Negro and minor leagues Mays's
professional baseball career began in 1948 when he played briefly during the summer with the
Chattanooga Choo-Choos, a
Negro minor league team. Later that year, Mays joined the
Birmingham Black Barons of the
Negro American League, where he was known as "Buck". When Fairfield Industrial principal E. T. Oliver threatened to suspend Mays for playing professional ball, Davis and Mays's father worked out an agreement. Mays would only play home games for the Black Barons. In return, he could still play high school football. Mays helped Birmingham advance to the
1948 Negro World Series, which they lost 4–1 to the
Homestead Grays. He hit .262 for the season and stood out because of his excellent fielding and base running. On May 28, 2024,
Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records. Several Major League teams were interested in signing Mays, but they had to wait until he graduated from high school to offer him a contract. The
Boston Braves and the
Brooklyn Dodgers both scouted him, but
New York Giants scout
Eddie Montague signed him to a $4,000 contract. Mays spent the rest of 1950 with the
Class B Trenton Giants of the
Interstate League, batting .353 with 20 doubles, eight triples, four home runs and 55 RBI in 81 games.
New York / San Francisco Giants (1951–1952, 1954–1972) NL Rookie of the Year Willie Mays Playing excellent defense, Mays was called up by the Giants on May 24, 1951. Initially, Mays was reluctant to accept the promotion because he did not believe he was ready to face Major League pitchers. Stunned, Giants manager
Leo Durocher called Mays directly and said, "Quit costing the ball club money with long-distance phone calls and join the team." It was also around this time that Mays was given his famous moniker: "The Say Hey Kid". The Giants hoped Mays would help them defensively in center field, as well as offensively. The
Polo Grounds featured an unusual horseshoe shape, with relatively short left field () and right field () lines but the deepest center field in baseball (). Mays appeared in his first Major League game on May 25 against the
Philadelphia Phillies at
Shibe Park, batting third. He had no hits in his first 12 at bats in the Major Leagues, but in his 13th on May 28, he hit a home run off
Warren Spahn over the left-field roof of the Polo Grounds. Mays went hitless in his next 12 at bats, and Durocher dropped him to eighth in the batting order on June 2, suggesting that Mays stop trying to
pull the ball and just make contact. Mays responded with four hits over his next two games on June 2 and 3. By the end of the month, he had pushed his batting average to over .300. He would bat close to .290 for the rest of the season. Although his .274 average, 68 RBIs, and 20 home runs (in 121 games) would rank among the lowest totals of his career, he still won the
National League (NL)
Rookie of the Year Award. On August 11, the
Giants found themselves games back of the
Dodgers in the NL
pennant race; Brooklyn manager
Charlie Dressen triumphantly predicted, "The Giants is dead." However, the Giants went 40–18 in the season's final 58 games, winning their last seven of the year to finish the regular season tied with the Dodgers. During the pennant race, Mays's fielding and strong throwing arm were instrumental in several important Giants' victories. Mays was in the
on-deck circle on October 3 when
Bobby Thomson hit
a three-run homer to win the three-game
NL tie-breaker series 2–1. The Giants met the
New York Yankees in the
1951 World Series. In Game 1, Mays,
Hank Thompson, and
Monte Irvin composed the first all-black outfield in Major League history. For the series, Mays hit poorly as the Giants lost the series in six games. In Game 5, he hit a consequential
fly ball, which DiMaggio and Yankee rookie
Mickey Mantle pursued. DiMaggio called Mantle off at the last second; as he stopped, Mantle got his cleat stuck in an open drainpipe, suffering a knee injury that would affect him the rest of his career.
