RIP Willie Mays

Only tangentially related, but there was nothing Wednesday in the east coast papers my Dad gets.

 

For all the weird shit my paper does, we do sports legends' obits right. Our old readers grew up with these athletes and idolized them.
Always a poster front. Mays. West. Butkus. Knight. Brooks Robinson. Jim Brown. Bill Russell.

 

Not surprisingly, a really poignant and well-done story here detailing Mays' final days and the mobilization efforts of his friends and family from Mays biographer John Shea:

Willie Mays’ death adds searing poignancy to Rickwood Field ceremonies

 

AP did. Written by someone on the obit desk. It was an anti-Dickie Dunn, didn't come close to capturing the spirit of the thing.

 

He'd have had a far better chance of being a QB at USC, elsewhere in the Pac-8 or in the Big Ten. You know, places that actually played Black quarterbacks in 1971.

 

Leave it to you and DanOregon to over-analyze. It's just good writing. Figuring Mays grew up in Birmingham and if he was starring in high school, Bear would know. Bear was no dummy.

 

And then this AM, I go to grab my copy in the driveway and it’s ripped!!! So miffed….

 

Sorry to disagree with your friend. Bear was no dummy. But he was no racial pioneer, either, despite the attempts of his biographers to try to paint him otherwise.

He was totally unwilling to take on George Wallace. Otherwise he would have had Black players long before 1971, the year he finally desegregated, a decade or more later than much of the country. And Bryant did not desegregate with quarterbacks, he did it with running backs, a "safe" position for southern Blacks of that era to play.

Saying Mays could have been a Black QB at Alabama in 1971 is like saying he could have walked on the moon in 1966 had he been an astronaut. Just wasn't going to happen.

 

Major bummer.

Went to four shops around town and couldn't find a copy. But I can print a copy thanks to my digital subscription.

 

I'd argue that an 18-year-old Willie Mays in 1971 would never have been a Black QB at any major university, racism or not. He was only 5-10 and 170 pounds. Joe Namath was 6-2. Ken Stabler was 6-3. Doug Williams at Grambling was 6-4. Most colleges who hadn't switched to the wishbone era were recruiting quarterbacks who could throw over taller linemen.

Even accounting for the smaller sizes of football players at the time, Mays would have been really short for the position. (Eddie LaBaron and Doug Flutie disagree with my hypothesis.) Had Mays gone the football route, his size and speed would have made him more of a Bob Hayes/Paul Warfield type player at flanker or wide out.

Terry LeCount, Florida's second Black QB after Don Gaffney, was the same size as Mays (5-10, 178) but the Gators ran the wishbone and LeCount rarely threw downfield, making sure head coach Doug Dickey stupidly wasted the talent of the amazing Wes Chandler. Then again, Dickey recruited Cris Collinsworth as a 6-5, 192 QB.

And no, I'm not bitter about 0-10-1. Forty five years now and I'm still not over Macho Grande.

 

Brandon Crawford to make his first start at 3B for Cardinals tonight. Only fitting.

 

I was looking over the list of living HOFers. Maybe its just my age bias - but outside of Rickey, Griffey, Reggie, Goose, and Eck (Yes, I'm an A's fan) - I was surprised how many I couldn't even "visualize" them playing. A lot of great players - but not a lot of flair.