Original subtitles

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

[mellow music]

[cheers and applause]

announcer: This is gonna go away, back,

and gone over the left field wall.

Line drive to center.

Ball was well-hit.

But Willie Mays picks up two home runs here

in the sixth inning.

- Willie Mays is arguably one of the greatest,

if not the greatest player,

in the history of Major League Baseball.

- Mays changed the way the game was played.

[cheers and applause]

When Willie stepped on the field,

it was like going to see Michael Jordan,

Muhammad.

- He's an American icon, a beloved figure.

- He was a gigantic star.

It's just hard to quantify.

- But I think it's critical to understand who and what

Willie Mays is.

- Willie Mays came out of segregated baseball

in America.

- The expectation that he would shut up,

don't raise any issues,

especially if they have to do with race,

just go out and play ball.

Willie fulfilled that phenomenally

to such an extent that he actually drew criticism.

You gotta stand up and do more.

You gotta stand up and speak out.

Willie didn't want any part of that.

- The words were hurtful to Willie.

- He's a really complicated figure,

kind of a fascinating figure.

- It doesn't diminish his status

as the greatest baseball player ever.

For a Black man to have done what he did

at the time that he did it,

maybe that's enough.

- Are you Willie Mays, the greatest baseball player

of all time?

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- Willie's always gonna be the godfather.

You know, my dad passed away, 2003.

I had Willie.

I never played a game

without either one of them in my entire lifetime.

We were in spring training

and I was hitting towering home runs.

Like, towering balls that were going like this.

And Willie said that you gonna be in a slump, boy.

And I said why?

He said, "The ball should never do this.

"That ball needs to go boom.

You need--that ball needs to come off your bat like that."

[Junior Walker & The All Stars' "Shotgun"]

announcer: M-A-Y-S spells "Bye, bye, baby."

The slugger opened the '61 season

belting four homers in one game.

Only nine ballplayers have ever accomplished the feat.

From there, Mays becomes the highest-paid

ballplayer in history.

announcer: 35-year-old Mays hit 52 homers

and earned the Most Valuable Player award.

In his 535th career home run

tops Jimmie Foxx and gives Mays sole possession

of second place in total home runs hit.

Only Babe Ruth has blasted more four-baggers than Willie.

- ♪ Do the dirty now ♪

♪ Hey ♪

♪ Put on your red dress ♪

announcer: Drive to deep left center field.

It's gone! It's a home run.

Number--number 599 of Mays' career.

announcer: Deep to left.

That one is way back. Way back there!

- Willie Mays joined the great Babe Ruth

as the only player to hit 600 home runs.

announcer: 0 and 2. Wagner delivers.

Mays hits it into left. [cheers and applause]

Willie Mays has done it again.

He has brought the baseball world to a standstill.

- He is the most spectacular baseball player

that ever played.

- ♪ I said shotgun ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Shoot 'em 'fore they run now ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Do the jerk, baby ♪

- Willie exceled.

He ran bases.

People talk about how fast he could get

from first to third.

Stealing home.

Catching the ball like, you know,

we gon' put a little something on it, like right here.

So when you think about all that,

he dominated the entirety of the game.

announcer: Many of Mays' former teammates were there

as they honored Willie Mays as the greatest Giant ever.

- ♪ Shotgun ♪

- I mean, he threw out over 7,000 baseball players

playing center field.

That's the deepest part of the stadium.

660 home runs, 12 Golden Gloves

22 seasons, 24 All-Star games.

But unless you know and follow the game,

you don't really get a full appreciation

of how great he was.

- Why do you love baseball?

- Well, first of all,

baseball was a game that you could play

and you could play it for a long time.

I picked baseball

because I could play it every day.

It was fun.

Oh, I learned baseball when I was about four or five.

When I was a young man coming up,

my father and I used to talk about baseball all the time.

They called him Cat

because he could run,

he could throw, and he could field.

And he could hit, man.

He's a leadoff hitter.

He and I would go to the baseball field--

and just the two of us--

and he would show me how to do every position:

catching, second base, shortstop,

because they look for you to be the leader.

And we lived in a town called Fairfield, Alabama.

- The thing about the state of Alabama in the 1940s,

it is Jim Crow America.

I mean, it's almost undescribable.

The things that we think of now as racist

were routine examples of everyday life.

White person walking down the street,

you step off to the side, let them pass.

Don't look them directly in the eye.

Yes, ma'am. No, sir.

The whole bit. Hold your head down.

Think of every possible injustice

you've ever heard about related to segregation and racism.

It was there and there in abundance.

[film reel clicking]

- My mother and dad wasn't never together now.

They did their own thing.

My mother got married to a guy named Frank.

So I didn't stay with my mother that long.

I stayed with my two aunts.

Ernestine and Sarah, they took care of me.

And my dad, he used to work in a steel mill.

And he would always come home early,

like, 2:00 in the afternoon,

and he would show me how to do a lot of things

'cause he was a good baseball player.

Make sure that I didn't get in no trouble.

I haven't been in no trouble

since I was, I guess, two or three years old.

- Babe Ruth used to say, "Start a boy young.

Teach him to play ball when he's four years old."

In the spring of any year, a boy with a bat and a ball

is secretly, to his father, a major leaguer.

So it was with Willie and his dad.

- Well, when I actually-- when I started--

first started playing ball was with my father,

'bout five or six years old.

He was playing semipro ball around Birmingham,

and he was working what you call a steel mill team

around Birmingham.

And I used to play with the big fellas,

like, 19 and 20 years old, when I was about 12.

announcer: It's a sport that appeals to all ages.

The sound of a ball meeting a bat...

[bat cracks] Is a familiar ring

to millions of people round the world.

- The Negro League was a Black baseball league.

- If a Black man wanted to play baseball,

he played in the Negro Leagues or he didn't play.

- Baseball did not want Black players to participate

in the league, and so concurrently

there was a league of Black teams

from around the country

with the best Black players, Black owners.

Everything about it was Black.

It was a reality in segregated America.

announcer: It's a game where the Negro athlete

of today and yesteryear has left a bright mark.

- When I got to be in high school,

I was already playing professional ball,

but I couldn't say that.

They could give me money under the table

and I went home, and I gave it to my aunts.

Sometime I make 1,000. Sometime I make 2,000.

But I had to come home, and they--

and my aunts would give me a couple dollars back

to put in my pocket so I could go to the movies,

take the girls out, or whatever it would be.

- I remember him as "Buck-duck."

That was his nickname.

My dad,

he was with the Birmingham Black Barons

in the old Negro League.

He was first baseman.

He was the second baseman, and he was the manager.

When Dad went to talk to Mays' father

about Mays playing,

Mays' father knew that my dad would take good care

of Buck-duck in his professional life.

You know, try to keep him straight and everything.

Oh, Dad was a straight shooter.

- Well, Piper Davis is like the godfather

of Black baseball in Birmingham.

He helped usher Willie Mays on to the team,

was a mentor for Willie and a mentor

for a lot of the Black Birmingham kids

that wanted to play baseball.

[upbeat music]

They played in this ballpark.

Rickwood Field, America's oldest baseball park.

And the last park to play home to a Negro League team.

announcer: Here's your starting lineup.

Leading off and playing center field, Cool Papa Bell.

- The greatest baseball players of that time

played in the Negro League.

Many of those players would have been great

in Major League Baseball

had they been given the opportunity,

but of course, not until Jackie Robinson

does that happen.

- If you didn't leave church early,

you didn't get a seat in Rickwood

when the Black Barons played.

- When I played with the Birmingham Barons,

the guy that really helped me--

actually, it was three guys.

Piper Davis was the manager.

Artie Wilson was the shortstop,

and Bill Greason was the pitcher.

- I had pretty good stuff.

Well, I had my curveball.

I did about 92 on the fastball.

If I got two strikes on you, I said "Bye."

'Cause my-- my downer was like this.

We were young on the club.

We were rookies.

And I, being a little older than Willie,

I tried to help him all I could

because I was a little more knowledgeable of things

than he was.

We were friends and we played together

in several places.

- Willie was 17 years old.

He was literally a boy among men in many ways

except when it came to the ball field.

- ♪ Whoo ♪

[Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy"]

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Now when I was a young boy ♪

♪ ♪

♪ At the age of five ♪

♪ ♪

♪ My mother said I was gonna be ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The greatest man alive ♪

♪ ♪

- The other guys are husbands, fathers, steel workers,

more mature men, and yet Willie's a kid.

And he had a youthful exuberance.

They say he brought a lot of excitement to the team

and probably is the reason they won their championship

in 1948.

- ♪ I spell M ♪

♪ ♪

♪ A, child ♪

♪ ♪

♪ N ♪

♪ ♪

♪ That represents "man" ♪

- At the end of the day,

Piper came to me and he says, "What did you learn today?"

And I had to tell him what I learned,

how I learned, and "Can you do it tomorrow?"

"Yeah, man. I can do it tomorrow."

- ♪ I'm a man ♪

♪ ♪

- When he played, he was a center fielder.

So he would tell our left fielder and right fielder,

"Don't come nowhere in here.

"You go from where you are to the line,

and everything else, I'll take care of."

And he was--he was tremendous.

He was a great young ballplayer.

[bat cracks] - So while Willie Mays,

as a 17-year-old, hit one home run

for the Birmingham Black Barons,

he was, by the end of the season,

the starting center fielder

for this Black Barons team

that went all the way to the Negro League World Series

and actually got a game-winning hit in one of those games.

♪ ♪

- Do you remember when Jackie Robinson

entered the major leagues?

[soft orchestral music]

♪ ♪

- When I saw Jackie, he could do everything.

