This Just In – At 93, the great Willie Mays has come to his end, leaving behind an enviable legacy of accomplishment and sheer decency that leaves baseball fans awestruck.
A kid from Westfield Alabama, Mays was signed by the New York Giants in 1950. Might have been sooner, but they had to wait until he graduated from high school. He was the Rookie of the Year and the superlatives kept rolling in for the rest of his career.
Mays’ over-the-shoulder basket catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series is one of the most famous baseball plays of all time. If you watch any coverage of his life and career, you’ll see it 500 times. That’s fair.
Mays won 12 consecutive Gold Glove awards. He would certainly have won more, but he played for several years before the award was created. Watching that iconic catch, you have to think some ad guy at the Rawlings Marketing Department thought “We need to make sure that guy is using OUR glove.”
(AP Photo/Robert H. Houston, File)
Not far off. Mr. Elmer Blasco, a Sales Manager for Rawlings, noticed two important trends in baseball: 1) There was an award for the best in batting, but none for defensive excellence. 2) He noticed that more than half of major league players were using Rawlings gloves.
So in 1957, the Gold Glove was born and Mays brought one home for each of the next 12 years.
Given the era he lived in, it’s certain that Mays was subjected to racist harassment from fans and perhaps from fellow players. He didn’t deny that in his later years, but likewise wouldn’t complain about it either in real time or retrospect. This brought some criticism from his fellow high-profile players.
Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, to name two, said they wished that Mays had spoken up about the fans yelling out racist epithets in the outfield. “I’m a ballplayer. I am not a politician or a writer or a historian. I can do best for my people by doing what I do best,” Mays said.
Outfielders are in a vulnerable position regarding fan harassment. Attending an Orioles game a few years ago, we were in the outfield at Camden Yards. With Mookie Betts in left field, we felt at times that we could reach out and shake hands with him. Unfortunately, an over-served Baltimore fan felt equally close and had a lot to say to Mookie.
Betts did the right and smart thing. He ignored that guy and caught everything that flew anywhere near him to help serve up a loss for the Orioles. There’s no upside for him to engage in a shouting match with a drunken fool.
After an inning or two, the fool shut up for the duration. Was he passed out? Stuck in the bathroom? Did his wife tell him he was walking home if he didn’t stop embarrassing her? I dunno. I just wanted to get back to the game.
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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