Mets' Mother's Day Gift to New York: Willie Mays

On Mother’s Day, May 14, 1972, Willie Mays returned to New York. The Giants’ hero from the 1950s was now a Mets, and to give the moms, dads, and kids in the 35,000-strong audience their money’s worth, Willie smacked his 647th career home run in the fifth inning of his first game back. During the rainy, windy day, Mays led off, played first base, went two-for-two with two walks, knocked one in, and scored one when he came around on his homer. Mets’ owner and president Joan Payson, mother of five, and San Fransisco Giants’ chief executive officer Horace Stoneham had agreed to a deal that would let Mays end his playing days in New York where he first appeared as the National League’s 1951 Rookie of the Year, and where he remained beloved. Returning to New York had already been a long-time goal for the “Say Hey Kid,” by then 41-years-old.

After the trade, former Giants’ manager Herman Franks said, “It was two years ago that Willie and I talked about his playing out the string in New York. So, we have done some thinking about it together. The Mets’ deal is a good one for him, because, knowing the kind of man Willie is and how he thinks, is to know how unhappy he’d be away from baseball.” Though Mays’ career was ending---as a part-timer in 1971, he hit .271--- donning a New York team uniform brought delight and nostalgia to the city’s National League fans who felt abandoned after the Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers uprooted to California in 1957. When, in 1962, the year the Mets were born, they inherited fans of the former Dodgers and Giants who had left for California. The Mets also provided a National League alternative for confirmed Yankees haters.

Payson, a Mays rooter dating back to her tenure as a Giants’ minority owner during the team’s New York glory days, wanted Willie back. Mets’ chairman M. Donald Grant acknowledged Payson’s sentimental attachment but also noted the opportunity for Stoneham to show generosity towards his fading player. Grant said, “The club [the Giants] isn’t drawing and it’s down in the standings. He can say ‘I’ve done the greatest favor I can do for Willie. I’m sending him home where he wants to be. I’m sending him to the Mets.’” Mays, at the press conference that announced his trade, confirmed Grant’s thought process. “When you come back to New York, it’s like coming back to paradise,” said the four-time NL homer leader and 4-time NL stolen base leader.

Despite his .182 pre-trade batting average, Mays exuded confidence. “It’s a wonderful feeling and I’m very thankful I can come back to New York,” said the slugger. “I don’t think I’m just on display here. There’s no doubt in my mind that I can help the Mets if I’m used in the right way.” In 1972, Mets fans were in mourning. The beloved Mets’ manager, Gil Hodges, died from a heart attack at age 47, a little less than a month before Mays’ arrival in Gotham. Hodges had led the Mets to their first World Series triumph in 1969; Mets’ coach and Yankees icon Yogi Berra took over for Hodges. Mays’ link to 1950s baseball in New York—often referred to as the “Golden Age of Baseball”— provided an emotional balm to the distraught Mets fans.

Sadly, the Mays-Mets love affair was doomed from the start. Mays and Berra were at odds because the aging outfielder took unauthorized time off and vanished without permission. Fans preferred to remember the fleet-footed, power hitting Mays, and not the slow, error-prone, weak hitting outfielder that he had become. On September 20, 1973, Mays announced his retirement on the “Today Show,” and said that at age 42 and with a .211 batting average, baseball wasn’t any fun. Mayor John Lindsay declared September 25 “Willie Mays Day” and the Mets, in a tight pennant race, held “Willie Mays Night” for their game against the Montreal Expos. Among the 44,000 attendees were Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and other Hall of Famers that were Mays’ peers in his peak years. Joe Frazier gave Mays a snowmobile; Stoneham, a Mercedes Benz, Pan Am, a trip around the world, and American Airlines, a week in Acapulco. The Mets gave Mays nothing. Despite the Mets’ inexplicable stinginess, Mays’ haul was a step up from his 1957 farewell gifts when local merchants contributed sheets, towels, golf clubs, a typewriter and a salami.

Before the game, the 24-time All-Star spoke briefly and modestly: “I never considered myself a superstar. I considered myself a complete player.” Mays didn’t play in his team’s 2-1 victory, and he rode the pine for the balance of the season, a big disappointment to the future first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee. As Mays said: “I came in playing and I’d like to go out playing.” Mays got his wish when he got two hits including one in the 11th inning of game two in the World Series, a seven-game thriller that saw the Oakland A’s beat the Mets, 4-3.

Mays, now ninety-three, struggling with glaucoma and living under caretaker supervision, is baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer, a bittersweet milestone. Since 2020 ten Hall of Famers including Hank Aaron, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Al Kaline, and Tom Seaver have passed, all Mays’ contemporaries. Playing twenty-two seasons as an MLB center fielder with a record 7,095 put outs and 6,066 total bases, Mays ran more stylishly and faster outfield miles than any player before or since. From his millions of fans----“Say Hey” Willie!

Joe Guzzardi is a Society for American Baseball Research member. Contact him at guzzjoe@yahoo.com