I was very impressed with what he could do.

He did everything, and he could hit, man.

- So the first time Willie came across Jackie

was at Rickwood Field when Willie was a kid,

and Jackie brought a group of barnstormers

through Birmingham.

And that's when Jackie saw Willie for the first time,

and Jackie actually recommended Willie Mays

to the Brooklyn Dodgers.

The Brooklyn Dodgers sent out a scout named Wid Matthews,

and Wid Matthews saw Willie Mays play.

He returned to Brooklyn and said,

"The kid can't hit a curveball."

So otherwise, imagine that, Willie Mays a Dodger.

April 15th, 1947,

Jackie Robinson breaks into the big leagues.

[cheers and applause]

[percussive music]

Branch Rickey,

the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, signed him.

- Well, all credit is really due to Robinson

for whatever gamble there was in it

or whatever sort of experiment it was.

He handled it beautifully with a fine intelligence

to enable him to understand

that he was carrying this load for 17 million people.

- They choreographed Jackie's career

so that he looked like the all-American boy.

He just happened to be a Negro,

and what that meant was that you don't say anything,

you don't do anything, you don't respond,

you don't fight back.

You simply go and play baseball.

- I want to know whether he's looking for somebody

who's afraid to fight back.

And his answer was stern.

"I'm looking for somebody with guts enough

not to fight back."

- That's what Willie Mays patterned himself after.

And so what Branch Rickey and the white owners did

was to cherry-pick the Negro Leagues,

oftentimes not even compensating the teams

that he took the players from.

They never compensated the Monarchs

for Jackie Robinson.

- Imagine if Major League Baseball

had taken several Negro League teams

and brought them into Major League Baseball.

You would've had Black ownership.

It would have been true integration.

What it was, ultimately, was a poaching

of the best players from the Negro Leagues

that ultimately destroyed the league because it made

the Negro League teams obsolete.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- Jackie Robinson walked through the door,

but there had to be more than just one

to actually stamp it that we're all here.

Black African Americans are here.

We're all in the league, and Willie's part of that history.

- Willie was in five World Series,

including the 1948 last Negro League World Series ever.

- I remember when we defeated Kansas City

to get in the Negro World Series,

last Negro League World Series.

Uh, did win the only game.

We won in relief against the Homestead Grays.

They defeated us four games to one.

And that was the end of the league.

Birmingham Black Barons,

they were a terrific bunch of guys.

- When I was about 15 or 16,

I guess they had scouts watching me,

and they signed me with the Giants.

And, as you know, they signed me right out of high school.

Eddie Montague signed me to the Giants at that time.

And I said, "Dad, well, I'm going where the money is."

- The Giants are an historic franchise,

a National League team dating back to 1883.

For many of those years,

the Giants had been New York's team,

not the Yankees.

But after the Dodgers, you know,

they signed Jackie Robinson,

and that worked out beautifully.

Then they signed Roy Campanella,

and they signed Don Newcombe.

And immediately, they had three players

from the old Negro Leagues

who were three of the best and biggest stars

in the National League.

So I think Horace Stoneham, the owner of the Giants,

whose father had owned the Giants,

Horace Stoneham finally realized

we're being left in the dust.

We need to get some players here.

So they did get Hank Thompson,

but they also got Willie Mays.

They sent him to the minor leagues for some seasoning.

- So imagine a high school kid who just graduated

assigned to the Trenton Giants in New Jersey,

and you go from an all-Black league

to an all-white league.

And I'm a teenager playing in this,

and I'm playing some of these cities in the South.

And I'm not hearing the things I heard in the Negro Leagues.

- Trenton, New Jersey,

that was the Interstate League.

I was the first Black in that particular league.

And we played in a town called Hagerstown, Maryland.

Oh, I never forget this day, on a Friday.

And they call you all kinds of names there.

"Nigger this, nigger that."

And it was--and I said to myself,

and which I think this is where Piper Davis came in in my mind.

"Hey, whatever they call you, they can't touch you.

Don't--don't talk back."

[melancholic music]

- And that was his thing.

If he had anger about it,

he left it on the field.

That's how he responded to racism that came toward him.

He was like, "Then I'll just destroy you on the field."

- So he went to AAA.

Their AAA team was in Minneapolis,

a team called the Minneapolis Millers.

He was just destroying the pitching in AAA.

Stealing bases, making great plays in the outfield.

Willie could do it all.

Name a skill in baseball and Willie excelled at it.

And the Giants were not doing that well.

They were kind of stumbling around a little bit.

So in late May, after his 20th birthday,

Leo Durocher, the Giants' manager,

brought him up from Minneapolis.

- Well of course, I'm very prejudiced

when it comes to Willie Mays.

I think he's the greatest ballplayer we have today.

- Leo, oh, my God.

Leo, he took care of me, man.

- Leo Durocher was a Runyonesque character.

He was a baseball guy, obviously,

but he also hung around with Hollywood types.

He was married to the actress Laraine Day.

He was suspended from baseball for a year in the 1940s

for his association

with supposedly unsavory characters.

He had been on the Yankees with Babe Ruth.

He was a guy who spanned a lot of baseball history.

He managed both the Dodgers and the Giants,

and Leo loved Willie Mays.

- But when I met Leo, we was in spring training.

They had me playing left field.

And left field was too short.

There wasn't enough room out there for me to move around in.

And I caught about four or five balls

in center field very easy, no problem.

Leo said, "That's your position.

When we bring you up, you gonna play center field."

- Did you have a hard time adjusting?

- No, I didn't have a hard time adjusting.

I had a hard time just trying to hit the ball.

- Charlie, when he first joined us,

I know he wasn't over 24 or 25, whatever it was.

And I was a little disturbed, and one of my coaches came

into me, Herman Franks,

and said that you better go talk to your boy.

He's sitting in front of his locker, crying.

So I went down and put my arm around Willie.

He was sitting there sobbing, and he said, "Listen, Leo,

and he talked in a high tenor voice, Charlie.

He said, "Listen, Leo," he said,

"I can't play up here." He said, "They're too tough

"for me. I can't hit.

I know they're gonna send me back to Minneapolis."

And I put my arm around him and I said,

"Son, as long as I'm the manager

"of the New York Giants,

"you're gonna be the center fielder.

"We brought you up here to play center field,

"and you're gonna play center field today,

"tomorrow, next week, next month,

"and as long as I'm here.

"Go home. Get a good night's rest.

Tomorrow's another day."

The following day against Warren Spahn,

first ball pitch, over the roof.

And believe me, Charlie,

he literally carried us on his back

for the next six weeks.

- Willie looked up to Leo like a second father.

And Leo looked at Willie as the guy

who is gonna turn this team around.

Because of that, Willie just went off in New York.

- I think Leo might have been the guy who first coined

the idea of a five-tool player.

- There is no question in my mind,

but what he can do is the five essential things

better than any other player today,

and that's hit, hit with power,

run, field, and throw.

- Willie is a ten on a ten scale

in all five of those.

Hit for average.

Hit for power.

Run, field, throw.

- So it'd come to 1951.

This team could win because this guy is gonna lead us

to the World Series, I'm telling you.

He helped the Giants turn that season around

in a big way.

The Giants, in one of the greatest pennant races

in history, the greatest comeback of all time.

- He was on deck when Bobby Thomson hit

"The Shot Heard Round the World."

announcer: There's a long drive...

it's gonna be, I believe...

the Giants win the pennant!

The Giants win the pennant! The Giants...

- Bottom of the ninth, they're down 4 to 1.

Bobby Thomson hits the three-run homer.

Giants win it 5 to 4.

- Everybody was running to home plate.

I was the last guy

to get to home plate because I didn't realize

that the game was over.

We won the pennant.

And we--we just had, you know, a good time after that.

And then when we went into the clubhouse,

everybody was drinking champagne and stuff like that.

They gave me a little bit of champagne,

and they tell me that I fell out.

- [laughs] - And when I woke up,

I was home in the bed.

- Because it was the World Series--

everybody watched the World Series--

it really put Willie in that spotlight nationally.

- New York really was the capital of baseball

at that point.

Not only were there great teams,

but some of the most significant

and historic players in the game's history

were there at the same time.

announcer: Bobby Brown uncorked the mighty blast.

It sends Mays ranging far back to haul it in.

He slips and falls hard when he tries to put on the brakes.

And Woodling jogs easily to third after the catch.

DiMaggio comes into the batter's box.

Joe connects with a solid blow

and clouts a mighty two-run homer.

- The Yankees ended up winning in six games.

announcer: The Yankees take the Series,

four games to two.

And thus the record book closes on 1951,

one of the most brilliant and thrilling years

in all the exciting history of baseball.

- I had a good year in '51.

I think I hit .274, but it was--it was good.

- So here's a 20-year-old Willie Mays in '51.

He introduces himself, and he's in the World Series.

He's a year out of high school.

He's a starting center fielder in the Polo Grounds.

And the following May, he's drafted into the army.

- I... - Willie Howard Mays...

- Do solemnly swear... - Do solemnly swear...

- That I will bear true faith and allegiance...

- That I will bear true faith and allegiance...

- To the United States of America...

- To the United States of America.

I tried to get a whole year in with the Giants...

[dramatic musical sting] - But they called me. [laughs]

- Willie's drafted into the army,

not to fight, but to play ball, to entertain the troops.

[somber music]

♪ ♪

- I traveled all over

'cause I played the army, navy, marines.

All those guys,

we killed them.

- And during the Korean War,

he introduced the basket catch to the world.

- The guys gave me the name "The Basket Catch."

