Baseball lost one of the greatest players ever today. Rest in peace Willie.
104 sats \ 2 replies \ @TNStacker 19 Jun
Met the Say Hey Kid and his wife about 15 years ago when my mom arrived in San Fran on the same flight. Super cool dude!
Rest easy, GOAT!
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby OP 19 Jun
That's pretty cool. I have met a bunch of pro athletes but never a legend.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker 19 Jun
You can't avoid them in the Bay Area. Actors, too. I saw Sean Penn the actor at REI in Berkeley about three times.
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71 sats \ 0 replies \ @DiedOnTitan 19 Jun
Hearing this first here.😔 RIP
The Catch was considered one of the greatest in MLB history. It was not the most acrobatic, but it was legendary.
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71 sats \ 4 replies \ @Undisciplined 19 Jun
I did not realize Willie Mays was still alive. Was he the last one from that legendary team?
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117 sats \ 3 replies \ @grayruby OP 19 Jun
He was 93 so I don’t imagine many of his former teammates from early in his career are still around. You are probably referring to the 54 Giants that won the World Series. I am not sure but I doubt many if any are still around.
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Undisciplined 19 Jun
No, it was just my lack of knowledge about baseball history. For some reason I thought he had been on one of those Yankees squads.
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96 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby OP 19 Jun
No. He played almost his entire career with the Giants. A couple years with the Mets at the end of his career.
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92 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 19 Jun
It was a huge deal in New York when he signed with the Mets. National League New York baseball fans were still angry about the Giants and Dodgers leaving. The Mets were the National League replacement of those teams. The Mets uniforms combined Giants and Dodgers colors. The Mets cap was basically a Giants cap in blue. It was like a Willie homecoming.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @StillStackinAfterAllTheseYears 19 Jun
One of the true legends. As plenty of folks note, he turned in that career playing mostly at Candlestick (and in a less hitter-friendly era), and still was one of the greatest offensive players of all time (along with his amazing defense).
And in fact, here's ESPN arguing that in an analytics-driven era, he'd have had 8 MVP awards.
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50 sats \ 2 replies \ @siggy47 19 Jun
As a Mets fan I saw him play live probably 2 or 3 times as a Giant at Shea, then a bunch of times later as a Met. One specific memory was a blast he hit to left in a Giants win in 1969 or 1970. I remember my father telling me I was lucky to see him play live. He was right. He was the only visiting player that the New York fans were always happy to see. When the Mets got him he was in his early 40s, but he could still excite the crowd.
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54 sats \ 1 reply \ @grayruby OP 19 Jun
Even though it was only for a couple years at the end of his career it must have been great to see him play for your team.
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50 sats \ 0 replies \ @siggy47 19 Jun
I'm watching a tribute right now. He hit a game winning home run, I think, in his first game as a Met. He still had plenty in the tank. His retirement at Shea was a tear jerker.
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