Willie Mays was the greatest center fielder ever. The statistics, even the new-fangled advanced ones, back this up. Willie Mays was the ultimate five-tool player. He consistently hit with power and for a good average. He had an excellent throwing arm and could track down fly balls as well as anyone. Finally, he could run, not just for fly balls, but he could steal bases and take an extra base when the opportunity presented itself. I never had the privilege to see him play, but from what I’ve heard, he was every bit as good as the statistics say he was.
If a player produces a 10.0+ WAR for a particular season, he’s produced a season for the ages. Starting in 1954, Willie Mays AVERAGED 9.5 WAR for thirteen straight years. In six of those seasons, he produced a WAR better than 10.0. Amazing. It probably would have been fifteen straight seasons if Mays wouldn’t have missed most of 1952 and all of 1953 to military service. Since that stretch ended in 1965, there have only been sixteen 10-WAR offensive seasons…by EVERYONE who’s played Major League baseball. Willie Mays was a player for any era. If you’re unsure what a 10.0+ WAR card looks like, you need to look no further than Monster Card Monday. Four times, probably only second to Babe Ruth, Willie Mays has been featured: 1954, 1957, 1962, and 1965. In 1954, Mays had a 10.6 WAR. In 1957, he had an 8.3 WAR. In 1962, Mays’s WAR was 10.5. Finally, in 1965 the ”Say Hey Kid” had an 11.2 WAR, the best of his career.
Willie Mays’s Baseball-Reference page is filled with amazing statistics. Mays hit 30 or more home runs eleven times, 40 or more home runs six times, and over 50 homers twice. He drove in 100+ runs ten times…at one point accomplishing the feat eight years in a row. Mays led the NL in triples three times…and also lead the league in steals on four occasions. Mays achieved a .302 lifetime batting average and only struck out more than 100 times in a season ONCE…when he was 40-years old. Legendary.
| I | Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 Totals | 66 | 55 | 239 | 209 | 24 | 44 | 10 | 0 | 6 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 27 | 47 | .211 | .303 | .344 | .647 | 7 |
I know, I know. Willie Mays’s final APBA card is far from a 10-WAR season. However, he was 42-years old. Mays only hit .211 for the season, but I project this card to produce a .218 average. With some good rolls, it might produce the .286 average Mays hit in the 1973 World Series…that is, if you limit it to seven at-bats.
I’ve been lucky to see some great baseball players perform in person. However, there are a few I wish I could go back in time to see. Willie Mays is undoubtedly on that list, which would also include the likes of Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and Mickey Mantle. Willie Mays’s career spans an impressive timeline. Mays was able to play against Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, and Joe DiMaggio, but he also competed against Johnny Bench, Tom Seaver, and Reggie Jackson. Through it all, he proved he was a player who would excel in any era…even in 2018, in which, for the first time ever, there were more strikeouts than hits in Major League Baseball. For the record, Willie Mays had 1,503 career strikeouts and 3,283 career hits. I certainly prefer that ratio.
I’ll leave you with this to ponder. If Mays had been able to play full seasons in 1952 and 1953, it’s likely he would have averaged 35 homers a season. That means he might have started the 1972 season with 708 home runs. Sometime during the season, he would have broken Babe Ruth’s record and possibly finished the year with 716 round trippers. In 1973, he would have added six more dingers to bring his career total to 722, with Hank Aaron hot on his tail. He would have played the 1973 World Series as the all-time home run leader. In 1974, Hank Aaron would have surpassed him but with much less racist pressure and death threats…because he would have been breaking a record already held by a black man. During the build-up to the inevitability of Mays and Aaron passing Ruth, both men could have shared the pressure…much as Steve Carlton and Nolan Ryan did in 1983 when they passed Walter Johnson’s career strikeouts record…or Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1998 when they chased down Roger Maris. Baseball history would be much different.
*Thank you to Randy Steinman & Larry Stein for providing a photo of Mays’s card.