Every time I would catch it,

"Oh, he's making a basket catch today."

- And the basket catch is--

you know, we're all taught as Little Leaguers,

two hands, see the ball into the gl--

well, Willie, "No,

I'm gonna catch it down here at belt level."

- And then when I got out of the army

to come back to the Giants,

they just threw that in, the writers I'm talking about.

And they just got--took it and they just ran with it.

- He played in the army for two years.

When he came out of the army in '54,

Mays came back to his home in Harlem

and came back to the Giants.

[Ella Fitzgerald's "Drop Me Off in Harlem"]

- ♪ Drop me off in Harlem ♪

♪ Any place in Harlem ♪

♪ There's someone waiting there ♪

♪ Who makes it seem like heaven up in Harlem ♪

♪ I don't want... ♪

- So Willie's time in Harlem in the '50s

was crucial to his development as a man

as well as a ballplayer.

He was just a teenager in Alabama,

but now here he was living

in one of the biggest cities in the world

in the most famous Black community in America.

Willie lived on St. Nicholas Place

just a block and half from the Polo Grounds.

But his main hangout was the Red Rooster on 7th Ave

in the 130s,

which was part of a vibrant strip of bars

and nightclubs.

The Red Rooster was a short drive or walk

from the Polo Grounds.

Willie would go there, and he like to play pool.

They'd give him a table in the back

where he could eat after the game and socialize.

He didn't drink or smoke,

but he liked to hang out there and enjoy his celebrity.

Supposedly the uptown gamblers,

they wouldn't let him hang out too late.

They made sure he went home and got his sleep

when they bet on the Giants.

- Red Rooster, that's a-- that was the restaurant

that was George Woods',

and George, I don't know.

Somebody must have called him

because every night about 9:00,

here he come. [grumbling]

"You gotta go home."

And I said, "What you mean, I gotta go?

It's just only 9:00."

"No, no, no. You gotta go home."

'Cause I had a big table for about ten

in the back of the restaurant.

So they parked my car right by the back door

of the Red Rooster.

And they made sure

that I didn't get in no trouble.

- And imagine, you know,

your table at the Red Rooster.

You not in no hurry to go back to Alabama.

[laughs]

- ♪ If Harlem moved to China ♪

♪ I know nothing finer ♪

♪ Than to be in Harlem ♪

- Not only is Willie Mays in Harlem, he's the man.

- Everybody took care of me, made sure I got back home,

made sure that I got to the ballpark,

made sure that no one bothered me

'cause everyone on 7th Avenue knew who I was.

They didn't--nobody said nothing out of the way to me.

[lively jazz music]

The kids found out that I could play stickball.

And they knocked on my window every day.

In the South, we didn't call it stickball.

We called it, like, broomball. [kids shouting]

And that's how I learned how to hit the ball.

We'd take the mop,

cut the head off,

and now we got a long stick.

When it bounced and come up to me,

I could hit it a long ways.

- So a lot of the mornings, he would play stickball

with the kids in the streets of Harlem

and then afterward treat 'em to cake and ice cream.

- All the kids, they'd come by, like, 8:00,

9:00 in the morning.

I had to play for about a hour.

When I played a night game, I'd go out to play stickball

with the guys about 3:00 or 4:00,

and then I go to the ballpark all the time.

And the kids enjoyed that very much.

It was just a fun time.

- Can you imagine the great Willie Mays plays stickball

just like the rest of us?

So there were a lot of things that we identified with Willie.

Willie's first year with the Giants

was my second year broadcasting.

So really, we were both kids.

And I gravitated to him

because I loved the way he played.

I think most of us were absolutely blown away

by his overall ability.

And it was his attitude.

To me, in watching him, he wasn't a big leaguer.

He was a kid playing the outfield

and loving every minute of it.

Mays catching this one is like a seagull dipping for a fish.

There he goes.

- This is the new Willie Mays,

and the country is on fire because of this man.

He just lights up every ballpark.

- My dad took me to one game at the Polo Grounds.

We're seated down the right field line.

And I'm on my father's shoulders

when he says to me, "Bobby, look.

"See that player right there?

That's Willie Mays,"

as if he was saying to his son the equivalent of,

"Son, that's the Washington Monument.

"That's the Grand Canyon.

"You'll never forget having been here.

That's Willie Mays."

- The epitome of Willie Mays at the Polo Grounds

was the famous catch in 1954.

Game one of the World Series,

New York Giants against

the heavily favored Cleveland Indians

of the American League.

And the Indians that year had a great pitching staff,

a deep lineup, a good defense.

They were stacked. 111 wins.

They were expected to sweep that Series.

"The Catch" in '54,

the most famous catch in the World Series history

that lives on to this day,

turned that World Series around.

- Vic Wertz hit a ball over his head.

- With a runner at first and at second base,

Vic Wertz hit a shot that's a home run

in any other ballpark.

[bat cracks]

[watch ticking]

[cheers and applause]

- Vic hit the ball so hard and so high.

- But what made it amazing was, Willie played shallow,

and Willie ran.

announcer: But there goes Willie!

- Willie sprinted back on the ball.

[suspenseful music]

- He didn't worry about any walls

because it was so deep.

- With his back to the infield, running on the dead run,

looked up.

The ball dropped over his shoulder.

He reached out and made the catch.

[cheers and applause]

- Part of it was catching it over your head.

That's what made it amazing.

And then he just turned around and winged it.

- I caught it very quickly

and got rid of it back into the infield.

announcer: And he makes a miraculous catch

as he stops a step short of the wall.

- He sends that ball back to the infield

in a split second.

- They had Larry Doby.

Larry was on second.

- And Willie knew that the ball was so deep

that there was a good chance that that runner would score.

- He had to come back, touch third,

go back to second, touch second,

and he didn't even score.

- When Willie Mays went back for that catch

and them 30 yards went to 40 yards

and a little further, that's, to us, as athletes,

makes it phenomenal.

[ticking]

- Those 6.5 seconds

from the time Wertz hits the ball

till the time Mays let go of the ball

are 6.5 seconds in American history

that everybody should know about.

- What you have just seen is a glimpse

of athletic genius.

[soft triumphant music]

That catch is one of the greatest

athletic performances in sports history.

- And with the momentum created by Willie's catch,

the Giants won the World Series.

announcer: In the clubhouse, bedlam breaks loose

as television crews, photographers,

and newspapermen endeavor to record the scene.

- That World Series was one of the biggest upsets

of all time.

And television was just becoming a big thing.

Before that, everybody listened to the World Series.

Everybody was tuned in

one way or the other to the World Series.

- Baseball, America's number one sport

and one which has a season running for half the year,

is number one on television too.

The athletes' audience is vastly increased.

Television holds them by the millions.

- I think it's important that Willie spent

the first portion of his career in New York

because when television was in its infancy

and there weren't that many games on TV,

the nation by and large saw the All-Star game

and the World Series.

And they watched television shows

that emanated from New York.

- Another great star from Alabama,

Willie Mays led the National League with .342.

- And at that time, to see any Black person on television

was--was rare.

- Well, I've had a few base hits in my career,

but I think the biggest thrill I got--

up until the ball was caught, that is--

was the ball that Willie caught

in the World Series of last year.

I think I also got more publicity outta that ball too.

[laughter]

- Well, Willie, uh, when did you change your method

of catching a ball?

And what--what-- how--how long ago was that?

- Well, I spent two years in the army,

and I said to myself,

"Now when I come out of the army, I have to,

you know, have something new."

I said, "Well, I better practice on this."

Well, I, you know, perfected it pretty good, and I use it.

- What--what is the difference in it?

How--how--how do you--

- Well, it relaxes me.

I can catch it easier that way. I don't know, maybe--

- You didn't relax Vic Wertz, that's all I gotta say to you.

[laughter]

- So the whole country had a better sense of them

than they did of the stars on other teams

outside their own cities.

So here's Willie Mays,

the first great African American superstar.

After the war, Willie Mays busted through

to show the world that baseball is changing.

[The Treniers' "Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)"]

- ♪ Say hey ♪ - ♪ Say who? ♪

- ♪ Say Willie ♪

♪ Say hey ♪ - ♪ Say who? ♪

♪ Swinging at the plate, say hey ♪

- ♪ Say who? ♪ - ♪ Say Willie ♪

♪ That Giants kid is great ♪

♪ He hits the ball, it's long gone, man ♪

♪ Hits it farther than Campy can ♪

♪ Swings the bat like a little lead pipe ♪

♪ When they reach the ball, it's overripe ♪

♪ Say hey ♪ - ♪ Say who? ♪

- I came to New York when I was 19,

and I was very shy. I didn't know anybody.

I was starting saying, "Come here. Say hey."

We had a lot of great New York writers

who would say, "Oh, there go the 'Say Hey Kid,'"

and it stuck with me.

- ♪ Say Willie ♪

♪ Whatcha gonna say? ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Say hey ♪

[cheers and applause]

- 1958 will always be remembered

as the year Major League Baseball came

to the West Coast.

And baseball takes top billing

as the spotlight shines on the San Francisco Giants.

- And in 1958, Horace Stoneham moves to San Francisco

because the O'Malleys are moving to Los Angeles.

[soft music]

- Walter O'Malley broke the hearts of Brooklyn fans

moving the Dodgers to LA,

but the same thing happened to Giants fans.

♪ ♪

Giants fans told me the story:

Horace Stoneham broke my heart when he moved the Giants,

and I've never forgiven him.

But Willie Mays,

as long as they had Willie Mays,

I still cared about the Giants.

- In San Francisco, the big city is big league

for the first time, and a gala parade

down Market Street bids the Giants welcome

as they open the season in their new home.

