseball of an ascendant, but not always self-assured America. It was the baseball of sweeping social change and therefore, it demanded a different breed of ballplayer.
The ideal ballplayer of 1951, when Mays came into the league, was Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio represented a stoic, almost mechanical brand of ball where he had a clean swing, played the outfield in a pragmatic and seemingly effortless way. Willie Mays presented something else though. He was a ballplayer who wore a hat just a tad too large so it would fall as he made yet another acrobatic play. He played the outfield with an almost childlike elegance that looked just as graceful as DiMaggio but in a totally different way. Mays made sensational catch after sensational catch. He made plays that were deemed impossible at the time. “The catch” would not have been made by any of his peers, even Mickey Mantle.
Mays was also one of the first five tool talents in the modern Ronald Acuña sense of the term. He had power and he could hit for average thanks to good plate discipline and good plate coverage in his swing. His gold gloves speak to his tremendous outfield range and baseball intelligence to position himself properly and run the right routes to make plays. They also bear witness to the strong accurate throwing arm that made him such a formidable asset in centerfield. His speed on the basepaths was also a weapon but he had the good feel for how to get a good jump needed to capitalize. You could argue Mays was the first modern superstar.
In a world now deprived of Mantle, Berra, Snider, Aaron and Clemente, losing Mays is a big blow. We no longer have any of the superstars of the 1950's. That firsthand link to that incredible era in our game's history no longer exists. All we have is memories now, but what incredible memories they are. Willie himself may be gone, but the legacy he leaves behind has shaped and will continue to shape our game for decades to come. From his fortitude in overcoming the racism of the day to the heroic exploits on the field, the Say Hey Kid remains an embodiment of that which is great about America.
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