This past weekend, I was just perusing the recently passed baseball players on Baseball Reference and was thinking aside from perhaps Ken Holtzman and Whitey Herzog, we haven’t lost any major superstars as of late.
Wow. On Tuesday, baseball karma threw us all for a loop.
On that day, New York and San Francisco Giant star center fielder Willie Mays passed away at the age of 93. I don’t always do obits but the Say-Hey kid had such a profound effect on many of us APBA fans.
Our league group text got into a long conversation two nights ago. So says a wise man:
For most of my life, I thought Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw.
I might still think that
-Don Smith
Mays lives on through APBA
Even for those of us who didn’t see him play, Mays set the bar for those who came after, both on the field and off. He could hit, hit for power, run, field, he could do it all. When I was younger, Mays’ mark of 660 career homeruns was good for third best. When I hear the term ‘five-tool player’, my mind sub-consciously thinks of Willie Mays.
And yes, Willie Mays is one of my most featured players on Monster Card Monday. His APBA cards have an incredible balance of power, hitting, speed and defense.
Here’s a taste of what Mays brought to the table:
The 1957 Mays card was so good that I featured it again without realizing it eight years later.
I also featured the the 1962 Mays card and the 1965 Mays card. Twice.
Kevin Weber even did a Final Card Friday recap of Mays with his 1973 card. As always, he did a good writeup even for Mays’ last year for the Mets.
As some of you know, I’m working on a 1966 NL replay (yeah, I know. I’m getting to back to it). Willie Mays is a huge part of that. Batting third for the San Francisco Giants, he is currently leading my replay with 18 homeruns.
I know of two others in our league who are doing APBA replays in the 60s and you know Mays has to figure in their leaderboards.
Mays never had a bad year!
The point of all this is that even though Willie Mays hasn’t played since I was nine years old, he’s had a major influence on all of us as baseball and APBA fans.
I celebrate Willie Mays’ long life and the effect he had on all of us.
