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Willie Mays played longer and better than Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider.
I have friends who grew up in New York City, and as young kids they were in a constant battle over who was the best centerfielder in their town. Beware a spoiler.
In every statistical category and all other manners of speaking it was Mays, the Say Hey Kid who died last week at 93. He played for the New York Giants, but only five full seasons at the Polo Grounds because Mays missed a year and half in the Army and spent the last 14 in San Francisco after the Giants moved to the West Coast in 1958.
With no interleague play back then, Mays’ biggest rival was the Dodgers, who fled to LA in ’58; both teams remained in the National League and still have a rivalry on the West Coast but are now hours apart compared to the short subway ride between Brooklyn and Harlem.
Snider was the Bums’ star centerfielder who played 11 of his 18 seasons at Ebbets Field. He was a lefthanded slugger but not the athletes Mays or Mantle were. Beloved in Brooklyn, he was an eight-time all-star who won two World Series and led the league in home runs and RBIs for one season each.
Mantle played his entire career, 18 seasons, for the American League Yankees, but was in the argument over the favorite centerfielder in New York. He was a switch-hitting speedster who stole 153 bases and occasionally beat out a bunt when the infielders were playing back. The Yanks won seven World Series in Mantle’s day.
Statistically, they were all pretty close and worth the arguments and occasional fist fights that broke out between opposing fans.
Mays had the highest career batting average, just over .300 and slammed 660 home runs while winning the National MVP twice and finishing second in the voting two other times. He was the fastest of the Gotham trio with 339 career stolen bases and dozens of sensational plays in the outfield.
Mays broke into the big leagues in 1951 and went on to be one of the most spectacular players of all time. The New York Giants won five National League Pennants in 28 seasons but only one World Series, in 1954, when Mays made the reputed greatest catch ever with his back to the plate on a long ball hit by the Cleveland Indians’ Vic Wertz.
Featured image via Associated Press
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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