The “Say Hey Kid”, Willie Mays Inks Biggest Contract in ML Baseball
|
|
|
|
|
What a difference 46 years make. Today, players sign multi-year contracts for mega-mega millions of dollars.
On February 9, 1961 all-time great Willie Mays, then a super-star in major league baseball for 9 years signed a contract with the San Francisco Giants for $85‚000‚ then the largest contract in ML baseball.
Mays had put together a phenomenal first nine seasons in baseball with the Giants; hitting over .300 in 6 of those first 9 seasons, including .345 in 1954 along with 41 HRs and 110 RBIs, 51 HRs, 127 RBIs and .319 BA in 1955, 35 HRs with a .333 BA in 1956 and .347 BA in 1957.
Mays, played on 3 Giant teams which went to the world series; in his rookie year in 1951, the Giants won a best of 3 playoff series over the Brooklyn Dodgers on Bobby Thomson’s “shot heard ’round the world” winning homerun before losing the world series to the Yankees by 4-2 in games, the 1954 world series which the Giants swept from the Cleveland Indians (who had a regular season record of 11-43) and the 1962 world series which the Giants lost in 7 games to the Yankees after winning the NL pennant in another best of 3 games playoff with the LA Dodgers.
Mays was both a speedy base runner and was phenomenal defensively patenting his famous basket catches in centerfield.
Upon signing for $85‚000, Mays continued racking up great hitting years through 1970, although not at the earlier level of his first 9 seasons.
Baseball Library records May’s fielding prowess;
Mays’s preeminence as a centerfielder is supported statistically by his career total of 7,095 putouts, the most in major league history. He used his patented basket catch on routine fly balls, and he regularly dumbfounded onlookers by making seemingly impossible plays. After a particularly astonishing display in which Mays raced to his left, speared a fly ball, spun 360 degrees counterclockwise, and threw the ball on a 325-foot line to nail a tagging Dodger baserunner at the plate, Brooklyn manager Charlie Dressen commented, “I won’t believe that play until I see him do it again.”
On March 1, 1971, Mays signed a 2-year contract with the Giants for $165‚000 per year. The Giants went on to win the NL West but not the NL pennant. But his hitting skills and playing time diminished with age and in 1972, “Say Hey” was traded to the New York Mets. Mays made his final world series appearance in 1973 with the Mets team which lost by 4-3 in games to the Oakland A’s (who went on to win 3 consecutive world championships in 1972-74) after finishing with a narrow 82-79 record in winning the NL East and NL pennant.
Willie Mays, the “Say Hey Kid” retired from major league baseball after the 1973 world series, having played baseball for 22 seasons.
del.icio.us |
digg |
Furl |
Reddit |
YahooMyWeb |