Willie Howard Mays Jr.
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Willie Mays, known as the Say Hey Kid, is generally regarded as the greatest all-around baseball player of all time. He won two National League MVP awards in 1954 and 1965 and earned 12 Gold Gloves. Mays also appeared as himself on television, including Bewitched 1964 and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Names, aliases, and relatives of Willie Mays — birth name, kin, and personal ties.
Willie Mays by the numbers — life, work, and family.
Willie Mays — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Willie Mays was born on 6 May 1931 in Westfield, Alabama, to Willie Howard Mays Sr. and Annie Satterwhite. He attended Fairfield High Preparatory School where his baseball talents flourished. In May 1951, while playing for the Minneapolis Millers batting .477, a message flashed on a movie theater screen in Sioux City, Iowa telling him to call his hotel—that call brought him to the New York Giants.
Mays made his Major League debut on 25 May 1951 with the New York Giants. In Game One of the 1954 World Series, he made the over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball. He won the National League MVP in 1954 and again in 1965. Mays hit his 500th home run in September 1965 and his 600th in September 1969. Off the field, he acted as himself on television shows including Bewitched 1964 and The Donna Reed Show, and appeared in the 2014 film About Last Night.
Willie Mays was married twice: first to Scarlett Marghuereta Wendelle from 14 February 1956 to 29 January 1962, and then to Mae Louise Allen from 27 November 1971 until her death on 19 April 2013. He had one son, Michael Mays. Mays was also the godfather of baseball star Barry Bonds.
Willie Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 with 95 percent of the vote. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was elected to the California Hall of Fame. His uniform number 24 was retired by the San Francisco Giants in 1972 and later by the New York Mets in 2022. Mays is remembered for his 660 home runs, 12 Gold Gloves, and the over-the-shoulder catch in the 1954 World Series.
The complete filmography of Willie Mays — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
Every award, honor, and recognition received by Willie Mays — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Willie Mays — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
I Don’t Compare ‘Em. I Catch ‘Em.
I Remember the Last Season I Played. I Went Home After a Ballgame One Day, Lay Down on My Bed, and Tears Came to My Eyes. How Can You Explain That? You Cry Because You Love Her. I Cried, I Guess, Because I Loved Baseball and I Knew I Had to Leave It.
Youngsters of Little League Can Survive Under-coaching a Lot Better Than Over-coaching.
You Know, a Lot of People Said When I Was Forty, I Should Quit, but I Don’t Think So. You Should Play as Long as You Can and as Long as You Enjoy the Game. in ’73, I Wasn’t Enjoying the Game, so I Quit in May, I Retired, and They Wouldn’t Let Me Retire. so I Finished up in the World Series. but I Say to Players: Play as Long as You Can, Because You Only Have One Chance.
Over the Years, a Lot of Organizations Have Asked Me to Be Their Spokesman, or Have Wanted Me to Make Speeches About My Experiences as a Black Athlete, or to Talk to Congressmen About Racial Issues in Sports. but See, I Never Recall Trouble. I Believe I Had a Happy Childhood. Besides Playing School Sports, We’d Play Football Against the White Kids. and We Thought Nothing of It, Neither the Blacks nor the Whites. … I Never Got into a Fight That Was Caused by Racism.
Every Time I Look at My Pocketbook, I See Jackie Robinson.
Baseball Is a Game, Yes. It Is Also a Business. but What It Most Truly Is Is Disguised Combat. for All Its Gentility, Its Almost Leisurely Pace, Baseball Is Violence Under Wraps.
My Father Told Me That I Was Able to Walk When I Was Only Six Months Old. and Wouldn’t You Know It, He Got Me Walking After a Baseball. Getting a Baseball Was Just About the First Thing I Was Able to Do. He Put Two Chairs Close to Each Other and Then Put a Baseball on One. I Was Clinging to the Other. He Walked Me Through Two or Three Times. ‘See the Ball,” He Said. ‘See the Ball.’ Then He Turned Me Loose – and I Went for the Ball Myself. When He Knew I Could Chase a Ball, He Gave Me Batting Lessons. He Handed Me a Rubber Ball and a Little Stick Maybe Two Feet Long, and Sat Me in the Middle of the Floor. I’d Play with the Ball All Day Long, Hitting It with the Stick, Then Crawling or Toddling After It Across the Room. My Dad Was Determined That If I Wanted To, I Would Become a Baseball Player and Not End up in the Steel Mills the Way He Did.
