I picked up this book because I liked Willie Mays as a kid (I was a Mets fan and had the privilege of watching Willie Mays at the end of his career) and because Pete Hamill, who is no slouch of a writer all on his own, wrote a terrific review of this book in The New York Times Sunday Book Review. Check out the review at Pete Hamill's Review.
I always thought Willie Mays was a phenomenal athlete and Hirsh's book will leave you rather breathless at Mays' exploits. However, you probably do need to have an appreciation of the sport of baseball to enjoy this book -- because there is a lot of baseball as you might imagine to be the case for a man who played professional ball for almost 25 years. Willie Mays started his career in the old Negro leagues (he was in high school) and played there for a couple of years before being drafted by the San Francisco Giants and playing in the minors for just a bit before being called up to "save" the Giants. And save them he did. Hirsh, who also wrote the biography of Hurricane Carter, does a good job of illuminating what was truly astonishing about Willie Mays's talent without becoming breathless. However, there is also no question that Hirsh is a fan (read the author's note at the end).
Aside from Mays physical dominance in the game and his truly astonishing athleticism, Hirsh provides an insightful look into an age and attitude almost unthinkable today. Willie was 19 years old when he broke into the big leagues in 1951 and black players were still a rarity (Jackie Robinson was in his late 20s in 1947 when he broke the color line, Larry Doby was 24 or 25 and both spent years in the Negro Leagues beforehand). There were still teams in 1959 that did not have black players on the roster. Moreover, most of us have viewed our sports through the age of free-agency. But Willie Mays, whose top salary was $125,00 a year (and he was the top paid player that year) was subject to the "reserve clause" - in practical terms, he was owned by the San Francisco Giants and Horace Stoneham, the Giants owner. It was amazing to me that Willie Mays, who in 1960 had batted over .300 in 6 of the previous 7 years (and in the year he missed, he hit .296) was still doing barnstorming tours with other black players and Negro league stars to make additional money.
Hirsh brings out the total story of Mays and Stoneham -- Stoneham had the courage and character to have the most black/latin players on his team at time where people worried that attendance would suffer with too many "colored" on the team. Stoneham and his family adored and took care of Willie and the respect was mutual for many, many years. The denouement of the relationship is sad and unfortunate and Hirsch does it justice.
The other major storyline that Hirsh does fair justice with is the relationship between Willie Mays and the civil rights movement. Mays was criticized by Jackie Robinson and others for not being more aggressive, but Hirsh deftly demonstrates that Mays was very well aware of what was going on and made a conscious choice to contribute in ways that were true to his character as well as his strong belief that actions speak louder than words.
Willie Mays was a marvel. He ended his career including the last two miserable years (in terms of performance) with the Mets as a .302 hitter with well over 3,000 hits and 660 home runs. Had he not missed most of the 1952 and all of the 1953 season, he could have easily hit over 720 home runs and perhaps more (he averaged 45 home runs a season in the two years after his army stint). He learned many of life's lessons the hard way given he really grew up in baseball and in the glare of the spotlight.
His is a life of accomplishments worth remembering. If you like baseball at all, you should read
Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend.
You make this sound like a good read. I may pick it up, but first on my list is "The Bullpen Gospels." Did you review that and I missed it? And if not, any thoughts on giving it a try?
Posted by: Bennett | August 02, 2010 at 10:57 AM