U.S. Army Soon after the 1951 season ended, Mays learned the
United States Army had
drafted him to serve in the
Korean War. Before he left to join the Army, Mays played the first few weeks of the 1952 season with the Giants. He batted .236 with four home runs and 23 RBI in 34 games. After his induction into the Army on May 29, Mays reported to
Fort Eustis in Virginia, where he spent much of his time playing for the Fort Eustis Wheels military baseball team with (and against) other major and minor leaguers, as well as serving as an athletic instructor in the Physical Training Department. It was at Fort Eustis that Mays learned the
basket catch from fellow Fort Eustis outfielder Al Fortunato. Mays, by his own estimation, played 180 games for the Wheels, and missed about 275 games for the Giants because of his military service. Mays' time playing for the Wheels ended on July 28, 1953, after he chipped a bone in his left foot while sliding into third base, necessitating a six-week stint in a cast. Discharged on March 1, 1954, he reported to Giants'
spring training camp the following day.
World Series champion and NL MVP Mays began the 1954 season on
Opening Day with a home run of over against
Carl Erskine. After he batted .250 in his first 20 games, Durocher moved him from third to fifth in the batting order and again encouraged him to stop attempting to pull the ball and try to get hits to right field. Mays changed his batting stance and stood straighter at the plate, keeping his feet closer together. He credited these adjustments with improving his batting average, as he batted .450 with 25 RBI in his next 20 games. On June 25, he hit an
inside-the-park home run in a 6–2 victory over the
Chicago Cubs. Mays was selected for the NL
All-Star team; he would be part of 24 straight NL All-Star teams over 20 seasons. He had 36 home runs through July 28. Around that time, Durocher asked him to stop trying to hit them, explaining the team wanted him to reach base more often. Mays hit only five home runs after July 28 but upped his batting average from .326 to .345 to win the team's first batting title since
Bill Terry's in 1930. Hitting 41 home runs, Mays won the NL
Most Valuable Player Award and the
Hickok Belt. The Giants won the
NL pennant and the
1954 World Series, sweeping the
Cleveland Indians in four games. The 1954 series is perhaps best remembered for "
The Catch", an over-the-shoulder running grab by Mays of a long drive off the bat of
Vic Wertz about from home plate at the Polo Grounds during the eighth inning of Game 1. The catch prevented two Indians runners from scoring, preserving a tie game. "The Catch transcended baseball", Barra wrote, and Larry Schwartz of
ESPN said that of all the catches that Mays made, "it is regarded as his greatest". Mays did not even look at the ball for the last twenty feet as he ran, saying later he realized he had to keep running if he was going to get the ball. The Giants won the game in the 10th inning on a three-run home run by
Dusty Rhodes, with Mays scoring the winning run. Mays added
base stealing to his talents, upping his total from eight in 1954 to 24 in 1955. In the middle of May, Durocher asked him to try for more home runs. Mays led the league with 51 but finished fourth in NL MVP voting. Leading the league with a .659
slugging percentage, Mays batted .319 as the Giants finished in third. During the last game of the season, Durocher, who had supported Mays since his career had begun, told him he would not be returning as the Giants manager. When Mays responded, "But Mr. Leo, it's going to be different with you gone. You won't be here to help me," Durocher told his star, "Willie Mays doesn't need help from anyone."
New manager In 1956, Mays struggled at first to get along with new manager
Bill Rigney, who publicly criticized him. The center fielder grew particularly annoyed after Rigney fined him $100 for not running to first base on a pop fly that was caught by the catcher. He hit 36 homers and stole a career-high 40 bases, becoming only the second player to join the
30–30 club. Though his RBI (84) and batting average (.296) were his lowest for nearly a decade, Barra observed that "Willie Mays was still the best all-around player in the National League." The relationship between Mays and Rigney improved in 1957. Rigney stopped giving Mays as much direction, trusting his star player's ability and instinct. In his 2010 authorized biography of Mays,
James S. Hirsch wrote Mays had "one of his most exhilarating excursions" on April 21. In the game against the Phillies, Mays reached second base on an error, stole third, and scored the winning run on a
Hank Sauer single, all on plays close enough that he had to slide to make each one. He stole home in a 4–3 loss to the Cubs on May 21. The 1957 season was the first in which the
Gold Glove Awards were presented. Mays won the first of 12 consecutive Gold Gloves for his play in center field. He finished in the NL's top-five in a variety of offensive categories: runs scored (112, third) batting average (.333, second), and home runs (35, fourth). In 1957, Mays became the fourth player in Major League history to join the
20–20–20 club (doubles, triples, homers). He stole 38 bases that year, making him the second 20–20–20 club member (after
Frank Schulte in 1911) to steal at least 20 bases. This gave him his second straight 30–30 club season. In the final Giants' home game at the Polo Grounds on September 29, 1957, fans gave Mays a standing ovation in the middle of his final at bat, after Pirates' pitcher
Bob Friend had already thrown a pitch to him.