- By that time, I think Willie was the Giants.

He was the face of the franchise.

- I think that without Willie Mays,

you don't have the Giants that we've all come to know

and love in the Bay Area.

It's hard for me to imagine San Francisco being interested

in the Giants moving from New York

without Willie Mays.

He was a linchpin factor in that deal being made.

- An extra burst of cheers greets Willie Mays.

The Say Hey Kid is at home already.

A parade that marks the making of baseball history,

San Francisco Giants meet Los Angeles Dodgers,

the West Coast's first big league baseball game ever,

but incidentally, a continuation

of an old, old diamond rivalry.

- Seals Stadium, the new home of the Giants,

is a beehive of activity

as ushers and ticket takers prepare for the big ride

in the new era of baseball.

The Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays,

gets his first safety in San Francisco

to put Mantle on first and second.

Willie Kirkland touches Ron Negray for a single

that produces a final run.

And the San Francisco Giants make a successful debut

in their new home by thrashing Los Angeles 8 to 0.

23,000 fans leave Seals Stadium,

confident that Major League Baseball

is on the West Coast to stay.

- When the Giants and the Dodgers moved

to the West Coast, it made it truly a national game.

- But in San Francisco, they did not warm to Willie

when he first got here.

- Why didn't they embrace Willie Mays in San Francisco?

Well, for one thing, Joe DiMaggio.

♪ ♪

- DiMaggio was born and raised in San Francisco

and had played for the San Francisco Seals

in the Pacific Coast League before going to the Yankees.

So he's already a legend.

He's their center fielder.

- He was a man about town.

He had his own restaurant.

It was the Toots Shor of San Francisco.

- So Willie shows up,

but this is Joe DiMaggio's town.

That's Joe DiMaggio's stadium.

That's Joe DiMaggio's position.

Who's Willie Mays?

- Willie Mays is a New York Giant.

These are San Francisco Giants.

- They played at Seals Stadium the first two years.

Seals Stadium was big, 420 to center.

- Without doubt, Mays finds himself playing

in the shadow of San Francisco's own Joe DiMaggio.

San Francisco wants a winner,

but the fans don't get it those first years

at Seals Stadium

even with Mays hitting a career high of .347 in 1958.

- Willie's gone through a lot of racial discrimination

even here in San Francisco, where San Francisco is probably

the most unracist part of this state

that you can imagine.

I mean, they'll shut down anything for equality here,

which is-- I really respect and love.

But, you know, at one point, Willie did go through that.

[cheering]

- I think they accepted him as a athletic star,

but not as a person they wanted to live next door to,

not as a person that they wanna have their kids hang out with.

In the late '50s, San Francisco was different.

For openers, you couldn't be a policeman if you were Black.

You couldn't be a deputy sheriff.

You couldn't be a fireman.

You couldn't live in certain parts of the city

if you were Black.

White people were more honest in those days.

They told you up-front

that you were not welcome in the neighborhood,

and it was the same all over the city.

Willie wanted to live on Miraloma Drive

in San Francisco.

And Willie and his then-wife, Margherite,

tried to buy a house in Miraloma Drive.

- They picked out a home, a beautiful home

overlooking the water.

And Willie was denied. Why?

Because of the color of his skin.

- Willie Mays was a celebrity of great stature.

He could afford the $35,000 or $40,000.

The homes in that neighborhood,

he could not buy there.

The neighborhood went crazy.

They didn't want Willie Mays or anybody else Black

in their neighborhood.

Some white guy sold him the house,

and then the guy had to pull back.

- The mayor said, "Hey,

"you could live over here with me.

Live in my house till you find another place."

He said, "No, I want this place."

The realtor said, "Hey, I can find you

another place in another neighborhood."

Willie said, "No, I want this place."

- An organization called the Council for Civic Unity

jumped in on Willie Mays' behalf.

- Did you make a deposit on the house?

- Yes, we did, yes.

- I see.

And, uh, there's been some discussion

about you not being able to buy it, is that correct?

- Well, not now. The guy--

the owner just called me today

and said he was very happy to sell me the house

in the--in the neighborhood.

- I see. - I don't know where--

- They finally did get the house.

But it was over the objections of the neighbors.

- In years to come, Mays would receive everything

from daily advice in the newspapers...

[glass shattering] To a bottle thrown

by a fanatic through his front room window.

- That bottle came,

and it caused the then-Mrs. Mays

to want to get back to New York

as fast as she could.

And that may have contributed to their divorce.

- You indicated that you and Willie might move back

to New York after this season.

Does this mean you like New York

or dislike San Francisco?

What's the real reason?

- Well, we like San Francisco and we like New York.

And we still have a home in the east.

- Willie Mays' efforts to get a house in this city

was as important as his 660th home run

for San Francisco

because it launched the real, dedicated effort

to integrate this city.

- Willie got the house,

and he'll tell you that it's not just for me.

It's for the next guy to move into the neighborhood.

It's for the next minority who wants to buy a home there

because that next minority's not gonna be Willie Mays.

Willie Mays had the power to open the door for others.

And in that particular case, he did.

- In the end, the evidence not only of his greatness,

but of the joy that he brought to the field

transmitted to the fans.

Willie was about joy as much as he was about greatness.

He won them over.

announcer: Sophisticated San Francisco

lets its hair down and embraces baseball

to its bosom.

Willie Mays and his flashing plays make

an immediate hit.

Willie Mays, San Francisco's Say Hey hero,

hoists a humpback ball to right.

Pafko just misses the shoestring catch

as Mays blazes the bases for a double.

Giant jubilation literally rocks the joint.

[cheers and applause]

- They played at Seals Stadium

the first two years, '58 and '59,

while Candlestick was being built.

announcer: $15 million Candlestick Park is opened

by the San Francisco Giants

for the inaugural of the 1960 National League season.

Giants owner Horace Stoneham welcomed vice president Nixon.

And with a Giant on base,

Willie Mays draws a walk.

- I think it was the writer Jack London who said,

"The coldest winter I ever spent

was July in San Francisco."

That Candlestick Park with the winds swirling

literally in June and July.

And those winds did not help Willie Mays' home run total.

[Wes Montgomery's "California Dreaming"]

Candlestick Park,

the worst place in the Bay Area

to put a stadium, right next to the bay,

windy, cold.

The designers brought the city officials out

at 11:00 in the morning and said,

"God, what a beautiful place."

Well, they didn't go at night.

'Cause if they showed up at night,

it's the windiest place on earth.

But that's where Candlestick Park was built.

announcer: And for Mays and the Giants,

playing at night at Candlestick Park

can sometimes be quite an experience.

[wind whistling]

- Candlestick Park was open-air.

The winds would pour in from left field generally.

- The wind would blow it to the right center.

I had to wait until that wind hit it,

and then it'd come... come straight down.

- Willie was having home runs knocked down to left field.

- I couldn't get the ball out of the ballpark.

The wind would blow it back,

and I hit it hard.

- So Willie didn't complain.

He adjusted and learned how to adapt his swing

to Candlestick Park.

There was a jet stream out in right center,

so he got the ball up and out.

- I would've hit another 10. Maybe 10 or 15.

announcer: Diagonal hurler Larry Jackson

gives Orlando Cepeda one he likes.

[cheers and applause]

400 feet into deep center for a triple.

- You have to go to a night game

in Candlestick so you can experience

the coldest night ever.

It was so cold that you are afraid to swing

because you hit the ball hard some place,

boy, you're really like this for three innings.

[cheers and applause]

The reason I came to play ball was because of Willie,

when Willie Mays came to Puerto Rico in 1954.

- Players often would play winter ball.

They would go not only to hone their skills,

but to make extra money in Puerto Rico

or sometimes even Cuba back then.

It was huge because the islands

would incorporate their own players

with the great American ball players.

- I was a bag boy

for the team that Willie play in Puerto Rico.

After watching Willie play,

I want to be a ball player.

- The Giants signed quite a few Latin players,

especially Dominican players.

The Giants got ahead

of the other Major League teams.

- When I walked through that gate

to the San Francisco Giants to go to the clubhouse,

Felipe Alou and Orlando Cepeda was waiting for me,

and they gave me a big welcome.

They introduced me to each player

in the San Francisco Giants.

And I gonna be playing the same field

with Willie Mays.

[light upbeat music]

[laughs]

- [laughs]

[laughing] He seems happy.

- This fella is the greatest baseball player of our time.

Mays is in a class by himself,

then you start rating the other ball players.

You start rating the Mickey Mantles,

the Ted Williams, the Stan Musials.

But none of them could do the things

that Willie Mays could do

because Willie could do so many things.

- He was shortstop when I was in New York.

He came to California, and he was my manager.

He made me the captain of the whole team on the field.

Whatever I said, that's what they did.

If they didn't do it, they didn't play.

- You had the power to bench a guy the next day

regardless of what Alvin Dark or Herman Franks

or whoever was the manager said?

- Mm-hmm. I ran the field, you know?

And I said to Herman, "You run the bench.

I'll run the field." - [laughs]

- I didn't have a coach when I played.

I didn't have one.

Everything I did was on my own.

And I told him, I said,

"Man, I don't know if I can do that."

"Yes, you can.

"You do whatever you wanna do on the field,

and I'll take care of the rest of it."

- You just had a sense of the game.

- And the rule that we had when I played:

just one hand.

It'd go left or right.

Anytime that hand moved, you gotta move.

That's the only rule we ever had in the outfield.

Now if you didn't see that, you didn't play the next day.

Very simple.

- Willie was the leader in our team.

Yeah, and there was no question,

no question about it.

