Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend By James S. Hirsch

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Books,History,Americas Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend James S. Hirsch
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The “enormously entertaining and wide-ranging” (Seattle Times) authorized, definitive, New York Times bestselling biography of Willie Mays, the most complete baseball player of all time.Willie Mays is arguably the greatest player in baseball history, still revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball’s bold expansion to California. He was a blend of power, speed, and stylistic bravado that enraptured fans for more than two decades. Now James Hirsch reveals the man behind the player. Mays was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a brilliant portrait of one of America’s most significant cultural icons.

At this time of writing, The Audiobook Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend has garnered 10 customer reviews with rating of 5 out of 5 stars. Not a bad score at all as if you round it off, it’s actually a perfect TEN already. From the looks of that rating, we can say the Audiobook is Good TO READ!


Mobi Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend with Free PDF EDITION!



Utilizing over one hundred interviews, several thousand articles in magazines and newspapers, documentaries about Mays, and the cooperation of Mays himself, James Hirsch has produced the first major biography of the great Giant centerfielder. It is well-written, engaging, and entertaining. Beginning with his early years in Birmingham, Alabama, moving to Mays’ time in the black major leagues, focusing on his major league career in New York and San Francisco, and ending with his life after baseball, the author presents a portrait of a complex individual who needed praise and encouragement, not criticism, to perform at his best. Leo Durocher, his first manager, understood this, but not all of his successors did. Hirsch thoroughly covers Mays’ career. There is “the catch” in the 1954 World Series, the daring base running (e.g., scoring from second twice on groundouts to first base and scoring from first on a bunt), the throws from the outfield that cut down runners at third base and home plate, the four homers in one game, the 1962 pennant race, his role as peacemaker in the Juan Marichal-John Roseboro incident, and his return to New York in a Mets uniform. We see Mays being mentored by Monte Irvin early in Willie’s career, only later to serve the same role to Jim Ray Hart and Bobby Bonds. Hirsch brings out Mays’ not wanting to face Ralph Branca as Willie waited in the on-deck circle with Bobby Thomson at the plate in the crucial third playoff game with the Dodgers in 1951. Mays would soon overcome this fear and relish the role of being at the plate when the game and/or the season were on the line. Hirsch does not overlook the troubled times in the life of Mays. He discusses Jackie Robinson’s criticism of Mays for not using his high profile position to publicly speak out for civil rights. Whenever Mays experienced discrimination, he did not publicize the incident, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He let his play on the field win white fans over to his side. The author also deals with the years of struggle it took Mays to win over the fans in San Francisco. Nevertheless, some in the press continued to attack him as an overpaid, underproductive ball player, especially during crunch time. Mays had a rocky road with the reporters, not trusting them and refusing to reveal his inner self to them. He also suffered from a disastrous first marriage, faced bankruptcy in the early 1960s despite being the highest paid player in the game, and was ostracized from baseball from 1979 to 1984 when he became a greeter at an Atlantic City casino. Hirsch also does not neglect Mays’ relationship with his godson, Barry Bonds, and the issue of steroids. After his career ended, Mays even faced the innuendo that he had used amphetamines during his playing days. Mays the human being is shown by his love for children and teenagers. He would constantly visit hospitals to see the sick, giving boys and girls autographed baseballs or pictures as well as words of encouragement. He would speak to youth groups, telling them not to smoke or drink (neither of which he did) and providing community groups with sports equipment. He even reached out to troubled youth, including a teenage O. J. Simpson, who was running with a gang, but he refused to testify as a character witness at Simpson’s murder trial. He would help friends without asking for anything in return. The author concludes that “Ruth was baseball’s most dominant player; Mays was its greatest master.” (553) Not only could Mays run, field, throw, hit, and hit for power, he was one of the most intelligent men to play baseball. Before there were pitching and hitting charts, Mays studied pitchers to see what they would throw in certain situations and hitters in order to correctly position himself in the outfield. Some of his greatest catches were made because of where he positioned himself in the outfield prior to the pitch. His endurance is seen in an unequalled streak of 13 seasons of playing in 150 or more games. Among his records are for at-bats, hits, total bases, and runs scored in the All-Star game. Unfortunately, like many other superstars, he stayed in the game too long, and the last memory of this great defensive outfielder was his misjudging a fly ball and pleading on his knees of an umpire’s call at home plate in the second game of the 1973 World Series. This is a must read for those interested in baseball biography and baseball in the 1950s and 1960s.


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