Willie Mays, whose baseball career started in the Negro American League and ended with him acclaimed as one of the greatest players, if not the single greatest baseball player in the game’s history, passed away from heart failure on June 18, 2024. Mays was 93.
Mays signed with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 when he was 17. He played with Birmingham until 1950, when he signed with the then-New York Giants upon graduating high school. Mays first played with the Giants in 1951, winning National League Rookie of the Year and helping the Giants win the pennant. Mays was in the on-deck circle when Bobby Thompson hit “the shot heard around the world” off Ralph Branca. He again led the Giants to the pennant in 1954, this time winning the World Series. Mays appeared in two more World Series, one with the now-San Francisco Giants in 1962 and the other with the New York Mets in…