We didn't have nobody in the team

that could lead us the way that Willie did.

- So we start gelling very quickly.

All the guys began to play together,

not no one man playing this, one man playing that.

I wanted nine guys on that field to play together.

That's all I wanted, and once we play together,

we can win.

announcer: Orlando Cepeda hammers the ball

into deep right center.

Mays trots home from third,

and Cepeda pulls up at second base with a double.

announcer: Marichal, a perennial all-star,

is ready to take on the American League's best

once again.

announcer: After he retires the first two,

Lee Walls flies to Willie Mays.

Charging in, Alou dives and comes up with a ball.

- Marichal was one of several Latin players

to pay handsome dividends to the Giants.

- In '62, Willie had an MVP-caliber year,

hit 49 home runs, led San Francisco

to their first post-season.

They had this incredible final week.

So now it's a best-of-three playoff--

Giants and Dodgers, just like '51.

Game three is at Dodger Stadium.

This is the year Dodger Stadium opened,

and they did big-time box office business.

But the Dodgers go to the ninth inning

ahead 4 to 2.

The Giants start rallying.

The Giants get 4 runs to go ahead 6 to 4.

And Willie Mays had one of the big hits in the rally.

The Dodgers just fell apart.

And finally here's a fly ball to Willie Mays in center field.

announcer: Lee Walls flies to Willie Mays

for the final out.

- And he takes the ball out of his glove,

and he flings it up into the stands.

Giants have won the pennant.

announcer: And now it's on to San Francisco

and the World Series with the New York Yankees.

[lively music]

- We played good to beat the Dodgers.

And we played good in the World Series

against the Yankees.

- The next day they were facing Whitey Ford

at Candlestick Park.

The World Series, for the first time,

has come to San Francisco.

[soft music]

[cheers and applause]

announcer: With the players lined up

on the infield, the crowd comes to attention

for the national anthem.

- I remember we started it in San Francisco.

They win one. We win one.

And we went to Yankee Stadium.

[excited chatter]

announcer: Willie Mays takes batting practice.

The tying run is now at the plate.

But Davenport flies to Tresh for the final out.

And the Yankees again lead in the series,

two games to one.

- And I-- I started the fourth game.

I was pitching the best game of my life.

I strike out Mickey Mantle twice.

I end up winning that game.

- Let's go!

- And then game five we lost.

We came back to San Francisco.

- They were coming back from New York

for games six and seven.

And there were several days of rain.

The worst storm in a century hit the Bay Area.

The field at Candlestick had absorbed rain

for four days in a row.

It was wet.

They had brought in helicopters.

There were these incredible pictures

of the helicopters hovering low over the field

at Candlestick 'cause they're trying to dry off the field.

announcer: The fans are on edge

because the Giants ae fighting for survival.

Willie Mays never seems to lose his zest

or his brilliance.

- So finally, the bottom of the ninth inning

of game seven...

- Willie's at the plate.

The ninth inning of the seventh game

of the 1962 World Series.

[low suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

- Before I got to bat,

Matty Alou bunted.

[cheers and applause]

- Matty Alou was on first base with two out.

Yankees lead 1-0.

Willie's the hitter.

He doubles down the right field line.

- But when I hit the ball,

it didn't go to the fence like it usually go.

He caught it before it went to the fence, but it was wet.

- Roger Maris makes a really good play

to cut it off before it gets to the fence.

- He fielded a wet ba--

it had to be a soaking wet baseball,

and he fired a perfect relay throw

to Bobby Richardson, the second baseman,

who was a Gold Glover, and then Richardson threw

to the plate on one hop

right to Elston Howard, the catcher.

The third base coach held up Matty Alou.

And the story was always felt

that Matty would've been dead if he'd tried to score.

But Willie...

- I asked Willie about that.

Willie said to me,

"If I had been the runner instead of the batter,

"I would've run right through that stop sign.

I would've made them make a perfect play to get me."

- And he held up Matty at third and me at second.

- The next batter is McCovey.

He hit a line drive.

[cheers and applause]

- Willie McCovey hit right to Bobby Richardson.

- And he caught the ball in short right--right field.

- A couple inches either way, and the Giants score 2 runs

and win the game 2 to 1.

announcer: The 20th world championship won

by the New York Yankees.

He's carried off the field on the shoulders...

[cheers and applause]

- The Giants won only one pennant in the '60s,

but they had the best record in the '60s.

They finished second five straight years.

They were a great team.

- We had seven Latin players,

so we would talk Spanish.

I remember in the dugout one time, you know,

I don't wanna say the name who did it,

but he came up to me and said, "Juan, speak English.

You in America."

- Alvin Dark turned off a lot of minorities.

He said some things, some very regrettable things.

- I remember what happened to Orlando.

- Well, in my case,

because I like-- I love music so much,

I carried my record player with me on the big LP.

But Alvin Dark, because he don't like music,

he tried to stop me.

And he gave order

to the clubhouse man

for me not to bring my music with me on the road.

If I can't bring my music with me,

I'm not going nowhere.

- He would not allow Spanish to be spoken in the clubhouse.

[somber music]

Cepeda and some of the other minorities

were ready to walk out.

It was gonna be a mutiny.

- Willie had to talk to Alvin about the situation.

- He says, "You go and you do what you have to do,

and I will back you up for the fullest."

And he did.

Alvin Dark. That's what I said.

A lot of people say, "Well, he's a racist."

I don't think so.

- Willie got in between,

and Willie tried to tell me, "You a baseball player.

"Put aside the manager, whatever he say.

If you do well, everybody gonna like you."

So that really helped me.

- Willie was always like that.

He was, um,

he just saw things differently, you know?

Willie just said, just-- "Let's play the game.

"You know, let's just--we got--

we got to stick together. Let's just play the game."

He had just a different perspective on things and a--

more of a outgoing personality toward that.

- Alvin kept doing it.

There was gonna be a mutiny.

Alvin was fired after the season.

So Willie's a great uniter.

He's a great peacemaker, the captain.

The Giants had the best road attendance

in the National League throughout the '60s.

They had the Alou brothers.

They had Cepeda.

They had McCovey, Marichal, Perry.

But it was Mays who brought the fans in.

It was Mays who united that team,

who made that team good enough

for everybody to wanna go see the Giants.

- I got this Willie Mays bat last week.

I told the youngsters of the country

that I'd ask you to give them a couple of tips on hitting.

- Well, I could've used this bat today, Ed.

- [laughs] - Why you give it to me now?

- Willie was so naturally effervescent

and such a gifted storyteller

and so comfortable in front of the cameras

that much of white America felt comfortable with him.

He wasn't outwardly political, so that might--

may have put people at ease.

- Hey, Sam!

- Say Hey, Willie!

- I did three or four different things

that came out of Hollywood.

[phone rings]

[bright music]

- Donna. - Willie.

What a nice surprise. - How are you?

- Will you join us?

- Oh, no. Thank you, Donna.

I just stopped by to see a friend of mine.

He owns this place. - Oh.

- He used to be an umpire, you know?

- I remember asking Willie about this.

There are no Black people on any of these sitcoms,

but Willie Mays would just show up

as if that was a natural course of things.

So here's Donna Reed having lunch with a white lady,

and all of a sudden, Willie Mays shows up.

- Oh, wait till I tell the doctor

that I met little ol' Say Hey.

- The incongruity of the scene was apparently lost

on most viewers, and then he walked away with the check.

- I did "The Tonight Show," "What's My Line?"

"Ed Sullivan."

- What's the greatest streak you've ever had in baseball,

would you say? - Well, my--I have two.

I--my greatest in baseball was last week

when I hit my 512 home runs, enough to break Mel Ott.

[applause]

- Just a couple of days before his birthday in 1966,

Willie Mays hit number 512.

He broke Mel Ott's National League record

and became the number one home run slugger

in National League history.

Giants were in New York.

"The Ed Sullivan Show" was the big national show

on Sunday nights that was live.

His fame has gone coast-to-coast by that time.

[wind whistling]

[soft vocalizing]

- Willie Mays lives alone behind miles

of drawn curtains,

searching for whatever privacy there is off the field,

that quiet time alone.

The life of a celebrity is not always ideal.

You have to pay a price that quite often is greater than

or as great as the cheers and plaudits and the wealth.

- So San Francisco was not like the center of Black folk

because it was not as social.

There was no such thing as a Black Harlem

in the Bay Area and in the city.

At some point, Margherite and Willie Mays,

they got divorced.

[smooth jazz music]

Willie Mays is not a social butterfly.

Even today, that's who Willie Mays is.

He was never a player, a street player.

He was a baseball player.

But being Willie Mays, you know, Willie Mays was--

he's always with it.

- Willie home, decorated all in gold and white,

is high on a hill overlooking the famous Golden Gate Bridge.

He leads the gracious life of a superstar

in these luxury surroundings.

- Yeah, that was the best house to be a kid in.

He cut a hole in the living room floor

and put, like, a spiral staircase

down to the garage, so it was like the Batcave.

[engine turns over]

- The gold clock says 10:15

and time to be going to the park

to play Los Angeles again.

Willie, after a night game and a late meal,

gets home past midnight,

so there's very little time to relax.

The games just keep coming, night and day.

- The fans have been very good to me.

They've been great, and they always been coming in,

but I don't worry about the grown people too much.

I worry more about the kids.

- I'm Mike Murphy.

I've been with the Giants for 63 years.

I started as a bat boy.

If you needed something, you go see Willie.

He took care of me when I was a kid.

He'd give us money to go eat lunch

or "Here, kids, here.

Here's 20 bucks. Go eat lunch."

