San Francisco Giants legend and baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays has died, the team and his family announced Tuesday. He was 93.
The two-time Major League Baseball most valuable player and 24-time All-Star is regarded by many as one of the best baseball players ever.
Watch NBC Bay Area News 📺 Streaming free 24/7
“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.
San Francisco Giants legend and baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays has died, the team and his family announced Tuesday. He was 93. Ginger Conejero Saab reports.
The late Willie McCovey, a former Giant, once said “Mays was just the greatest. Just God-gifted I guess. I’ve never seen anybody better.”
Mays became a star for the New York Giants, leading the team to the 1954 World Series title. When the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958, the city immediately fell in love with the “Say Hey Kid.
It’s been a really, I guess, good run for me, because when you can come into a town and people love you the same way where you came from, to me, that’s wonderful,” Mays once said. “I think it’s just a magnificent type of way of getting along with people.”
Mays tried bringing the Bay Area its first World Series title in 1962, only to fall short in Game 7 against the New York Yankees.
It’s a shame we just never had a chance to win something more for you since I was playing,” Mays once said. “1962 was a good year for us here. We won the pennant and everything, but we didn’t win the whole thing, and that’s one of the things I regret.”
Though he never won another World Series, Mays racked up a number of awards. Among his many accomplishments, he was named Rookie of the Year and was a 12-time Gold Glove winner.
“He could take up the whole field and play the whole field,” Mays’ godson and former Giant Barry Bonds once said. “And you’re like, ‘Really, Willie?’ And Willie would do it. So, that was a gift that I didn’t have.
Leave a Reply