Age: 20 (May 6)
Bats – Right,
Throws – Right
Height: 5’10” Weight: 170
Prior to 1951:
An Alabama
native, Mays was the son of a father who played semipro baseball and a mother
who was a high school track and basketball star. His high school lacking a
baseball team, Mays played second base and center field as a teammate of his
father with a semipro club in the Fairfield Industrial League. He also played and briefly was with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos in 1947, which was a minor
affiliate of the Negro American League Birmingham Black Barons. In 1948, at age
17, he joined the Black Barons on a part-time basis while he finished high
school and batted .262 in 61 at bats. Still with Birmingham in 1949, Mays hit
.311 in 75 games and was impressive defensively in center field. Following a
strong start with Birmingham in 1950, Mays was signed by the Giants for $250
per month with a $4000 signing bonus. Initially assigned to Trenton of the
Class B Interstate League, where he was the first black player, over the course of 81 games he hit
.353 with 20 doubles, 8 triples, and 4 home runs. Mays started the 1951 season
with the Minneapolis Millers of the Class AAA American Association and was
batting .477 after 35 games, when he was called up to the Giants at the behest
of manager Leo Durocher. He was immediately installed in center field.
1951 Season Summary
Appeared in 121
games
CF – 121
[Bracketed
numbers indicate NL rank in Top 20]
Batting
Plate
Appearances – 524
At Bats – 464
Runs – 59
Hits – 127
Doubles – 22
Triples – 5
Home Runs – 20
[14, tied with Wes Westrum]
RBI – 68
Bases on Balls
– 57
Int. BB – N/A
Strikeouts – 60
[13]
Stolen Bases – 7
[18, tied with Roy Hartsfield, Solly Hemus & Enos Slaughter]
Caught Stealing
– 4
Average - .274
OBP - .356 [18,
tied with Sam Jethroe]
Slugging Pct. -
.472 [12]
Total Bases – 219
GDP – 11
Hit By Pitches
– 2
Sac Hits – 1
Sac Flies – N/A
Midseason
snapshot: HR – 10, RBI – 31, AVG - .284, SLG - .550, OBP – .379
---
Most hits, game
– 3 on nine occasions
Longest hitting
streak – 10 games
Most HR, game –
2 (in 4 AB) vs. Cincinnati 7/22, (in 4 AB) vs. Pittsburgh 8/30
HR at home – 13
HR on road – 7
Multi-HR games
– 2
Most RBIs, game
– 4 vs. Cincinnati 7/20
Pinch-hitting –
No appearances
Fielding
Chances – 374
Put Outs – 353
Assists – 12
Errors – 9
DP – 2
Pct. - .976
Postseason: 6 G
(World Series vs. NY Yankees)
PA – 24, AB –
22, R – 1, H – 4, 2B – 0,3B – 0, HR – 0, RBI – 1, BB – 2, IBB – 0, SO – 2, SB –
0, CS – 0, AVG - .182, OBP - .250, SLG - .182, TB – 4, GDP – 3, HBP – 0, SH –
0, SF – N/A
Awards & Honors:
NL Rookie of
the Year: BBWAA
NL ROY Voting:
Willie Mays,
NYG: 18 of 24 votes, 75% share
Chet Nichols,
BosB.: 4 votes, 17% share
Clem Labine,
Brook.: 2 votes, 8% share
---
Giants went 96-58
to finish tied for first in the NL with the Brooklyn Dodgers, which
necessitated a season-extending best-of-3 playoff. The teams split the first
two contests, but the Giants won the deciding game on Bobby Thomson’s walk-off
home run to clinch the NL pennant with a final record of 98-59. The Giants led
the league in walks drawn (671). The slow-starting Giants were in fifth place
at 17-19 when Mays joined the club. The Dodgers dominated the NL for most of
the season and were 13.5 games in front on August 11. The Giants put together a
16-game August winning streak and went 20-5 in September to catch Brooklyn and
force the climactic playoff. They lost the World Series to the New York Yankees,
4 games to 2.
Aftermath of ‘51:
Mays was
limited to 34 games in 1952 before being inducted into the Army. He missed the remainder
of the ’52 season and all of 1953, but he played service baseball. Returning to
the Giants in 1954 he went on a home run tear to start the season on the way to
batting a league-leading .345 with 33 doubles, a NL-high 13 triples, 41 home
runs, and 110 RBIs. The Giants won the pennant and Mays was the league MVP. In
the World Series sweep of the Cleveland Indians, he made a brilliant defensive play
in Game 1 at the Polo Grounds to chase a ball hit over his head by Cleveland
first baseman Vic Wertz, making an over-the shoulder catch and whirling to make
a throw to the infield that kept runners from advancing. The Giants dropped to
third in 1955 but Mays hit .319 with 127 RBIs and topped the league with 13
triples, 51 home runs, a .659 slugging percentage, and 382 total bases. He also
led all NL outfielders in assists (23) and double plays (8). The home runs
dropped to 36 in 1956, but with his speed and daring on the basepaths he led
the league with 40 stolen bases. He further compiled 84 RBIs and hit .296. In
the Giants’ final season in New York in 1957, Mays led the NL in triples (20),
slugging (.625), and stolen bases (38), while hitting 35 home runs with 97 RBIs
and a .333 batting average. With the move to San Francisco in 1958, he was
joined in the lineup by power-hitting rookie first baseman Orlando Cepeda and Mays
led the NL with 121 runs scored and 31 stolen bases to go along with 33
doubles, 11 triples, 29 home runs, 96 RBIs, and a .347 average. After being
enormously popular in New York, he found the San Francisco fans slow to warm up
to him and there was a racial incident when he sought to buy a house in the
city. The local sportswriters were slow to warm up as well and he had a less
pleasant relationship with manager Bill Rigney than the one he had enjoyed with
Leo Durocher. A charismatic, enthusiastic, and energetic player known as “the
Say Hey Kid” due to his standard greeting, who did flashy things on the field
like utilize a basket catch, he was prone to bouts of nervous exhaustion
throughout his career and was briefly hospitalized during the season for rest.