20 bucks in the '50s was a lot of money.

He'd never refuse anybody.

And, you know, kids go up to him and, you know,

ask him for autographs and everything.

- When he arrives at Candlestick,

the kids are there to greet him.

[kids cheering] And beyond the gate,

his quiet, private hours are over.

- I bet you every one of those kids got an autograph,

baseball, or photograph from him

because that's who Willie Mays really was.

And that made him an even bigger star.

He surpassed the white superstars.

- He comes from a family

and a place where everybody helps everybody.

I guess he's paying it forward.

He's seeing people are helping me.

I need to help people.

- Willie is in the prime of his career

with the San Francisco Giants.

So many people, not just ballplayers

or even athletes,

people who grew up in that area

in various walks of life speak with such reverence

about Willie Mays

and what he meant to their childhood

or their adolescence.

He was a gigantic star.

- Willie Mays played so frequently

and he was so durable

that from 1951 through 1962, he missed 21 games.

Giants lost 14 of 'em.

So no wonder managers wanted him to play every single day.

He played to an extent

that he was literally exhausted and passed out.

This happened three or four times in his career

and was rushed to the hospital

and would often spend a couple of nights at the hospital,

where he'd be rejuvenated,

and return to the field and keep playin'.

But in the '50s and '60s, that was Willie Mays.

He did not wanna stop until he literally passed out.

- I think the era of baseball at that time was,

you don't get sick, you don't get hurt,

you don't get tired.

Black players don't get that.

That we play every day.

I learned that from those guys.

That was the Mays era and start of my era.

The easy jobs in the front office

that paid six figures,

Black players don't get those kind of jobs.

Those are for the white players.

- We knew what the situation was

because by 1968,

the masses of Blacks had grown tired

and impatient with litigation and legislation

and gradualism.

They began to struggle for dignity and respect.

We're gonna do what we're going to do

regardless whether the white folks believe us

or not. You see what I'm saying?

- And that's boycott?

- I am saying that we are going to do

what is in the interest of Black people,

whatever it is.

That's when the athletes in the mid-late 1960s decided

we've got to make a clean, hard break with our fathers.

Not just Willie Mays,

but that whole era of athletes

who found it necessary and imperative

to simply shut up and play.

And you had Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali,

and Bill Russell.

You had Arthur Ashe.

You Tommie Smith and John Carlos,

who took it international.

These athletes were saying, "We're not just commodities

"for your entertainment and pleasure.

"We are full, complete, and total human beings,

and we demand to be treated as such."

Said that on a international stage

12 years after Jackie Robinson had retired.

He made the statement,

"I never had it made

"because I realize I'm a Black man

in a racist white society."

Willie didn't want any part of that.

And this is where he actually drew criticism

from Jackie Robinson.

[somber music]

- "Willie's personable

"and has great talent,

"but he's never matured.

"He continues to ignore the most important issue

"of our time.

"He's never had any decent guidance

"in these matters and probably keeps looking

"only to his security as a great star.

"It's a damn shame he's never taken part.

"He doesn't realize he wouldn't be where he is today

"without the battles that others have fought.

"He thinks it's not his concern,

"but it is.

Jackie Robinson."

- Jackie ripped him.

He said, "Wouldn't it be wonderful

"if this young superstar could tell us

"about leaving Birmingham,

"and being denied at the house in San Francisco,

and overcoming it all?"

- I think that's totally unfair

'cause Willie's always been outspoken.

It's just that Willie saw things

a little bit more calmer, I guess you can say.

- Willie's father always told him,

"Don't create chaos. Don't pop off.

Don't say too much."

Just put your head down, run the bases,

and play the game right.

And Willie took that to heart.

- Some marched and protested.

Some won gold medals in the World Series.

It's about humanizing us.

That's what happened in the '60s.

It's, these people made it impossible

for us to be dismissed, ignored.

They brought the light.

- "Different people do things in different ways.

"I can, for instance, go out and picket.

"I can't stand on a soapbox and preach.

"That simply isn't my nature.

"People like Mr. King and Mr. Wilkins

"are better equipped than I am.

"But it's not true what Robinson said about

"my not doing anything for race relationships.

"I've worked for the Job Corps,

"and I don't know how many kid's groups

"I've addressed and will continue to address.

"In my own way, I believe I'm helping.

"You see, I've been doing things a long time

"along this line, but I want no credit.

"Everyone must do his own job in his own way,

"and in my heart, my way is just as important

"as Jackie Robinson's way.

"I believe understanding is the important thing.

"In my talks to kids, I've tried my best

"to get that message across.

"It makes no difference whether you are Black or white

"because we are all God's children

"fighting for the same cause.

"Let's talk about progress for a while.

"Just look around out there in the clubhouse.

"There are an awful lot of southern boys

"on this team, yet we live and play together in harmony.

"It was not possible 15, 16 years ago.

"Today's kids don't have the hardships

"Jackie and I had,

"and they realize and appreciate it.

"Today, for instance, we play as many as five or six Negroes

"at the same time on our ball club.

"And once in Atlanta, we had eight or nine in there

"at the same time, and Atlanta is a Southern town.

Willie Mays."

- Harry Edwards' famous book,

"The Revolt of the Black Athlete,"

that's something particular to the '60s.

Willie came along

before anybody knew who Cassius Clay was.

So I wanna judge Willie Mays as Willie Mays.

- Willie's always been outspoken.

It's just that those were the gentlemen

that were picked at that time,

as well as Martin Luther King was our representation

of freedom for Blacks at the time.

Willie just wasn't on that panel.

Doesn't necessarily mean Willie wasn't outspoken

for what he believed in.

He believed in what they were saying,

and maybe Willie at that time felt

they were the right candidate for that.

- Well, it's almost unfair to suggest

that Willie Mays should do anything

other than be the proficient professional

he needed to be as a baseball player.

Black people have imposed upon them the dual responsibility

to not only represent all Black people,

but to make it comfortable for even some racists

to interact without ever accepting

the racist response,

you are okay, but the rest of you are not.

And that's kind of the way Willie Mays was treated.

He became "okay, but the rest of them not."

And to the extent that he could be helpful,

with the NAACP,

with the Council for Civic Unity,

with all the other organizations,

and with individuals like Willie Brown,

the upcoming lawyer, politician,

Willie Mays was helpful.

And we all are not gonna be Muhammad Ali.

- Willie did things for people behind the scenes,

in the dugout, in the clubhouse, at his home.

So I spoke with Joe Morgan,

Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Maury Wills.

All of 'em, to a man, said, "It's wrong to say

"that Willie didn't do enough because he was there for me.

"He was there for us.

"He opened the door for us.

And he did so much more than people give him credit for."

- I met Willie Mays in spring training in 1968.

And he came out of the Giants' dugout and he--

"Where is this Reggie Jackson at?

"This Reggie Jackson kid, I wanna see this kid.

"Reggie Jackson, they tell me he's a great player.

"He's got a lot of power.

Where's this kid, Reggie Jackson?"

And I was the Arizona State kid.

He wanted to introduce himself to me,

and I was absolutely thrilled.

I learned so much from Willie.

- As Willie started getting up there in years,

every time there would be a young outfielder

who had promise, there was always talk

of him being the next Willie Mays.

Bobby Bonds,

that was the guy they really thought

could really be the next Willie Mays.

announcer: Bobby Bonds is off and running.

- He had tremendous speed, tremendous power.

Great base-stealer.

He could do it all.

announcer: Bonds gives the Giants one

of the best defensive outfields ever assembled.

And he can do the impossible.

- Willie had a locker, and nobody dressed next

to Willie but only special people that he wanted.

So we put Bobby next to Willie,

and that's how they became best of friends.

- Willie took him under his wing.

- I grew up with Bobby.

The Bonds' were--were the heroes in our town.

And I was always with him and my dad

'cause my dad was always Bobby's coach.

Bobby was the man.

He introduced me to Willie Mays.

I told him I liked his glove that he had on.

It was a kangaroo glove,

and Willie took it off his hand and gave it to me.

And so I felt a closeness to, you know, to Willie

and definitely always a closeness,

you know, to Bobby.

And, you know, Willie helped Bobby.

You know, he loved Bobby.

- My dad loved Willie more than anything.

Everything was Willie this in our house, Willie that.

Willie this, Willie this.

If you wanna hit, you gotta hit like Willie.

You know, throw your hands like this

and everything like that, and--

'cause my dad idolized Willie Mays.

'Cause Willie took all the Black athletes

at that time, and he held them on his shoulder.

And we as kids remember this forever.

I was one of those kids that, I mean,

I was obsessed with Willie.

I would put Willie-- I'm left handed,

and I would put Willie's glove on backwards

just so I could wear his glove.

But it was my parents, you know,

that sat there and told Willie, you know,

"You're gonna take this kid."

'Cause I wouldn't wanna leave the locker room.

I didn't wanna--I followed him like a little puppy dog.

And I guess my dad kind of got fed up

because I remember being on the field

when I was five and six years old,

and I guess my dad kind of got fed of me just screamin'

"I wanna be with Willie," crying, "Wanna be with Willie."

And Willie just finally just said, "Gimme that boy,"

you know? Like, you know?

And he took me out on the field.

- Barry Bonds grew up not only in a baseball household,

but as part of baseball royalty.

His mom and dad, Pat and Bobby Bonds,

asked Willie Mays to be the godfather for Barry.

- Barry would climb all over his locker, get in his locker.

And he would say, "What are you doing in there?

What are you doing in there?"

So they used to grab his gloves, and, oh...

[laughing] He'd get mad if you grabbed his gloves.

