Professional baseball hall of famer and one of the greatest players to ever lace up his spikes and hit the diamond, Willie Mays, has died at the age of 93, according to a post from the San Francisco Giants on X.
“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”
Before his death Tuesday, Mays was the oldest living member of the baseball hall of fame.
Nicknamed “The Say Hey Kid,” Mays was a two-time Most Valuable Player, 24-time all-star, 12-time Gold Glove award winner, two-time all-star game MVP and 1954 World Series champion who hit 660 home runs (sixth all-time) across a career that spanned 23 seasons in the MLB.
Mays has been ranked as one of the three greatest baseball players to ever live by multiple publications, including the Sporting News, who ranked him No. 2 all-time behind Babe Ruth in a 1999 article, and The Athletic, who ranked him as the greatest baseball player of all-time in a 2020 article.
Accomplishments and accolades aside, perhaps the most iconic moment from his illustrious career is simply known as “The Catch.”
The day it happened was Sept. 29 in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series. Vic Mertz, a batter for the Cleveland Guardians (who were then known as the Indians), hit a deep fly ball to center field in the eighth inning with the score tied at 2-2 at the Polo Grounds.
Mays ranged back and made a miraculous over-the-shoulder basket catch at the warning track, 425 feet from home plate, to preserve the tie in a game the Giants went on to win in extra innings, 5-2.
The Chicago tie to this iconic moment in baseball history? Jack Brickhouse was on the call for “The Catch.”