Willie Mays
Willie Mays
Willie Howard Mays, Jr., nicknamed "The Say Hey Kid", is an American former Major League Baseballcenter fielder who spent almost all of his 22 season career playing for the New York and San Francisco Giants, before finishing with the New York Mets. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionBaseball Player
Date of Birth6 May 1931
CountryUnited States of America
kids white issues
I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act
mean bashful
I don't mean to be bashful, but I was
sports games two
When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o'clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.
baseball college thinking
The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.
baseball balls gloves
I didn't teach you that. Catch the ball with your glove.
black birmingham lots-of-money
I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days
basketball baseball father
"And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11". So I just picked baseball."
baseball player guy
That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.
inspirational baseball mother
I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.
baseball rate
I don't rate them, I just hit them.
hitting
When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.
running baseball games
If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.
baseball games gentility
Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.
thinking play good-things
I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.