Willie Mays is undoubtedly the greatest Giants player ever. More than that, he established the Bay Area as a sports haven.
FILE – In this Aptil 30, 1961, file photo, San Francisco Giants star outfielder, Willie Mays, proudly displays the four baseballs in the clubhouse representing the four homers which he hit against the Milwaukee Braves in Milwaukee. The four homers tied the record of four homers in a single game held by nine other major league players at the time. The Giants won 14-4. Willie’s homers accounted for eight runs batted in.It was acquiring the player.
Mays not only played the game at the highest level, but he played with an effervescent charisma. He was impossible not to root for, and while the Giants weren’t the first pro team in town — the 49ers were founded in 1946 — it did make him San Francisco’s first true professional sports superstar.Mays might have been the single greatest baseball player — perhaps even the single greatest American-born athlete — who ever lived.
But it’s the testimonials of those who played with and against him — those who saw the incredible feats of his brilliant 23-year career — that make an even stronger argument. And with so many of our sports stars’ stories littered with caveats, Mays’ reputation remained as sterling as his play.It’s fair to wonder if Joe Montana, Steph Curry, Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, or Patrick Marleau — amongst so many others — carve out roles as Bay Area pro sports legends if Mays didn’t come to San Francisco and pull more than a million fans a year to Seals Stadium and later Candlestick Park, rooting the team in town.
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