Willie Mays passes at 93

[bluestreak]

Willie Mays passed away at 93 today. In my opinion the greatest ball player to ever live. Good Obit by NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3070070/2024/06/18/willie-mays-obituary-giants/

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Willie Mays passed away at 93 today. In my opinion the greatest ball player to ever live. Good Obit by NYT.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/3070070/2024/06/18/willie-mays-obituary-giants/

It's undisputed that he'd be on the short list. I'd wonder how a scout would grade his tools on a 20/80 scale now. All 70s? Maybe an 80 for game power since 660 is top 6 all time?

I think in 7th or 8th grade, my teacher had us assemble books and write and illustrate a story. My project was a story about an attack by the inhabitants of Venus on Earth - Fearless Frank vs The Venetians (sic)." The Venusians were invisible and small. To get to Earth, they climbed on a baseball and Willie Mays threw them to Earth. This was about 1971 or 1972 or so, I was from an American League town, really hadn't seen him play except maybe at an all star game on TV, but Mays was so well known, admired, and still considered the best even though he was already 40. It just was unquestioned and universal.

Put up over a .900 OPS in his age 40 season with 23 steals, nearly a 1:1 BB/K ratio and a 157 wRC+. This was still the age of the pitcher.

[HondoKillebrew]

Yes, perhaps the GOAT. RIP

[JCA-CrystalCity]

Hard to imagine he wasn't a unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame.

[Dave in Fairfax]

Hard to imagine he wasn't a unanimous selection for the Hall of Fame.

Wasn't that back when there was always some writer for whom "the only unanimous selection should be X"? Maybe Babe Ruth, but my memory is failing. I seem to remember that coming up for some other shoo-ins like Cal Jr.

[Count Walewski]

Mariano Rivera is the only unanimous HoF selection, right? The traditional reason cited was that since nobody in the inaugural class of HoF inductees was elected unanimously, nobody else should either.

In any event, I think Willie Mays is the strongest overall candidate for GOAT baseball player. He could do everything but pitch, and do it at a high level. The only challenger I see to him is Shoehei Ohtani, if Ohtani can put together several more seasons where he is both a good hitter and a good pitcher. Even then, Mays will be far ahead of him in every single offensive statistic and Ohtani's argument will be about versatility.

Another strength: Mays was a nice guy. A lot other contenders for GOAT weren't.