Willie Mays

By Jay Horwitz Going to my first movie tonight (Thursday, October 27) since the start of the pandemic and I don’t care if there isn’t any popcorn. I will be seeing the HBO World Premier of Say Hey, Willie Mays. I am not ashamed to say that Willie Mays was my idol. For me, he is the best player to ever put on uniform. He could do it all. So thankful that with the help of Steve and Alex Cohen, we were able to retire his Number 24 at the Old Timers Game last August.

Baseball in 25 Objects: twenty-first in this year’s series — Jim Murray called Willie Mays’ glove “the place where triples go to die.” In the 1950s, when he wrote those words, he was old enough to have known that Ring Lardner had once used them to describe Tris Speaker’s glove.

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Highlighting some baseball lives across the sport: celebrating Willie Mays’ 90th birthday, a tribute to Albert Pujols, and perhaps the most incredible comeback ever Hello and welcome to another edition of The Good Press, a newsletter of observations about life, sports, and/or anything else that comes to mind. Thanks for…

I attended grade school during the 1960s and early ’70s in Menlo Park, Calif., alongside children of various colors and socioeconomic backgrounds. Despite this diversity, among us boys there was a remarkable similarity to our career aspirations. Here’s a short list of who or what we wanted to be, in order of preference: — 1. Willie Mays 2. An astronaut (particularly one like John Glenn) 3. Willie Mays 4. A fireman or policeman (kids still respected law enforcement then) 5. Willie Mays

Not a story about the Michelin Guide — This week’s reverie is about the game’s eternal question: Who was the greatest player in baseball history? Today’s fans will leap to offer Mike Trout, with an eye toward Juan Soto or Ronald Acuña Jr. Traditionalists may hold out for Babe Ruth or Ted Williams or Willie Mays. Aficionados of…

May 1, 2021 Dear Mendel, In the street on Jesup Avenue we used to place punch ball, stoop ball, football, tag, and ring-a-levio, but my game, the real game, was stickball, pitchin’ in and hitting out, sometimes with running bases. Jesup was a great place for stickball. For cars it…

By Jay Horwitz My Idol Willie Mays is going to be 90 on May 6. I am thrilled that Baseball Digest has selected Willie as is first recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. No one did it better than “The Say Hey Kid.” I met him for the first time on a road trip in San Francisco and I was so nervous I forgot my name. I vividly remember watching his fabulous catch against Cleveland in the 1954 World Series on a 19-inch television set with my dad. I am honored that he ended his Hall of Fame career with us in New York.