Willie Mays Dies: Baseball Icon Who Was 24-Time All-Star & Made “The Catch” Was 93

Willie Mays, “The Say Hey Kid,” who was among the greatest baseball players of all time, won two MVPs, was a 24-time All-Star and made one of the greatest catches in the game’s history, died Tuesday afternoon at 93, the San Francisco Giants announced.

Mays likely would be on a Mount Rushmore of Major League Baseball. He broke in with the New York Giants in 1951, before the club relocated to the Bay Area for the 1958 season. He then played there for most of the next 15 seasons. He finished his singular career with the New York Mets in 1973.

He only won the World Series once, in 1954, but made an everlasting mark on the sports in Game 1 of that series. With the score tied in the eighth inning at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, Cleveland’s Vic Wertz launched a drive to the deepest part of the park. Speedy centerfield Mays turned, made a dead sprint toward the outfield wall and made an over-the-shoulder basket catch. The play remains among the greatest ever.

Here it is:

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