Mankind invented baseball in the 18th century, and the two major baseball leagues created Major League Baseball in 1903. It wasn’t until 1931 that God made the perfect baseball player, Willie Howard Mays.
A few weeks past his 20th birthday, Mays made his major league debut for the New York Giants in Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. When Mays sprinted out to the field in the bottom of the first inning that day, he not only became a fixture in the Giants’ outfield, he came to define centerfield — the grandest position in sports.
New York baseball fans got to enjoy four future Hall of Fame center fielders that summer: Mays, Duke Snider of the Dodgers, plus Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle of the Yankees. But Mays was the best. He was the best all around, but he was spectacularly the best in the outfield.
Defense gets less glory than offense in most sports. Mays is a rare figure because while he was outstanding in all parts of the game, his defense in center was exceptional.
After winning Rookie of the Year, Mays was drafted for the Korean War, and so his 1952 season was cut short. He also missed the 1953 season.
The greatest prospect in baseball wouldn’t get a full season until 1954, and he made it count. Mays led the league in batting average (.345!) and triples (13) while also hitting 41 home runs. He was the obvious choice as the league’s MVP, and when the Giants made the World Series, Mays would make the single most important play in that “Fall Classic.”
Fittingly, it was with his glove.
Giants’ pitching ace Sal Maglie allowed only six hits over the first seven innings, and Cleveland Indians’ lefty slugger Vic Wertz got three of them, including a two-RBI triple.
In the eighth inning, a tiring Maglie let the first two runners on base, and up came Wertz again.
Giants manager Leo Durocher brought in lefty specialist Don Liddle to face Wertz. Wertz proceeded to launch the 2-2 pitch 450 feet to straightaway center field.
In any other ballpark, that would have been a game-changing three-run home run. With any other center fielder, that would have been a base-clearing double or triple, giving the Indians a two-run lead.
But out there that day was Willie Mays, the greatest center fielder who ever played.
A photograph captures the moment. Mays, with his back turned fully to home plate, in full sprint toward the Polo Grounds wall, has his glove and bare hand extended in front of him, an instant before he made the most legendary catch in the history of the game.
“The Catch” kept the game scoreless, which allowed the Giants to win in extra innings. Mays scored the winning run in the walk-off win, but almost nobody remembers that. Everyone remembers “The Catch.”
A man who lives among the pantheon of baseball hitters — who retired behind only Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth in home runs, whose career batting average was above the vaunted .300 line — is memorialized for this defensive play.
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Mays would start in center in 18 All-Star Games, easily the most by any player at any position. Over his 24-year career, he made countless spectacular catches and jaw-dropping throws, and made every play he should have.
There’s debate over whether Mays was the greatest baseball player to ever live. There’s no debate he was the greatest and most glorious to grace center field.