Move to San Francisco In 1958, Rigney wanted Mays to challenge
Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season. Consequently, Rigney did not play Mays much in spring training hoping to use his best hitter every day of the regular season. As he had in 1954, Mays vied for the NL batting title until the final game of the season. Moved to the leadoff slot the last day to increase his at bats, Mays collected three hits in the game to finish with a career-high .347, but Philadelphia's
Richie Ashburn batted .350. Mays shared the inaugural
NL Player of the Month award with Stan Musial in May, batting .405 with 12 home runs and 29 runs batted in; he won a second award in September (.434, four home runs, 18 RBI). He played in 152 games, batting .347 with 29 home runs and 96 RBI. Mays had his first serious injury in 1959, a collision with
Sammy White in spring training that resulted in 35 stitches in his leg, but he was ready by the start of the season. Against the Reds in August, Mays broke a finger but kept it a secret to prevent opposing pitchers from targeting it. In September 1959, the Giants led the NL pennant race by two games with only eight games to play, but a sweep by the Dodgers began a stretch of six losses in those final games, dooming them to a third-place finish. Mays had hits in three out of 10 at bats in the Dodger series but some San Francisco fans still booed him. In 1959, Mays batted .313 with 34 home runs and 104 RBI in 151 games, leading the league in stolen bases (27) for the fourth year in a row. He found the stadium tricky to field but figured out how to play it as the season progressed. When a fly ball was hit, he would count to five before giving pursuit, enabling him to judge the wind's effect. He hit two home runs on June 24 and stole home in a 5–3 victory over the
Cincinnati Reds. On September 15, he tied an NL record with three
triples in an 11-inning, 8–6 win over the Phillies. "I don't like to talk about 1960," Mays said after the final game of a season in which the Giants, pre-season favorites for the pennant, finished fifth out of eight NL teams. For the second time in three years, he hit 29 home runs while leading the NL with 190 hits. He also drove in 103 runs, batting .319 with 25 stolen bases. Mays had one of his best games on April 30, 1961,
hitting four home runs and driving in eight runs against the
Milwaukee Braves at
County Stadium. According to Mays, he had been unsure if he would even play because of food poisoning. Each of his home runs traveled over . While Mantle and
Roger Maris pursued Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in the AL, Mays and
Orlando Cepeda battled for the home run lead in the NL. Mays trailed Cepeda by two home runs at the end of August (34 as opposed to 36), but Cepeda outhit him 10–6 in September to finish with 46, while Mays finished with 40. Mays led the league with 129 runs scored and batted .308 with 123 RBI in 154 games. Hal Wood mentioned the DiMaggio theory, as well as two other explanations: 1) the fans had heard so many wonderful things about Mays's play in New York that they expected him to be a better player than he actually was, and 2) Mays tended to keep to himself. Mays said in 1959 that he did not mind the booing, but he admitted in a 1961 article that the catcalls were bothering him. Whatever the reason, the boos, which had begun to subside after Mays's four–home-run game in 1961, grew even quieter in 1962, as the Giants enjoyed their best season since moving to San Francisco. Mays led the team in eight offensive categories in 1962: runs (130), doubles (36), home runs (49), RBI (141), stolen bases (18), walks (78),
on-base percentage (.384), and slugging percentage (.613). He finished second in NL MVP voting to
Maury Wills, who had broken
Ty Cobb's record for stolen bases in a season. On September 30, Mays hit a game-winning home run in the Giants' final regularly scheduled game of the year, forcing the team into a tie for first place with the
Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants faced the Dodgers in a
three-game playoff series. With the Giants trailing 4–2 in the top of the ninth inning of Game 3, Mays hit an RBI single, eventually scoring as the Giants took a 6–4 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the inning,
Lee Walls hit a fly ball to center field, which Mays caught for the final out as the Giants advanced to the
World Series against the Yankees. In Game 1 of the World Series, a 6–2 loss to New York, Mays recorded three hits. He would bat merely .250 in the series overall. The Series went all the way to a Game 7, which the Yankees led 1–0 in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Matty Alou led off the inning with a bunt single but was still at first two outs later when Mays came up with the Giants one out from elimination. Batting against
Ralph Terry, he hit a ball into the right-field corner that might have been deep enough to score Alou, but Giants third base coach
Whitey Lockman opted to hold Alou at third. The next batter, McCovey, hit a line drive that was caught by
Bobby Richardson, and the Yankees won the deciding game 1–0. It was Mays's last World Series appearance as a Giant.
