As a boy growing up in the South during the late-1950s, I was attracted to all sports, but my first love was baseball. Since there were no Southern teams of any sport, I adopted the New York Yankees as my favorite because Mickey Mantle was their star. Mickey’s first year in professional baseball was in my mother’s small mid-western town, so Mickey was my guy. Seven decades later, I’m still a pinstripes guy.
In those days, New York City had three professional teams – the Yankees played in the Bronx; the Giants in Queens; and the Dodgers were from Brooklyn. Toward the end of the decade, the Giants and Dodgers would move to the West Coast when professional sports really became national.
Three clubs, each had a champion centerfielder. The Yankees, of course, sported Mickey Mantle, my favorite player. The Dodgers centerfielder was Duke Snider, while the Giants sported Willie Mays. Each of these remarkable ball players would go on to have Hall of Fame careers. How amazing is it that each club fielded a champion centerfielder at the same time?
Frankly, I didn’t pay much attention to the National League, where Snider and Mays played. My attention was focused on the American League and the seven other clubs who played the Yankees. Only during the All-Star game and World Series did I pay any attention to the NL and its players.
Because of my focus. I missed the phenomenal career of Willie Mays. When it comes to all-around play – batting, power, fielding, speed and baserunning – there is little question that Willie was the best, probably in the history of baseball. But Mantle was my favorite, so I followed his career every day in the box scores carried in the sports section of the Jacksonville Sun. I was a ‘stats’ guy and baseball is tailor-made for those who keep track of statistics.
No one really knows how Willie Mays became the “Say Hey Kid,” but it stuck even more than Mantle’s nicknames. Duke Snider came with a nickname – he was the Duke.
Certainly, playing in the Big Apple of New York focused a great deal of attention on these three players. World Series performances drew the greatest attention, and Mantle’s Yankee team was always in the Series, it seems. Snider’s Brooklyn Bums were a perennial National League winner, so he played in many Fall Classics. Mays suffered because his team was frequently outshone by the Dodgers that had a better all-around club. Somewhere along the line, a Milwaukee club led by Hank Aaron upstaged the rest of the National League and subsequently beat my Yankees for the world title. Both Willie and Hank were born and raised in Alabama. That southern state has a great baseball tradition.
All these wonderful players are gone now. Mickey died first at age 63. He was a flawed character for sure, but not in my mind. His performance on the ballfield was mythological. Willie just died this past week, outliving my guy by thirty years.
I really tip my hat to Willie Mays. He overcame so much to do such wonderful things with a bat, ball and glove. Because they were from the South, Willie and Hank were probably more able to cope with the racism that was so prevalent back then. They had experienced it their entire life, so it probably had less psychological impact than it would on Black ballplayers from different regions. Also, Wille and Hank took good care of themselves and had long, injury-free careers to help cement their legacy.
Baseball is just now coming to grips with the impact of the Negro Leagues when major league baseball was segregated. Before Cairo’s own Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, the Negro Leagues were the heart of African-American culture. There were some really great players that played their entire careers for Black teams like the Kansas City Monarchs. It is important to see that greats like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Cool Papa Bell getting the recognition they richly deserve.
Baseball and Black culture no longer mix which is a sad rebuke on tradition. Young Black athletes want to play football and basketball, ignoring baseball. That’s where the girls are! The Black players in professional baseball today hail from the Caribbean like Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.