'Make no mistake: Willie Mays was a baseball god' - a fan's appreciation

By Charles Passy

The baseball great may be remembered for 'The Catch,' but let's also not forget 'The Hit'

When it comes to Willie Mays, everyone wants to talk about "The Catch." But I want to talk about the hit.

"The Catch" - Mays' famed over-the-shoulder grab in the 1954 World Series - fully deserves the uppercase treatment: It's become part of baseball lore as the greatest defensive play of all time. And it's one you'll read about in the obits being posted now that Mays has passed away at age 93.

But what about the hit? It was just a straightforward single, but it's the play that I think speaks more of Mays' significance, especially to fans of my era - I'm 60 - who came of age as the famed center fielder was in the final chapter of his glorious career.

The hit was, in fact, Mays' last one, registered in the second game of the 1973 World Series. It's what gave the Mets the winning run in the contest versus the Oakland A's. The Mets eventually lost the series in seven games. But Mays, in his 42nd year of the planet, proved his prowess one more time.

I remember the buzz in my New York home: My father followed Mays way back in the day, since the New York Giants were my dad's team and Mays was their young star. And for the record, they were always the New York Giants to my dad - the team's move to San Francisco in 1958, with Mays aboard, was never spoken about.

So, when Mays came back to New York in '72 for that last chapter, my dad was ecstatic. And by extension, so was I. It was probably hard for me to fully appreciate at the time, but Mays was the last living link for my late boomer/early Gen X-er generation to baseball's Golden Age of the '50s and '60s. The era when players gave it their all: Pitchers pitched a full nine innings and non-pitchers played 150-plus games like the workaday athletes they were.

But Mays was no workaday athlete. He was the embodiment of grace, power and precision. The numbers tell the story - he hit 660 homers in his career (a stat I still remember without looking it up), racked up 3,293 hits and garnered 12 Gold Gloves. The complete player, in other words.

Of course, by the time he made it to the Mets, he was in his third decade of playing the game and the numbers were a lot less impressive. The "Say Hey Kid," his moniker, was more like the "Say, Can He Still Do It?" aging hero, with a final season (1973) average of a mere .211. And yet, he was still Willie Mays in many respects - certainly, in the dignified way he carried himself.

To wit: I got to see him in person one time in his Mets era - outside the team's home of Shea Stadium, that is - at an appearance at a New York department store. Today, it would be the kind of event that required a hefty admission fee and fans would be kept waiting forever.

But Mays just did it as a simple free promotional appearance, perhaps for the team, perhaps just because. He took questions from fans and I got to ask him one (about what he thought his best season was). He responded as graciously as he could, recalling one of his stellar years in the '50s with a humility you don't expect from a baseball god. And make no mistake: Willie Mays was a baseball god.

Which brings us back to The Hit - and now I'll give it the uppercase treatment. Maybe Mays got a simple single that any player could have gotten. But I like to think it was a hit that spoke to the determination and raw ability he still held inside him. And as much as I continue to follow baseball today and often lose my patience with nostalgic peers who say the current generation's players don't measure up to the ones from yesteryear, I have to say there are few who embrace the game the way Mays did.

And that will probably still be true decades from now. "Say Hey," no more.

-Charles Passy

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06-19-24 0816ET

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