Record-setting contract Before the 1963 season, Mays signed a contract worth a record-setting $105,000 per season (). On July 2, when Spahn and
Juan Marichal each threw 15 scoreless innings, Mays hit a 16th-inning home run off Spahn, giving the Giants a 1–0 victory. He considered the home run one of his most important, along with his first and the four-home-run game. In August, he won his third NL Player of the Month Award after batting .387 with eight home runs and 27 RBI. He hit his 400th home run on August 27 against the
St. Louis Cardinals, the tenth player to reach that mark. Mays finished the 1963 season batting .314 with 38 home runs and 103 RBI, stealing only eight bases, his fewest since 1954. Normally the third batter in the lineup, Mays was moved to fourth in 1964 before returning to third in subsequent years. On May 21, Dark named Mays the Giants' captain, making Mays the first African-American captain of an MLB team. "You deserve it," Dark told Mays. "You should have had it long before this." Against the Phillies on September 4, Mays made what Hirsch called "one of the most acrobatic catches of his career".
Rubén Amaro Sr. hit a ball to the scoreboard at Philadelphia's
Connie Mack Stadium. Mays, who had been playing closer to home plate than normal, ran at top speed after the ball. He caught it in midair and had to kick his legs forward to keep his head from hitting the ballpark's fence, but he held on to the ball. While he batted under .300 (.296) for the first time since 1956, he led the NL with 47 home runs and ranked second with 121 runs scored and 111 RBI in 157 games.
Second NL MVP A torn shoulder muscle sustained in a 1965 game against the Atlanta Braves impaired Mays's ability to throw. He kept the injury a secret from opposing players, making two or three practice throws before games to discourage them from running on him. On August 22, Mays acted as a peacemaker during a
14-minute brawl between the Giants and Dodgers after Marichal had bloodied Dodgers catcher
John Roseboro with a bat. Mays grabbed Roseboro by the waist and helped him off the field, then tackled
Lou Johnson to keep him from attacking an umpire. Johnson kicked him in the head and nearly knocked him out. After the brawl, Mays hit a game-winning three-run home run against
Sandy Koufax, but he did not finish the game, feeling dizzy after the home run. Mays won his fourth and final NL Player of the Month award in August 1965 (.363, 17 home runs, 29 RBI). On September 13, he hit his
500th career home run off
Don Nottebart, becoming the fifth player to reach the mark. Warren Spahn, off whom Mays hit his first career home run, was now his teammate. After the home run, Spahn asked him, "Was it anything like the same feeling?" Mays replied, "It was exactly the same feeling. Same pitch, too." The next night, Mays hit one that he considered his most dramatic. With the Giants trailing the
Houston Astros by two runs with two outs in the ninth, Mays swung and missed at
Claude Raymond's first two pitches, took three balls to load the count, and fouled off three pitches before homering on the ninth pitch. The Giants won 6–5 in 10 innings. Mays won his second MVP award in 1965 behind a career-high 52 home runs, in what Barra said "may very well have [been] his best year". He batted .317, leading the NL in on-base percentage (.400) and slugging percentage (.645). The span of 11 years between his MVP awards was the longest gap of any Major Leaguer who attained the distinction more than once, as were the 10 years between his
50 home run seasons. He scored 118 runs, the 12th year in a row he had scored at least 100 runs in a season. He finally set the record May 4. Despite nursing an injured thigh muscle on September 7, Mays reached base in the 11th inning of a game against the Dodgers with two outs, then attempted to score from first base on a
Frank Johnson single. On a close play, umpire
Tony Venzon initially ruled him out, then changed the call when he saw Roseboro had dropped the ball after Mays collided with him. San Francisco won 3–2. Mays finished third in the NL MVP voting, the ninth and final time he finished in the top five in the voting for the award.
