Up for auction “San Francisco Giants” Willie Mays Hand Signed 10X8 Color Photo. ES-8847E Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931),
nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind
only Babe Ruth on most all-time lists, including those
of The Sporting News and ESPN. Mays played in the National League (NL) between 1951 and 1973 for the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. Mays is the oldest living member of the Major
League Baseball Hall of Fame. Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons of
the Negro American League in
1948, playing with them until the Giants signed him once he graduated from high
school in 1950, then won the Rookie of the
Year Award in 1951 after hitting 20 home runs to help the Giants win their first pennant in
14 years. After spending most of the next two years in the United States Army during
the Korean War, he was named the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1954 after winning
the batting
title with a .345 average and hitting 41 home runs. His over-the-shoulder catch of
a Vic Wertz fly ball in
Game 1 of the 1954 World Series is one of the most famous baseball
plays of all time. The Giants swept the heavily favored Cleveland Indians for the lone World Series triumph of
his career, and the team's last title before relocating to San Francisco after
the 1957 season. A 24-time All-Star,
tying him for the second most in history, Mays became a perennial MVP
candidate, finishing in the top six in the voting in eleven of the next twelve
seasons. He led the NL in home runs four times and in slugging percentage five
times while batting over .300 and
posting 100 runs batted in (RBI) ten times each.
In 1955 he made a run at the Triple Crown, leading the
league with 51 home runs and finishing second in batting and RBI. He was the
runner-up for the MVP in 1958 after hitting a career-high .347, and again in
1962 after leading the Giants to another World Series with 49 home runs and 141 RBI. By 1963, he
was making over $100,000 a year, setting a record at the time with a $105,000
contract. He was again named the MVP in 1965 after hitting .317 with a
league-leading 52 home runs, becoming the second NL player to hit 50 more than
once and setting a franchise record that stood until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. Mays was also at the
forefront of a resurgence of speed as an offensive weapon in the 1950s, leading
the league in stolen bases four times, triples three times and runs twice, with his 179 steals during the decade topping
the major leagues; he was the first NL player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30
bases in the same season, and the first player
in history to reach both 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases. He held the NL
record for career home runs from 1966 until Henry Aaron passed him during the 1972 season, during
which time he became the second player and the first right-handed hitter to hit
600 home runs. Mays also set standards for defensive brilliance, winning 12
consecutive Gold Glove Awards after
their creation in 1957, still a record for outfielders; he led NL center
fielders in double plays five times and assists three times. He ended his career with a return to
New York after a mid-season trade to the New York Mets in 1972, retiring after the team's trip to
the 1973 World Series. He
served as a coach for the Mets for the rest of the decade, and later rejoined
the Giants as a special assistant to the president and general manager. A
classic example of a 5-tool player, Mays
finished his career with a batting average of .302. Upon his retirement, he
held the NL record for career runs scored (2,062), and ranked second in league
history behind Stan Musial in games played (2,992),
third in at bats (10,881), runs batted in (1,903), total bases (6,066), extra-base hits (1,323) and walks (1,464), fourth in hits (3,283), fifth in slugging percentage (.557), and
eighth in doubles (523); his
140 triples ranked fourth among players active after 1945. He holds major
league records for games as a center fielder (2,829), putouts as an outfielder (7,095) and extra-inning home
runs (22), and ended his career behind only Ty Cobb in total games as an outfielder (2,842) and
ranking seventh in assists (188) and third in double plays (59) in center
field. Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of
Fame in 1979 in
his first year of eligibility, and was named to the Major League
Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
2015. |