OT: First Jerry West, now Willie Mays

[uconngb]

All time greats dropping like flies

 

[Ha Who]

24 time all star and missed two seasons while serving his country

 

[Umami Zen]

Circle of Life. Enjoy them while we have them. Walton comes to mind along with JW

 

[uconngb]

Circle of Life. Enjoy them while we have them. Walton comes to mind along with JW

Yes good call

 

[FfldCntyFan]

An all time great and one of my all time favorites from childhood.

Very sad

 

[Edward Sargent]

Say Hey

 

[scotty0330]

Thank god there are highlights of Willie mays playing since you wouldn’t believe his skills until you saw him play. He was sports center before there was such a thing. A gentleman and a legend of the game.

RIP Willie

 

[boba]

From 2005:
"I played baseball"

 

[superjohn]

RIP to one of the all time legends in sports, a true icon, and a gentleman. It stinks getting older and losing these legends.

For my dad, my uncle, my friends dads etc. I always heard Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were the best ballplayers they ever saw.

It always seemed to me Ruth and Mays were considered the two best players ever by the public.

 

[storrsroars]

Man, just two days short of the Giants/Cards game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, where Mays played for the Black Barons at 17.

My dad's favorite player. I remember first going to Shea for a Giants game, and dad told me to watch how good the centerfielder played.

RIP #24

 

[Improviser]

Saw him with my father in 1957 at the Polo Grounds in a doubleheader against the Pirates where the Giants swept both games.

Giants had a losing season that year, but those games showed what Mays could do: hit homers, steal bases, and catch balls.

Bill Rigney was the manager. Next year, they moved to San Francisco.

 

[Husky68]

Was my favorite. When Giants moved to SF would listen to the games on the radio after school and wait for the Bpt Post to be delivered to see the stats. Few years after left and before Mets, dad took me with another dad and my friend to Philly to see Giants play to see Willie.
Everyone in my little league wanted to be a center fielder (Willie, Mickey and the Duke), I was so slow I ended up a catcher.
Really the end of an era.

 

[UCfor3]

Larry Allen as well and far too young. Four amazing athletes Mays, West, Walton and Allen. Big losses in a short time period.

 

[JB75]

My dads fave player. Rip Willie Rip West and Walton too. Legends are fading. Crazy.

 

[husky8273]

favorite player since assembling the 1966 Aurora model of "The Catch" as an 8 year old

 

[nomar]

Man, just two days short of the Giants/Cards game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, where Mays played for the Black Barons at 17.

My dad's favorite player. I remember first going to Shea for a Giants game, and dad told me to watch how good the centerfielder played.

RIP #24

My dad’s as well.

Top 2 player of all time.

It’s still “The Catch” 70 years later!

 

[ucp990411]

Best player of all time.

 

[Palatine]

The "Say Hey"kid. Number 24 in your program and number 1 in your heart.

I'm old enough to have watched him as a Giant. Power to all fields. Speed. Incredible glove. A pioneer.

 

[Sphinx]

Walton and West and Willie

First the bell tolled for a jovial giant,
And it tolled for a sunlit face,
And then the bell tolled for a backwoods boy
And it tolled for a perfect pace,
And then the bell tolled for the Say Hey Kid
And it tolled for an elegant grace,
And on the bell tolls for the heroes we lose,
And it tolls for the human race.

 

[jibsey]

Saw Willie live vs the Mets in 64’. He made a throw from center field to home plate after a basket catch that looked like a clothesline just a few feet off the ground.
There were 23 voters who did not vote for him in 1979 for The Hall of Fame.

 

[Chin Diesel]

LF - Williams
CF- Mays
RF- Ruth

Nice outfield.

 

[cohenzone]

Saw Mays in person once when he played for the Mets, past his prime. The second game i ever went to as a kid was a Dodgers/Giants game at the Polo Grounds but Willie was in the service. That game was 9/.6/53 (i googled and found because it had a famous brawl in it). Saw Duke Snyder in person once but my man The Mick several times.

There was no way not to like Willie. RIP

 

[Dove]

5' 10". 170lbs. Wow.

Almost Rudy dimensions.

 

[HCCForever]

5' 10". 170lbs. Wow.

Almost Rudy dimensions.

Tim Kurkjian talked about Mays with Scott Van Pelt last night. Tim said that Mays had the largest and strongest hands that Tim had ever seen. Explains some of his power.

 

[controlfade]

Mays is still the greatest all around player in the history of the game! Man played with joy and a smile every day, closest comp is a young Ken Griffey Jr who played the same.