Willie Mays was not going to be able to attend MLB's historic matchup in Alabama. But Giants veteran Mike Yastrzemski feels an even closer connection to the Hall of Famer with his recent passing.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Even though it feels like a small part of us all knew Willie Mays — through his unmistakable talent, love for baseball, and trademark as the best player many people had ever seen — we still wanted more of him. Seeing a once-in-a-lifetime athlete can have that effect on us. It's part of why, more than 50 years after his retirement from Major League Baseball, Tuesday's announcement of his death hit the baseball community like a ton of bricks to the chest.
Ever since then, Yastrzemski has tried to model his mentality after Mays' humble attitude and approach to life. 'It's more his attitude of playing I try to encompass, because his talent is not reachable for me,' Yastrzemski said. 'There might be some people who could reach one or two aspects of his game. But not all of them. So the mental side is the one that I felt like I could get closest to. 'What he did for the game was about as much as any one man can do.
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