Player of the Decade ,
Milton Berle, and
Jimmy Piersall in 1967 Mays had 13 home runs and 44 RBI through his first 75 games of 1967 but then went into a slump. On June 7,
Gary Nolan of the Cincinnati Reds struck him out four times; this was the first time in his career this had happened, though the Giants still won the game 4–3. Afflicted by a fever on July 14, Mays left that day's game after the sixth inning because of fatigue and spent five days in a hospital. "After I got back into the lineup, I never felt strong again for the rest of the season," he recalled. In 141 games, Mays hit .263 with 83 runs scored, 128 hits, and 22 home runs. He only drove in 70 runs for the year, the first time since 1958 he had failed to reach 100. He played 148 games and upped his batting average to .289, accumulating 84 runs scored, 144 hits, 23 home runs, and 79 runs batted in. Mays privately chafed at the move, later comparing it to "
O. J. Simpson blocking for the fullback". He injured his knee in a collision with catcher
Randy Hundley on July 29, forcing him to miss several games. On September 22, he hit his 600th home run, saying later, "Winning the game was more important to me than any individual achievements." In 117 games, he batted .283 with 13 home runs and 58 RBI. In an April game, Mays collided with
Bobby Bonds while reaching his glove over the wall but made a catch to rob
Bobby Tolan of a home run. Mays picked up his
3,000th hit against the
Montreal Expos on July 18. "I don't feel excitement about this now," he told reporters afterwards. "The main thing I wanted to do was help
Gaylord Perry win a game." In 139 games, Mays batted .291 with 94 runs scored, 28 home runs, and 83 RBI. He scheduled his off days that season to avoid facing
strikeout pitchers such as
Bob Gibson or
Tom Seaver.
Later years with the Giants Though center field remained his primary position in 1971, Mays played 48 games at first base. Against the Mets on May 31, he hit a game-tying eighth-inning home run, saved multiple runs with his defense at first base, and performed a strategic base-running maneuver with one out in the 11th inning, running slowly from second to third base to draw a throw from
Tim Foli and allow
Al Gallagher to reach first safely. Evading Foli's tag on the return throw to third, Mays scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly. He had 15 home runs and a .290 average at the All-Star break but faded down the stretch, only hitting three home runs and batting .241 for the rest of the year. One reason he hit so few home runs was that Mays walked 112 times, 30 more times than he had at any point in his career. This was partly because
Willie McCovey, who often batted behind Mays in the lineup, missed several games with injuries, causing pitchers to pitch carefully to Mays so they could concentrate on getting less-skilled hitters out. Subsequently, Mays led the league in on-base percentage (.425) for only the second time, though his 123 strikeouts were a career-high. He finished the season batting .271 with 18 home runs, 61 RBI, and 23 stolen bases in 136 games. In the
NL Championship Series (NLCS) against the Pirates, Mays had a home run and three RBI in the first two games. In Game 3, Mays attempted an unsuccessful
sacrifice bunt in a 1–1 tie in the sixth with no outs and
Tito Fuentes on second base, a move that surprised reporters covering the game. The Giants lost 2–1. "I was thinking of the best way to get the run in," Mays explained the bunt, pointing out that McCovey and Bonds were due up next. The Giants lost the series in four games. After the season, Mays was honored as the winner of the inaugural
Roberto Clemente Award, known at that time as the Commissioner's Award. Mays got off to a tortuous start to the 1972 season, batting .184 with 3 RBI through his first 19 games. The Giants organization was having financial troubles, and Mays had to settle for a two-year, $330,000 contract. Mays quibbled with manager
Charlie Fox, leaving the stadium before the start of a doubleheader on April 30 without telling him.
