Tim Kurkjian remembers Willie Mays: The ‘perfect’ baseball player 🧡 | SC with SVP
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Tim Kurkjian joins Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter to take a look back at Willie Mays’ career on the field and how he brought a vibe and enthusiasm in how he played the game that made others want to join in the fun.
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Don’t forget as unreal as his numbers are, he missed two whole seasons because of the Korean War. What would his numbers be if he got to play during the war. Willie already has the craziest numbers off all time!
Plus he played in arguably the two worst ballparks in MLB history - Polo Grounds and Candlestick Park.
The wind in Candlestick often blew in from left field. It was nasty.
@@choward5430 Exactly. Put him in any MLB park, and give him those two seasons he lost due to military service, and he would have hit 800 home runs. Still, best player ever!
GOAT is an extremely overused term. In reality there are only a few who deserve that distinction and Willie Mays is undoubtedly among them. The best to ever play the game.
I would even go as far to say willie was the perfect baseball player ever.
The reason Willie only had 12 gold gloves was because they only started the award in Willies 9th season.
Wow 😮
Not true.
@@michaeldauria4386 You're right. They started awarding it in his 7th season.
@@bassmnky413 no doubt & for those who don’t pay attention to the history not just baseball but in all sports. You gotta be at least the student of the game regardless. And you have got to pay attention to the history of baseball to know the actual facts.
@@bassmnky413 My mistake. I was counting the two years he missed early in his career.
The Original 5-Tool Player.. Rest in Power
I was born and raised in The Sunset District of San Francisco and saw my first Giants game in 1961. To put it simply, Willie Mays was my childhood. Thank you, Willie, we love you.
When I think of Willie Mays I am reminded of farm animals because Willie was the GOAT.
RIP Willie…. The NY GIANTS….
Greatest player that ever stepped on the field.
As a Dodgers fan I always hated the Giants. But as a true fan of baseball I always respect true legends for those who paved the way to play the game before we even knew who they really are. Vin Scully always named Willie Mays as his favorite player. RIP to one of the greatest baseball players of all time.
There is not even a close 2nd
Bonds is 1
@@ww9452 even bonds says his godfather was better
@@thewkovacs316 he’s just being humble
@@ww9452 Bonds is only #1 at cheating. Bonds shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence as Mays
@@davidschecter5247 So edgy. Such a moronic comment on this story.
My first sports hero. I remember being eight years old, just discovering baseball and watching my first MLB all-star game during in the 1965 season. This one black player was introduced and the crowd immediately jumped to their feet with a rousing standing ovation that lasted a while. Growing up black in the Deep South during those years of segregation and racial tensions, l was amazed by the respect shown for that black man at that time in history amongst all that turmoil. This was still less than twenty years since Jackie Robinson was initially disrespected in every way possible. That player was Willie Mays. Back in those days we only had two (clear) television channels and one tv game a week, so whenever l saw Willie Mays (maybe once or twice a season) it was something special.
I became a Giants fan in 1962 and followed them closely ever since. Willie Mays was, without a doubt the greatest all around player I've ever seen. He was humble and lived to be 93 because he took care of himself. If Willie hadn't had to go in the service and missed two years he would have been the one to break Ruth's 714 in a ballpark that was tough on right handed power hitters. He had at least 50 balls blown back into Candlestick due to the strong afternoon winds that should have been homers. I wore his number 24 in every sport. I have a signed baseball by him to this day.
Cool watching us old men gush over our sports heroes. I remember Mays through my fathers recollections. I do think Aaron was a bit better, but it's so close.
Thank you Tim Kurkjian! I saw Willie Mays play in person, in his prime, many many times. I completely agree with everything you said. Willie Mays was the Michael Jordan of Baseball, Baryshnikov on grass, poetry in motion, amazing grace. The greatest baseball player of all time. R.I.P. 24
No…..Micheal Jordan was the Willie Mays of the NBA
R.i.p Hero
A huge part of baseball died yesterday.
Very sad day for Baseball. RIP
Such a shame there wasn’t interleague play and more TV games when he was in his prime so many more people could appreciate his genius as a player. I lived in DC then so never got to see him in person (but did get to see a lot of Mantle, who was my hero). What an unbelievable player. So much greater than the sum of his stats.
Willie Mays lived one of the greatest lives in American history. The amount of people who claim him as their childhood hero is astounding.
