NY Mets infielder Bobby Valentine (left) talks with coach Willie Mays during a game against the Philadelphia Phillies in New York City on June 29, 1977.
© James D’Alba/The Record / USA TODAY NETWORK
(Palo Alto, CA) – Say Hey, Willie Mays – the baseball legend has died at the age of 93. He began his career playing with the Negro Leagues in the late 1940s and ending with the New York Mets in 1972. In between, he spent 21 years with the New York Giants. The All Star was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979, had 660 home runs and 12 Gold Glove awards. He had been the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He died in Palo Alto in the assisted living facility he lived in.
After retiring, he became the Mets hitting coach until 1979, when he terminated his baseball contract to become a greeter at an Atlantic City hotel and casino. Then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned Mays from baseball due to the gambling connection, but he was reinstated in 1985 by Peter Ueberroth, Kuhn’s successor. The Giants, who retired Mays’ number in 1972, signed him to a lifetime contract in the 1990s, making him a permanent special assistant to the president.
Mays is survived by his son, Michael. Mays married his wife, Mae Louise Allen Mays, in the early 1970s. She died in 2013 following a long battle with Alzheimers.