New York Mets (1972–1973) On May 11, 1972, Mays was traded to the New York Mets for pitcher
Charlie Williams and an undisclosed amount rumored to be $100,000. The Mets agreed to keep his salary at $165,000 a year for 1972 and 1973, promising to pay Mays $50,000 a year for 10 years after he retired. Mays had remained popular in New York, and owner
Joan Payson had long wanted to bring him back to his Major League roots. In his Mets debut against the Giants on May 14, Mays put New York ahead to stay with a fifth-inning home run, receiving ecstatic applause from the fans at
Shea Stadium. Mays appeared in 69 games for the Mets in 1972, batting .267 with eight home runs and 19 RBI. Things did not improve as the season began; Mays spent time on the disabled list early in the year and left the park before a game when he found out Berra had not put his name in the starting lineup. His speed and powerful arm in the outfield, assets throughout his career, were diminished in 1973, and he only made the All-Star team because of a special intervention by NL President
Chub Feeney. However, the Mets won the
NL East. On August 17, 1973, Mays hit his final (660th) home run against the Reds'
Don Gullett. Having considered retirement all year, Mays finally told the Mets officially on September 9 that 1973 would be his last season. He made the announcement to the public on September 20. "I thought I'd be crying by now," he told reporters and Mets' executives at a press conference that day, "but I see so many people here who are my friends, I can't...Baseball and me, we had what you might call a love affair." Five days later, the Mets honored him on Willie Mays Night, proclaimed by New York City mayor
John Lindsay, where he thanked the New York fans and said goodbye to baseball. In 66 games, Mays batted a career-low .211 with six home runs and 25 RBI. Game 5 was the only one Mays played; he had a pinch-hit RBI single as the Mets won 7–2, clinching a trip to the
1973 World Series against the
Oakland Athletics, October 13–21. A shoulder injury to
Rusty Staub prompted the Mets to shift
Don Hahn to right field and start Mays in center at the start of the Series. He stumbled four times in the first two games, including a fielding error in Game 2 that allowed the Athletics to tie the game and force extra innings. Mays's last hit came later in the same game, an RBI single against
Rollie Fingers that snapped a 7–7 tie in the 12th inning of a 10–7 victory. The final game of his career was Game 3, on October 16, 1973, in which he pinch-hit for
Tug McGraw in the 10th inning of a tied game and grounded into a
force play in his final Major League at-bat. The Mets went on to lose the game in 11 innings and ultimately lost the series in seven games.
All-Star Games Mays's 24 appearances on an All-Star Game roster are tied with Musial for second all-time, behind only
Hank Aaron's 25. In the
first All-Star Game of 1959, Mays hit a game-winning triple against
Whitey Ford;
Bob Stevens of the
San Francisco Chronicle wrote that "
Harvey Kuenn gave it honest pursuit, but the only center fielder in baseball who could have caught it hit it." Mays scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning of the
first All-Star Game of 1961 on a Clemente single in a 5–4 win for the NL. At
Cleveland Stadium in the
1963 All-Star Game, he made the finest catch, snagging his foot under a wire fence in center field as he grasped a long fly ball hit by
Joe Pepitone that might have given the AL the lead. The NL won 5–3, and Mays was named the
All-Star Game MVP. With a leadoff home run against
Milt Pappas in the
1965 All-Star Game, Mays set a record for most hits in his All-Star Games (21). Mays led off the
1968 All-Star Game with a single, moved to second on an error, advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and scored the only run of the game when McCovey hit into a double play; for his contributions, Mays won the All-Star Game MVP Award for the second time. Mays individually holds the records for most at bats (75), hits (23), runs scored (20), and stolen bases (six) by an All-Star; additionally, he is tied with Musial for the most extra-base hits (eight) and total bases (40), and he is tied with
Brooks Robinson for the most triples (three) in All-Star Game history. In appreciation of his All-Star records, Ted Williams said, "They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays." ==Career overall==