The ‘Right’ View by Francis P. Sempa

Baseball’s Greatest Player Ever

One of the many joys of visiting Cooperstown, New York, is touring the Baseball Hall of Fame. I first visited this temple of sports heroes as a young boy in the mid-1960s. Back then I was a San Francisco Giants fan and my favorite player was Willie Mays. Mays, who died a few years ago at the age of 93, was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979, but he wasn’t a unanimous pick, receiving 409 out of 432 votes, which was silly. Willie Mays was the greatest all-around player in MLB history.

But don’t take my word for it. Knowledgeable baseball minds, including players, broadcasters and journalists, have said the same thing. Ted Williams, perhaps the greatest pure hitter in baseball history, said Mays was the best all-around player. So did Pete Rose, Frank Robinson, Sandy Koufax, Vin Scully, and many others. Mays excelled at every facet of the game—hitting, hitting for power, speed, fielding, throwing—and he had a brilliant baseball mind.

Willie Howard Mays was born on May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. He played a few years in the Negro Leagues for the Birmingham Black Barons in the late 1940s, until the New York Giants signed him in 1950. John Klima’s book “Willie’s Boys” covers that part of Mays’ baseball career. Legendary Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell, then a scout for the Giants, saw Mays play a game at the Polo Grounds in 1950. After the game, he told the Giants’ front office that he just saw “the best goddamn baseball player I have ever seen in my life.”

Mays was a great hitter—finishing his career with a lifetime .302 batting average, 3,283 hits, 660 homeruns, 1903 RBIs, 338 stolen bases—but was an even better fielder. He was awarded 12 golden gloves and holds the MLB record for the most outfield putouts—7,095. He played in 24 all-star games.

He made the greatest catch in World Series history—perhaps in baseball history—in 1954, when he outran a Vic Wertz blast to center field in the Polo Grounds and caught the ball over his shoulder, robbing Wertz of a triple. That amazing play has been known ever since as “the catch.” One broadcaster described Willie Mays’ glove as the place “where triples go to die.” Baseball journalist Arnold Hano wrote an entire book about Mays’ catch titled “A Day in the Bleachers.”

The best book about Mays is James Hirsch’s “Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend.” Another good read is “24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid,” co-authored by Mays and John Shea. For young baseball fans that never had the privilege of watching Mays play, go to YouTube and watch some videos of Mays’ greatest moments at the plate and on the field. Better still, visit the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown and learn about baseball’s greatest player.

Francis P. Sempa is the author of the books “Geopolitics: From the Cold War to the 21st Century” and “America’s Global Role.” He is a contributing editor to “The American Spectator” and writes a regular column for “Real Clear Defense.”