Little-known facts about Willie Mays — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
The over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball in Game One of the 1954 World Series remains Mays’s most famous play.
Mays is often called the greatest all-around baseball player of all time.
He was the godfather of Barry Bonds.
Mays is the San Francisco Giants all-time leader in games played 2,857, at bats 10,477, total bases 5,907, home runs 646, hits 3,187, doubles 504, and runs 2,011.
His first career Major League home run cleared the Polo Grounds, something no one had done before. Pitcher Warren Spahn quipped, Gentlemen, for the first 60 feet that was a hell of a pitch.
While playing for the Minneapolis Millers in 1951, a message flashed on a Sioux City movie theater screen telling him to call his hotel—that call was his call-up to the majors.
Mays retired with 660 career home runs and a lifetime .301 batting average.
In May 1972, the Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and cash, fulfilling a longtime ambition of Mets owner Joan Whitney Payson.
From 1956 through 1959, Mays led the National League in stolen bases; in 1956 he became the first player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season.
With his 535th home run in August 1966, Mays moved into second place on the all-time home run list behind Babe Ruth; he remained second until Hank Aaron surpassed him in 1972.
When called up by the Giants in May 1951, Mays was batting .477 for the Minneapolis Millers. He told manager Leo Durocher he didn’t think he could hit big league pitching, but Durocher asked if he could hit .250, and when Mays said yes, Durocher told him to come immediately.
After taking a job with the Bally Corporation, commissioner Bowie Kuhn forced Mays to sever all ties with baseball; he was reinstated by Kuhn’s successor, Peter Ueberroth, in the mid-1980s.
In 1959, earning $80,000 per year with the San Francisco Giants, Mays lived on a modest $300 per week budget; the rest went to taxes and investments.
Mays’s hands were always well manicured, and major league catchers often noticed his well-buffed nails.
Mays deliberately set his hat on his head so that it would fall off when running at full speed.
Mays hit the 500th home run of his career against Houston in September 1965.
He won the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1954 and 1965.
His uniform number 24 was retired by the Giants in 1972 shortly after he joined the Mets; the Mets retired the same number in 2022 to honor a promise made to him.
Mays remained with the Mets as a coach after he retired, although his duties were never defined.
Once, Mays hit a line drive so hard it went through the outfield fence of a minor league ballpark in Milwaukee.
He was the ninth player elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, receiving 95 percent of the vote. Dick Young wrote of the five percent who did not vote for him, ‘If Jesus Christ were to show up with his old baseball glove, some guys wouldn’t vote for him. He dropped the cross three times, didn’t he?
Mays was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979. He played for the New York/San Francisco Giants 1951–1972 and New York Mets 1972–1973.
He passed the 3,000-hit mark in July 1970.
Mays hit four home runs in one game against the Milwaukee Braves in 1961.
Mays won 12 Gold Gloves and appeared in a record-tying 24 All-Star games.
He was a member of the 1951 National League Champion New York Giants, the 1954 World Series Champion New York Giants, the 1962 National League Champion San Francisco Giants, the 1971 National League Western Division Champion San Francisco Giants, and the 1973 National League Champion New York Mets.
Mays was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1951.
He hit the 600th home run of his career against San Diego’s Mike Corkins in September 1969.
Mays spent most of 1952 and all of 1953 in military service.
His first major league home run was off Warren Spahn at the Polo Grounds in New York.
Mays became known for catching fly balls using the waist-high or basket catch.
He made his major league debut on 25 May 1951.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Willie Mays.
Celebrities similar to Willie Mays — same craft, ranked by reach.
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