- That little kid, five years old,

I remember saying to him,

"Boy, get out of my locker."

[laughter]

- I'll tell you one thing about Say Hey, boy,

'cause you did-- you brought up one catch,

and then there's another catch with him and my father

in San Francisco, okay?

I was mad at my dad because he hurt my godfather,

like really mad.

[cheers and applause]

- Game of the week.

Bobby Tolan, Cincinnati Reds, hits a monster fly ball

to right center, so the ball goes up.

Bobby jumps up,

but Willie comes out of nowhere and jumps over him,

makes the catch, climbs the cyclone fence,

comes down with it.

They collide,

and Bobby is actually looking at the ball

and holds the ball up for the umpire to see.

- Willie came out of nowhere, okay?

'Cause the ball was hitting right center,

and I--I was a kid and I was at that game.

My dad's knee hit Willie in his chest a little bit.

And I was so mad at my dad

because Willie was on that ground forever.

I didn't want to talk to my dad for hours.

Like, "I don't like you.

You hurt my-- you hurt my Willie."

And Willie's on the ground and the ball's sittin'

in his glove.

Without the glove falling off

or the ball falling out of your glove,

and then him hanging on the ball,

to have not only retained the ball

and be knocked out,

that, to me, was the best catch I've ever seen.

- Two things happened at that time.

I got married, and I got traded to the Mets.

- The Giants, meanwhile, were having a tough time,

and business was not going well.

I mean, the Stoneham family was literally going bankrupt.

The Giants used to be the second highest-drawing team

in the National League behind the Dodgers,

and most of those years, second best-drawing team

in all of Major League Baseball.

And they would a million six.

One year they got a million seven,

a million five.

And '68, they A's came out from Kansas City.

And both teams drew 800,000.

And really, where did they expect all these extra fans

were gonna come from?

Because the Giants had been the only team?

We used to go from the East Bay

over to Candlestick.

Well, now we didn't have to do that anymore.

We could just go to the Coliseum.

We didn't have to go across the bridge anymore.

It was 1972, and they started trading some

of their higher-priced players.

Willie Mays would regularly have the highest salary

in the game.

That's when he got traded.

I think it killed Horace Stoneham to do it.

But they just couldn't afford it.

- Mr. Stoneham told me, he says,

"Willie, I don't have enough money to pay you."

I said, "What do you mean, sir?"

He says, "I gotta get you back to New York,

"where you can still make, you know,

quite a bit of money."

So I says, "I don't think I wanna go.

I think I better go home."

And he said, "No, no, no.

Mrs. Joan Payson's the owner of the Mets."

She already called."

And she says, "We got you."

And I said, "I gotta go home."

"No, no, no.

"Your wife is already here.

"She's been here for two days.

She said, "Write your own contract."

And I said, "Whoa, I got her now."

So I said, "I, Willie Mays, would like

"to do what I wanna do,

when I wanna do it at any time."

And she said, "Is that what you want?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"You got it." And I said, "Oh, my God.

She gave me everything that I asked for."

I can't go nowhere.

- When I got back to New York,

it was just like I never left.

[light funk music]

- What a moment.

This is a sensation in New York.

- The feeling that I had when I came back

was-- it just was no expressing it.

It was just a feeling that a town wanted a fella

to come back, and I think they showed that

by, you know, the way they treat me

when I first came back, and it's just terrific

just to be back.

- The Giants went to New York just a few days later,

and they play the Mets.

And Willie hits a home run against the Giants,

and he beats the Giants.

announcer: And it's well back in left field.

It could be. It's going, going.

And it is a home run!

Number 647 in his career.

[cheers and applause]

- The way I felt that the players on the Giants felt

that they had to get beat,

they'd rather for me to beat 'em.

And this is the way I feel all, you know,

going around the bases, you know.

♪ ♪

- It's beautiful. - Unreal.

- I think it's wonderful.

- It's great. - It's fantastic.

- I was always a Willie Mays fan.

- [speaking Spanish]

- It's the best thing that ever happened to me.

- So May of '72,

Joan Payson has the Mets, brings him home.

He was a key player on that team in '72.

And he was thinking, "Well, that's it for me.

I'm okay if this is my last year."

But Joan Payson wouldn't allow it.

She says, "One more year, Willie, one more year."

So Willie agreed to play one more year.

[cheers and applause]

Those Mets came outta nowhere to win their division in '73.

announcer: It's over!

The New York Mets have won the pennant!

The New York Mets have won the pennant!

The New York Mets have won the pennant,

and this is a wild scene!

- And find themselves in the World Series

against the Oakland A's.

Game one of the '73 World Series is in Oakland.

announcer: Batting third and playing center field,

number 24, Willie Mays.

[cheers and applause]

Willie Mays never played at the Oakland Coliseum.

And he gets a standing ovation

that might have been the longest of his career.

[cheers and applause]

But it's game two that everybody looks at.

Game two was at the Oakland Coliseum.

It started in the late afternoon.

- I played center field the same day.

I almost missed a ball in the sun off Jerry Grote.

The sun was horrible there that day.

And it's always bad in Oakland in October.

I don't know how they built the field that way,

but someone didn't have the foresight.

- The thing goes 13 innings.

It's the longest World Series on record through that season.

And Deron Johnson gets up for the A's

and hits a little blooper into center field.

And the ball gets by him and goes to the wall.

announcer: And it gets by him.

He lost his footing again.

Deron Johnson's in to second.

Willie Mays stumbling again as he did on the bases.

- So later in the game, Reggie hits a triple

that Willie lost in the sun as well.

[melancholic music]

♪ ♪

- This "Willie Mays stumbled around in center field

because he was old and couldn't play," no.

If he couldn't get to the ball, I'm okay.

But he didn't get to the ball and drop it.

He never did that.

Never.

That game is not an image of Willie Mays.

Willie--you can say Willie Mays was old

when he played his last game,

he got a base hit,

and he had trouble with the sun in center field

in the World Series. I got that.

But Willie Mays was flawless as a baseball player.

So if somebody wants to talk about his sun game,

you forget about the fact

that he got the go-ahead base hit to put them ahead

with a ground ball single up the middle.

- You'll see a picture that everybody points to.

- Bud Harrelson was called out at the plate by the umpire.

- Willie, the on-deck hitter,

was out there screamin' and yellin' at the umpire

saying, "You got this wrong, man."

- Because that's such a powerful photo,

you misread it if you don't have the context

to understand that he wasn't as good at 40 as he was at 20,

but it's like, no.

Not only is this dude good,

this dude might be the best there ever was.

announcer: There was one very poignant pause

down the home stretch when Willie Mays announced

that 1973 would be his final season

as an active player.

♪ ♪

- I remember watching game seven,

and the Mets were down three runs

as they come up in the ninth.

And they get two men on base.

And I realize he's 42 years old and at the end of his career

and all the rest,

but I'm thinking, "Yogi, send Willie up.

"This is Willie Mays' last at-bat.

"He's already announced his retirement.

"Two out, tying run at the plate.

Send Willie Mays up." He didn't.

Knowles got Garland out.

Lost the game.

I asked Willie about that decades later.

He goes, "I was reaching for a bat.

"It was a perfect moment.

Even if I struck out, I wanted a chance."

- We should've won the World Series at that time

'cause we--we did a good job, I felt.

I think I played till 42.

A long time.

♪ ♪

announcer: Ladies and gentlemen, Willie Mays.

[cheers and applause]

- I hope that with my farewell tonight

you would understand what I'm going through right now.

Something that I'd never feel

that I would ever quit baseball,

but as you know, it always come a time

for someone to get out.

And I look at the kids over here,

the way they are playing

and the way they are fighting for themselves

tells me one thing.

Willie, say goodbye to America.

Thank you very much.

[thunderous cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

Anybody who have seen me play know

that I love what I'm doing.

This doesn't mean that I'm getting out

of baseball because I'm hurt.

But I'm getting out of baseball

because I don't feel that seeing the way

that I was playing the last, oh, well,

I'd say the last couple years,

I didn't feel that the people of America

should look at a guy like myself

that loved the game of baseball

and being on the field and not being able to produce.

It's difficult right now to even, uh,

try to explain to you how much I love baseball

and how much baseball mean to me.

I think we had what you call a love affair.

I think the two together

for 22 years have been terrific.

- Fast-forward 20 years or so,

Willie was not working for the Giants.

Willie was out of baseball.

This is in late '92

when our group came together to buy the team.

And Peter Magowan and I went to Willie

the very first spring training that we had in early '93.

And we said, "Willie, you have to be part of this franchise.

And we want you to have a lifetime contract."

So it's 1992, and the best free agent

on the market is available for our first year

owning the franchise, 1993.

And how did we get to Barry Bonds?

Well, I don't know him.

But there's one person that could make the pitch:

Willie.

There was a call that was made by Willie to Barry.

And when the decision came for Barry

to determine where he was gonna play in 1993

and where he would play for the next 15 years,

he was very emotional and he called up.

And I remember being on the other end of the call

and saying, "Look, how can I not come

to the home of my father and my godfather, Willie?"

- I wanted to go home.

This is what I've always wanted my whole entire life.

And that was really, really important to me.

The most important thing in the world.

- The biggest deal in baseball history

finally went through today

as the San Francisco Giants signed

free agent outfielder Barry Bonds

to a six-year $43.75 million deal.

- And I wanna thank the San Francisco Giants

organization for talking to Willie for me

and giving me this opportunity

and especially Willie for allowing this to happen.

And Willie called me up.

And he sat there and he said,

"I would like for you to wear my number."

So I was so touched.

