Willie Mays was born on May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama. At sixteen, he joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League and played in the 1948 Negro World Series. The New York Giants purchased his contract in 1950, and by the next season he was in center field at the Polo Grounds. After a slow start, he won the National League Rookie of the Year award as the Giants erased a 13-game deficit to tie the Dodgers at the end of the 1951 regular season.
Military service interrupted his rise: he spent most of 1952 and all of 1953 in the Army. He returned in 1954 and led the league with a .345 batting average, winning his first National League Most Valuable Player award. In Game 1 of that year's World Series against Cleveland, with the score tied 2-2 in the eighth inning and runners on base, Vic Wertz drove a ball that would have been a home run in most parks. Mays, playing shallow, ran with his back to the ball, caught it over his shoulder an estimated 460 feet from the plate, and threw to hold Larry Doby at third. The Giants won the game and swept the Series.
Mays played 21 seasons with the Giants and finished with the Mets in 1972 and 1973. His career totals include 660 home runs and 3,293 hits, along with two MVP awards, 24 All-Star selections and 12 Gold Gloves in center field. The Baseball Hall of Fame elected him in 1979 and counts him among the Black baseball stars in its account of the sport's history.
In 2000, Mays founded the Say Hey Foundation. The organization says it invests in athletic fields, equipment, coaching, life-skills education and safety, working with local organizations. It also describes a partnership with the San Francisco Giants supporting academic scholarships through the Willie Mays Scholars program.
In June 2015, President Barack Obama presented Mays with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Mays died on June 18, 2024, at 93. The foundation he started in 2000 and its Giants-backed scholarship program carry his name in the communities where he played.
