Mays has no real Nationals connection but anytime possibly the best player in the history of your sport dies it's worth a moment.
There are basically three camps you can fall into for "Best Player Ever" : Ruth, Mays, Other. There is no definitive answer and comparing across time and space is inherently flawed, but these two have the greatest number of backers.
Mays for his time frame - basically post war to expansion* was one of several great outfielders that defined the generation. He outlasted the self-destructive Mantle and out-fielded the underrated but still right fielder Hank Aaron**. But it's not by any means meant to be read that he just sneaked by these guys because of longevity or fielding. He was as great as they were at the plate. As has been said, he had no flaws. He was the ultimate 5 tool ballplayer.
Three guys, three of the greatest ever, all in the OF at their peak at the same time? Two happened. Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker. Ted Williams and Stan Musial. But three was special (not to mention that Frank Robinson would show up a little later and be one of the Top 20 players of all-time and be completely overshadowed because of these guys) and Mays was considered the best. Not much more needs to be said about how he was viewed as a player.
When I think of Mays in the recent past it's mostly been about how angry I get about the "Willie Mays stumbling in the OF" idea of thinking. That great players should retire early because god forbid you see them play as anything other than great. It's a fragile person that believes that, who ties their own self identity to how their favorite players present themselves. I will always believe you should play baseball until they tear the game away from you. Because once it's gone - at some point in your late 30s likely - there's no going back. You can't do it again later. This is it. Squeeze all you can from it. Willie did. His last year hitting a pale .211 with 6 homers in 66 games. Good for him.
* I like looking at pictures of rookie Mays and veteran Mays to see the change in uniforms from the flowy wool to ease movement to tight synthetic fabrics we're used to today.
**Why is it "Willie, Mickey and the Duke" and not "Willie, Mickey, and the Hammer"? Well more than musical flow - it's a NY thing... sort of. The writer of the song was inspired by these guys (and Joe DiMaggio) showing up together at an Old-Timers Day at Shea in 1977. Obviously no reason to invite the non-NY Hank to that. Funny thing is if the song was written in 1956 or so "Willie, Mickey and the Duke" would have been understandable. At that point they were clearly the best players of the last half-decade. Aaron was a couple years younger and just starting his career at this point. Snider had the same injury track as Mantle but also didn't burst onto the scene as brightly as Willie or Mickey. Hence why he's merely a Hall of Famer and not a mythical figure.
7 comments:
And he lost a couple prime years to military service I believe.
Yeah about 1 2/3 seasons. A bit of bad luck there. Only about 100 MLB players were drafted into Korea (including Whitey Ford and minor leaguer about to be major leaguer Ernie Banks.) very few saw combat but likely (though not definitely - wear and tear of everyday baseball activities is real) cut off some numbers.
Then there was Ted Williams—who was drafted for both WW2 *and*/Korea. And flew combat missions in Korea as a USMC jet pilot (John Glenn’s wingman!). Teddy Ballgame lost around what, four plus years total service time?
Willie of course was clearly the better all around player. Still amazing.
Nice tribute, thanks Harper
Hearing all the stories about watching Mays play just makes me hate the fact that Trout became so injury prone. Trout's 3 closest comps are Mays, Snider, and Mantle, and we all got stripped of watching him chase records because his body began giving up on him. From 54-66, Mays never had a WAR below 7.6. Trout from 2012-2019 never fell below 6.9, with that 6.9 being in a year he only played 114 games. Then the injuries rolled in.
Does make you wonder whether year round training is good for long term durability. Guys like Mays, Snider, etc. didn’t get paid enough early in their careers to support a family so they worked other jobs in the offseason (giving their bodies a break and time to recover).
I wonder if HIT leads to these freak athletes like Trout being so good so young, only to crumble around 30 y/o. Makes me wonder if we’ll ever see a successful (clean) baseball player maintain that success through his thirties into retiring around 40 years old.
Before Mays time though, negro league players often played more or less year round, to be able to make as much money during their careers as they could. Official negro league games, other exhibition games during the season, then post-season games exhibitions against white teams, winter ball in Cuba or other countries, barnstorming teams, and even in one case a hotel league in Florida, where the players worked as waiters and bellhops before putting on games for the enjoyment of the hotel guests!
Though I do agree that intensive training is probably taking a toll on long-term playing health. (Maybe overall health too - were probably a few years away from being able to judge that.
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