Another power-hitting rookie first baseman, Willie McCovey, joined the Giants
during the 1959 season and the team contended for the NL pennant (McCovey would
later go on to become the strong lefthanded bat behind Mays in the lineup).
Mays contributed a .313 average, 34 home runs, 104 RBIs, 27 stolen bases, and
his usual impressive play in center field, despite suffering leg and hand
injuries. The move into Candlestick Park in 1960 diminished Mays’ power
numbers, although he hit well on the road and led the NL with 190 hits while
also batting .319 with 29 home runs and 103 RBIs. In 1961 he had his greatest
single-game hitting performance as he homered a record-tying four times in a
game against the Braves at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. Benefiting from the
presence of Cepeda batting behind him, Mays hit .308 with 40 home runs, 123
RBIs, and scored a league-leading 129 runs. The Giants won the NL pennant in
1962 and “the Say Hey Kid” contributed a league-high 49 home runs along with
141 RBIs and a .304 average. He was at his best down the stretch, despite
passing out in the dugout in Cincinnati as a result of fatigue, as the Giants
battled the Dodgers and ended up facing off in a season-extending playoff. He
was narrowly edged out in the league MVP voting by LA shortstop Maury Wills.
Mays, now the highest paid player at $105,000, had a rough first half in 1963
that led some observers to speculate that he was slowing down at age 32. He
picked up the pace in the season’s second half to finish at .314 with 38 home
runs and 103 RBIs. With the Giants contending in 1964, Mays led the NL with 47
home runs and a .607 slugging percentage while batting .296 with 111 RBIs. He
followed up with his second MVP season in 1965 by again topping the NL with 52
home runs, a .398 on-base percentage, and a .645 slugging percentage while
hitting .317 with 112 RBIs. Mays remained highly productive in 1966, hitting
.288 with 37 home runs and 103 RBIs. Along the way he passed Jimmie Foxx to
reach second on the all-time home run list at the time. Problems with injury
and illness limited him to a .263 average with 22 home runs and 70 RBIs in
1967, although he still was an All-Star and received a Gold Glove. His average
rebounded to .289 in 1968 along with 23 home runs and 79 RBIs. Mays reached 600
career home runs in 1969 in a year in which he totaled only 13 with 58 RBIs and
a .283 average. He reached 3000 hits in 1970 as he batted .291 with 28 home runs
and 83 RBIs. The Giants won the NL West in 1971 and Mays contributed 18 home
runs, 61 RBIs, and league-leading totals in walks drawn (112) and on-base
percentage (.425). He played 48 games at first base in addition to 84 in center
field to rest his aging legs. Seeking a long-term contract entering 1972, and
now making $160,000 per year, he was dealt to the New York Mets in May. In his
return to New York he homered in his first at bat, one of 8 for the year for
the 41-year-old slugger. He again split his time between center field and first
base and received a salary boost from his new club to $175,000 with a guarantee
of $50,000 per year following his retirement if he remained a coach for the
team. He lasted one more year as a player in 1973, struggling with rib and knee
injuries and appearing in 66 games. For his career, Mays batted .302 with 3283
hits that included 523 doubles, 140 triples, and 660 home runs. He further
scored 2062 runs and compiled 1903 RBIs and 338 stolen bases, as well as
drawing 1464 walks. He compiled 12 100-run seasons, eleven 30-home run seasons,
which included two over 50 and six with at least 40, and ten 100-RBI years. With
the Giants he batted .304 with 3187 hits, 504 doubles, 139 triples, 646 home
runs, 1859 RBIs, 336 stolen bases, and 2011 runs scored. Appearing in 25
postseason games, Mays hit .247 with a home run and 10 RBIs. A 24-time All-Star
(where he often showcased his impressive talents) he placed in the top ten in
NL MVP voting twelve times, including two wins. He also received 12 Gold
Gloves. The Giants retired his #24 and he was inducted into the Baseball Hall
of Fame in 1979.
--
Rookie of the Year Profiles feature players who were recipients of
the Rookie of the Year Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America
(1947 to present). The award was presented to a single major league winner from
its inception through 1948 and from 1949 on to one recipient from each major
league.
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