When people talk about THE GOAT in baseball, it's Mays or Ruth. For me, Willi Mays. He could do it all! Even when he struck out it was amazing!
Willie Mays was the perfect baseball player, ever!
Congratulations on a long life Willie mays the greatest centerfielder ever ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Willie Mays is the GOAT
RIP: say hey kid Willie Mays
Willie Mays: No one played like him. I was born a Mets fan, 1 yr after the Dodgers moved west. Because my heartbroken father adored them. But Mays a Giant, was just as treasured. So I got to see and amazed by the second half of his career and then old enough to see him become a NY Mets. Back home.......
Mays played like he came down from a higher league.
Candlestick park Robbed Willie of Hundreds of homers…..he would’ve hit 700 easy
Baseball will never captivate America the way it did Yester-year. That said....no other sport can match the statistical nuances, stories,& historical relevance. Baseball was still " BIG" during my early childhood in the 70's & I can only imagine how popular the sport was decades prior. R.I.P. to a true legend who undoubtedly has a permanent spot on baseball's Mt Rushmore.
Where Triples go to die!! RIP Willie. My childhood hero and IMO the greatest player of all time.
The "Say Hey Kid" greatest nickname in sports history.
66yrs old and from Scottsdale, AZ. Yes, I met Willie almost every Spring, the ball park was front of the roping arena and Boys Club, my three favorite places. Watching Fergie Jenkins face Willie Mays was a riot, I don't think Willie could keep a straight face.
Why not?
@@maninthemiddle55 Fergie was a Globe Trotter before he pitched in the MLB. He had a way of clowning on the mound in Spring that had both dugouts laughing.
Correction: He missed almost TWO seasons to military service ('52-53), and his rookie years was 1951 (not '48). His first two years after the military might have been his best pair, although '64-65 were also statistically amazing (more HRs but lower average and fewer SBs).
Maybe the news show was counting his brief season with Birmingham, age 17, as one of his professional seasons?
No one compares to Willie Mays.
I became a fan of Willie Mays in 1963. Two things I remember... he played stickball in the streets of New York City with kids! And when Jose Canseco hit 40 homers and stole 40 bases, Mays said, "If I knew that was a big deal, I could have done it every year." LOL
I am the same age as Tim Kurkjian and my memories and thoughts of Willie Mays are almost the same. I grew up in New England but my favorite player by far was Willie Mays. I remember reading a biography of Mays written by Arnold Hano after the 1965 season when he was at his zenith. Every day I would comb through the box scores in the Boston Globe and see how many hits he had gotten the night before. The Giants were on the NBC Game of the Week on a fairly regular basis back in the late 1960s so I watched him then. A special treat was when Juan Marichal would pitch because he was my 2nd favorite player. Although Willie was still a good player through the 1960s, I never got to see him in the later 1950s and early 1960s when he was really in his prime. What a player!
Ode to Sir Willie Mays spelling out his name:
"Willie Mays, SIR to all of us.
I, like many looked up to you with pride.
Love you immensely for the road you paved for us of a brown hue.
Lasting memories are going to be our tapestry of you.
"I so admire Sir Mays" are utterances in many a head now and beyond.
Excellence in being is what you are with a resounding AMEN.
May your family turn to god for inner strength.
Anything is possible as God has shown you.
Your breath of sustainable achievements will be forever lasting.
So Sir, I write this to bid you farewell to enjoy eternal rest." 🫶🏾
Willie's career putout record for outfielders remains overlooked and is one record that may never be broken. I watched him growing up in NYC, every game that was on TV. He was the best all-around player I've ever seen and the most fun to watch.
When the 📺 in black and white and the player still popping off the screen, that’s freaky!
Let's just say it's like this he was bad rest in peace
🧡🖤
Maybe keep Barry out of this.
I get it but Willie Mays is his godfather
Stop just stop. Leave Barry alone
Maybe you should go somewhere else and leave you out of this.
U can’t talk great baseball and leave Bonds out
We're just going to forget Babe Ruth existed?
😂🤡v
Wtf
Much love for the Babe and I’m a Yankee fan, but he wasn’t the all around great player that Willie was - playing a much more demanding position, stealing bases and exuding such joy. We can all tip our caps to the greatest of the greats.
@@ambadale Mays didn't pitch.
@@dand9106Ruth played in a segregated league. That's not his fault, and he had no control over it - but it is a significant knock against him. He hit, and pitched, against a lot of guys who never would have made it to the Majors if everybody had an equal chance to play.