I was crying. I was like, "This is great.

This is great."

Peter was fine with it.

The Giants were fine with it.

But Major League Baseball shut it down.

They said that you can't do that

because if we start taking uniforms out of retirement,

then why are we retiring uniforms?

Which made perfect sense to me.

I was fine, and then Willie said,

"Why don't you honor your daddy

and wear number 25?"

- So I have the honor of presenting

my old number, the 25,

to my son, and a new San Francisco Giant,

Barry Bonds.

[cheers and applause]

- And tears flowed.

- It's like a boyhood dream

that comes true for me.

Um...

[soft sentimental music]

And I'll never forget this 'cause we were on stage

and Peter Magowan and all the owners stood

and Willie's there, and he goes, "You ready."

That's when I knew I was a complete baseball player

is when I got that stamp from my godfather.

He had an IQ so high he can see it.

My godfather played center field.

My father played right field.

And I wanted to be third generation

and play left field.

- Willie's the only one and his mama, Pat,

that could put the brakes and control Barry.

You know, he'd listen to Bobby most of the time,

but he listened to Willie all the time.

[laughs]

- Barry and Bobby struggle, you know,

like many fathers and sons do.

Dad, of course, jumped in, you know, help 'em both out.

- They were always there for me.

My dad was there with me.

I was doing off-season training.

My dad was in the batting cage with me every single day

when I was training, and Willie was there

all the time when I was training.

Willie was there with me on the baseball field.

And I wanted Willie to be proud of me so bad

that I ate, drank, lived baseball 24 hours a day.

[bat cracks]

announcer: Bonds with a drive.

Looks like number 70 for Barry Bonds.

And it is!

- And if you look back at all of Barry Bonds' record,

what does he say is most meaningful?

announcer: A knuckleball is hit in the air

to deep right field.

- Passing Babe, passing Hank?

No. Matching Willie Mays, 660.

announcer: He hits it hard!

[cheers and applause]

- When I was going for the home run record,

I didn't wanna pass Willie Mays.

That was my godfather.

That was the only thing I never wanted to do

was to pass Willie Mays, and that was very hard for me.

And so Willie sat me aside.

And I was like, "Willie, I can't do it.

"It's because it's too emotional.

"You're gonna come out on the field.

I'ma start cryin."

And he said, "You better pass me,

and then you better keep going."

I did it because of Willie.

announcer: And Bonds hits one high and deep

towards right field and...

into McCovey Cove!

- And he said, "You pass me, and you keep passing next.

And you keep going until they rip that uniform off you."

[cheers and applause]

announcer: Bonds passes Babe Ruth.

[fireworks exploding]

He is second on the all-time home run list.

- I gotta thank all of you.

My family, my dad.

I was very, very lucky

to have two of the greatest teachers in the world to me.

Thank you!

My father and Willie.

- Midway into Barry's career as a Giant,

his father Bobby died.

And on his deathbed, Willie Mays visits him,

and Bobby says, "Take care of Barry for me"

because you're the only guy he listens to other than me."

And Willie said, "Okay."

And that was important for all the turmoil

and all the stuff that Barry went through,

it was Willie Mays who he could always call,

Willie Mays who was always there for him.

[cheers and applause]

- There was a poignant moment when they saluted Barry Bonds

and retired his number formally at Oracle Park.

Willie was there, and he got up

and said that he needed to speak.

- When Mr. Mays wants to speak,

he gets to speak.

[cheers and applause]

So we're gonna get Mr. Mays a microphone.

- I have to go to the podium because when I say something,

I want everybody to hear.

- And this was not part of the script.

- And Willie, take it away.

[cheers and applause]

- I don't like to do things like this.

But the boy that is here today,

he was like my little son.

I taught him to be a proud man.

Give somebody honor that deserve

to be in the Hall of Fame.

- Yes, sir! - Yeah.

[cheers and applause] Yeah.

- So Willie starts talking about the Hall of Fame

and what a great thrill it was for him

when he got that call

that he was going into the Hall of Fame.

- You know, Dad sees Barry as a kid that he helped groom,

and I think Barry sees Dad as his family.

His dad's gone, so you know, closest thing he's got.

- Let him have the honor

'cause I may not be here forever.

I might be gone.

I want him to have kids

and his kids say, "That's my daddy over there."

And I want him to have that honor

be something happen to him.

[cheers and applause]

- What do you remember about that speech?

- Trying not to cry.

'Cause it was like your father.

[voice breaking] And that's tough

'cause he's the world to me.

And for him to stand up

for his godson like his son,

that's what I was holding back.

And that's the only answer I got for you.

'Cause that's the same feeling I had, the same--

and anyone who ever brings it up,

it's the same feeling.

My dad is dead.

And Willie was--is all I have, right?

So that...

don't do it.

That's how I felt.

- On behalf of all the people in San Francisco

and all over the country,

vote this guy in.

He is very, very important to me!

Thank you very much.

Okay.

- And I think that was the generosity of spirit.

That was Willie Mays.

And who could offer counsel to Barry Bonds

but Willie Mays?

[cheers and applause]

[soft emotional music]

- Whatever the Lord did for Willie Mays,

he equipped Willie Mays to play the art of baseball.

There's some people that could hit as good as he did.

There's some people that could throw as well as he could.

On every pitch, Willie Mays was as decisive

intellectually on baseball,

as any one of the coaches,

as any one of the managers.

None of them could do what Willie Mays could do.

all: ♪ Happy Birthday, dear Willie ♪

♪ ♪

- You had to experience it to understand what he meant.

all: ♪ To you ♪ - Yeah!

- He was baseball to a lot of people

in an era that was brimming with great, great players.

- I didn't think of him as a mere ballplayer

or even as a human being, as I look back on it,

but rather a superhero.

Willie Mays walks down the street

and fathers say to their sons,

"There goes Willie Mays,

the greatest player to ever play this game."

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

- We don't have time

to list all of Willie Mays' statistics

and his quiet example while excelling

on one of America's biggest stages

helped carry forward the banner of civil rights.

A few years ago, Willie rode with me on Air Force One.

I told him then what I'll tell all of you now.

It's because of giants like Willie

that someone like me could even think about

running for president.

[camera shutter clicks]

[cheers and applause]

- Are you Willie Mays, the greatest baseball player

of all time?

- Uh-uh.

I don't do that.

- You don't do that?

- No.

- Who is it? Who would be?

- I don't know. That's not my job.

- Right.

- You--if you's talking about the greatest ballplayer,

I didn't do all that to play baseball.

- Mm-hmm. - No.

My dad could play baseball.

Oh, I got a lot of guys could play baseball.

I didn't do that to--to--

to say I'm the best.

When I look at myself, I think about sports first.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

So many things happened with me on the baseball field

that I could just look back and just replay every moment.

I never had a day where somebody would not come up

and say, "I saw you make a play.

I love you because of what you did for me."

And it made me feel very, very proud

because not only did I play baseball

for the people, they enjoyed what I did.

- Ladies and gentlemen, number 24, Willie Mays.

- ♪ Say hey, Willie ♪

♪ Greatest in the building, what you got to say? ♪

♪ Willie, say hey ♪

♪ No question number 24, will he amaze ya? ♪

♪ Say hey, Willie ♪

♪ Most exciting ballplayer in the game to play ♪

♪ Willie, say hey, Willie Mays ♪

- Who's the catcher from the Braves

whose leg you broke?

- Del Rice, good guy.

- Why'd you break his leg?

- He got in the goddamn way.

What do you mean, what-- how I broke his leg?

I broke it sliding home.

I told him.

I said, "You better the hell out the way, man."

- You broke the same leg twice?

- Yep.

He got in the way twice,

put the leg out there in front of me.

And I said, "You better get that sumbitch back there

and hold it for a minute."

Yeah, he's-- but he was a good guy.

I didn't-- I didn't hit him too hard.

Just a little bit.

- Just hard enough to break his leg, right?

- [laughing] Yeah, that was enough.

Who do you like on the team?

- On the Giants?

- Yeah. - I'm a--I was a Yankee fan.

- [laughs] - Huh?

- I was a Yankee fan.

- So? - I like Mickey Mantle.

- What happened to me?

- [laughs]

- Oh, you left me already?

- Oh, no. - [laughs]

- I think you left me, brother.

[laughter]

- Oh, shit.

Who else was out there that could play?

- Babe Ruth?

- A'ight, well, fuck.

I ain't see Babe Ruth play. - [laughs]

- What the hell are you talking about?

I know Babe. I met Babe

over in Long Island a couple times,

but I don't-- - You met Babe Ruth?

- Yeah. - Did you like Babe Ruth?

Did you like him as a person?

- Uh-oh, see, that's why I don't say nothing.

[laughter]

- Ready?

- See, you tryin'. - I'm tryin'!

[laughter]

- Oh, my God.

- 90-year-old man... - Yo, that hurt.

- Whuppin' your ass.

- That did hurt.

- He wanted to arm wrestle Willie.

- Arm wrestle, no. [laughter]

I don't wanna break his arm 'cause he'll say I'm cheating.

- Oh, you kicked my ass today, but--

- In the interview or the handshake?

- Both. I think both. - Definitely both.

- I think both.

- I told you to be nice to him, Willie.

What are you doing?

- I'll break that son of a bitch next time.

[laughter]

- The New York Mets are proud to announce

that in accordance with Mrs. Payson's wishes

and at the urging of his former Mets' teammates,

in recognition of his contributions

to the Mets, as well as baseball in New York

and the country at large,

Willie Mays' 24 will take its place

in the left field corner here at Citi Field

with the other greats in Mets' history.

[bright tone]