Say Hey!

The Say Hey Kid! That nickname carries a lot of weight. When you hear that nickname, you think of one of if not they best to ever play center field in a Major League uniform. Of course we are talking about the one and only Willie Mays. To many a baseball fan he was a hero on and off the field. The star passed away earlier this week at the age of 93.

His list of accomplishments on the field is the stuff of legend. And very lengthy at that. All of what you are about to read happened with missing two prime years due to military service.

He played 23 years and 3,005 games with the Giants and Mets. He won a World Series in 1954. Finished as a .301 lifetime hitter, with 2,068 hits, 660 home runs, 525 doubles, 121 triples, 1,909 RBI's and 339 stolen bases. He won rookie of the year in 1951, MVP in 1954 and again in 1965, was a 12 time gold glove winner and 24 times an all star. He was elected to the baseball hall of fame on his first year of eligibility in 1979. At the time of his retirement in 1973, he held the NL record for career runs scored (2,062), and ranked second in league history behind Stan Musial in games played (2,992), third in home runs (660), at bats (10,881), runs batted in (1,903), total bases (6,066), extra-base hits (1,323) and walks (1,464), fourth in hits (3,293), fifth in slugging percentage (.557), and eighth in doubles (523); his 140 triples ranked fourth among players active after 1945. He holds major league records for games as a center fielder (2,829), putouts as an outfielder (7,095) and extra-inning home runs (22), and ended his career behind only Ty Cobb in total games as an outfielder (2,842), ranking seventh in assists (188) and third in double plays (59) in center field.

The numbers really speak for themselves in that very few, if anybody, was better than Willie. He could do it all on the field. He could hit, hit for power, run, steal bases and play great defense. To put it like this, there was almost nothing that man could do on a baseball field (except pitch, but I'm sure if he wanted to he could have done that too). Now in the course of baseball history, there have been plenty of great centerfielders. Mike Trout, Tori Hunter, Carlos Beltran, Jim Edmonds, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Duke Snyder. Just to name a few. But when you ask most people who's name is at the top of that list of the greatest, Mays is always at or near the top.

His impact on the game both on and off the field will never be forgotten.