RIP Willie Mays

One Friday night in the mid-late 80s, when Henderson was with the Yankees, they were in town to play the Blue Jays. My dad and I were there, in his seats right above the visitors dugout.

Henderson was on second, and the batter hit a single on the ground to right, where Jesse Barfield in his prime was playing. As soon as the ball got through, everybody in the park knew things were going to get good. The buzz got louder and louder by the millisecond, it seemed.

It played out perfectly. Henderson rounds third, Barfield picks it up in stride and fires a rope to Ernie Whitt (probably). Whitt takes it on a bounce and slaps it on Henderson, and he was out by maybe an inch. The crowd went bananas.

From our seats we had a perfect view of everything. And just as importantly, of Henderson very slowly walking to the dugout, head down, while a Friday night crowd yelled everything you could imagine at him, along with a few things you couldn’t.

My point is, even though he got thrown out I think Henderson enjoyed being part of that moment. He probably understood a lot of fans were there to see him and with his slow walk back, he was giving them extra time to enjoy the whole scene. I hated him back then but thinking back I consider myself very fortunate to have watched him play.

EDIT: I went back and found the game on B-R. It was ‘86 and on a Tuesday, not a Friday. I’ve had 38 years to embellish the story, I guess. But it was Stieb vs. Guidry, so a good night to be at the park. Henderson singled off Stieb, stole second, and tried to score on a Willie Randolph soft liner to right, but was tagged out by none other than Buck Martinez.

 

Timing works in mysterious ways.

https://www.al.com/sports/2024/06/a...-willie-mays-mural-morning-after-he-died.html

 

I did a little bit of research. The Polo Grounds were remodeled after the Yankees left in 1922 and the outfield expanded. I think the only three players to hit balls into the centerfield stands after it as remodeled were Joe Adcock, Hank Aaron and Lou Brock. Babe Ruth hit two into the centerfield stands but distance from home plate was about 30 feet closer at the time

 

Luke Easter was the first player to reach the CF bleachers, in a Negro League game. I think Brock and Aaron did it on consecutive days.

 

Didn't realize the Birmingham game was THIS WEEK - thought it was later in the season.

 

It's today.

 

I know. Now.

 

Whicker had a great thought in his Mays obit.
Mays was born at exactly the right time. If it was 20 years earlier, he would have been trapped in obscurity in the Negro League. If it was 20 years later, he would have been the quarterback at Alabama.

 

They can't do a poster front and a page of coverage inside in 2+ hours? SMH.

 

You think Bear would have had Mays play QB in '71? Walter Lewis was the first black QB to start for the Tide and it was 10 years after they integrated following the loss to Sam Cunningham and USC.

 

Now 99, the oldest living Negro leaguer ‘never thought they would recognize me’

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/19/bill-greason-negro-leagues/



"His service in the military was seemingly behind him, and his professional baseball career just beginning, when Rev. Bill Greason arrived in Birmingham, Ala., in 1948. Greason roomed with another rookie, a 17-year-old high school kid nearly seven years his junior.


Willie Mays was bubbling with talent and knew how good he was but never bragged. His flashy play in center field was how he communicated his confidence. Greason recalls the time Mays set the rules with his fellow outfielders for how balls would be defended. Anything between the foul lines and where they stood was theirs.


“‘Anything in between is mine,’” Greason said Mays told them."

 

Maybe not a poster front but I do find it difficult to believe they didn’t have a canned obit that they could have added a few grafs to with a tease to more coverage. Certainly AP had to have one.