The loss the Giants felt early Tuesday night was a much heavier hurt than the final score, a 5-2 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.
All of the baseball world was in pain as the Giants and Cubs had to play on.
Willie Mays, at 93 years old, died peacefully among loved ones Tuesday afternoon, the Giants announced.
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By the time Cubs starting pitcher Justin Steele had toed the rubber the majority of the Giants’ players and coaches already had heard the devastating news. Manager Bob Melvin is a Bay Area native who grew up watching Mays play games at Candlestick Park and loved baseball because of No. 24. When Melvin was named the Giants’ newest manager in October 2023 he soon called one of his childhood heroes.
“The fact that he even remembers me, to me, was an honor,” Melvin said to reporters after the game in Chicago. “He was talking about my career and how happy he was to have me back here again and knew I played before. It was just an honor to talk to him.”
The Giants' starting pitcher on Tuesday night, Logan Webb, did not know of Mays’ death before taking the mound, and was caught off guard finding out the news while it was announced as he was jogging back onto the field. He turned to the jumbotron and took his hat off in honor of Mays, recalling memories of a legend. Webb even looked at the umpire and made sure he had extra time on the clock, paying tribute in his own way.
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The 27-year-old remembers meeting Mays at the instructional league when he was only 17. He has been able to listen to stories from Mays since and built a relationship with one of baseball’s all-time greats.
“It’s a sad day for the baseball world, but it’s a really sad day for the Giants,” Webb said.
Webb got a picture of Mays, Barry Bonds, Gaylord Perry, Willie McCovey and Dave Dravecky all sitting together the first time he met Mays a decade ago. He was fresh out of Rocklin High School and felt like it was the first day of kindergarten. A baseball paradise was laid out in front of the to-be star pitcher.
But Webb says even then Mays had the best stories. Mays hadn’t been around the Giants as much since the COVID-19 pandemic, but those few times are lifelong memories. Even the hard parts.
“I think he came around one day last year and I got to say hi to him,” Webb remembers. “You could tell he was struggling a little bit. It was sad. But being able to see him, it really sucks it happened two days before we’re playing at Rickwood Field.”
The Giants are playing the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday at the nation’s oldest professional ballpark. Rickwood Field also is the famed grounds of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons where Mays began his professional career. Mays made his pro debut as a 17-year-old playing for the Black Barons and spent his teenage years with the club in 1948, 1949 and 1950.
It was announced Monday that Mays wasn’t going to be able to make the trip to Birmingham and instead would watch the game from home. He died the next day.
“We’re going to play in his honor,” Webb says. “Willie is kind of ‘The Giant.’ He’s the guy, so we’re going to play for him.”
Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski’s last name comes with baseball pride in its own right. His grandfather Carl, a 1989 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee, made his MLB debut 10 years after Mays did. And still, Mays was on the other side in the National League’s outfield in the first 10 of Carl’s 18 All-Star Games.
“The things that he did, we’ll never see again,” Mike Yastrzemski said. “I truly believe that. He was such a talented player. He played the game as purely as anybody could. To be able to watch that on film, I’m glad there’s film on it because it’s something that’s going to be watched and studied for the best of time.”
Mays won Rookie of the Year as a 20-year-old in 1951. He lost the better of two years to military service at 21 and 22 years old, and upon arrival won his first of two NL MVP awards in 1954 at 23 years old when he hit .345 with 41 home runs, 13 triples, 119 runs scored, 110 RBI and a 1.078 OPS.
The Giants won the World Series that year and Mays made the greatest and most famous catch in baseball history.
Mays was a 24-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glove center fielder and two-time All-Star Game MVP. Franchise greats of the past remembered him during NBC Sports Bay Area's "Giants Postgame Live" on Tuesday night. Ken Griffey Jr. called Mays “the godfather of center fielders.” The San Francisco Chronicle’s National Baseball Writer and author of “24: Life Stories and Lessons from The Say Hey Kid” John Shea said Mays meant “everything” to his journalism career.
My one Mays story was when I was 19 years old in December of 2010. I worked as a pseudo security guard watching and opening the door closest to Mays during a book signing at Copperfield’s Books in Petaluma. I had a Giants hat and jacket on, and a smile glued across my mouth. When I went to shake the then-79-year-old’s hand too cautiously he looked at me and said, “I thought you were a ball player! Give me a firm shake, son."
We laughed, my smile somehow grew larger and Mays signed a ball before group pictures. Wherever American heroes go next, he’ll be greeted with the proper hello. The Say Hey Kid is forever.
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