AN NBC TV SPORTS SPECIAL.
Willie Mays is profiled. A tribute in reminiscences. He discusses his past, his baseball career and his love of the game.
Host: Jack Klugman.
In 1973, Willie Mays retired as an active player after 22 years in major-league baseball, 20 of them with the New York and San Francisco Giants. His incredible defensive play an clutch hits made him truly a giant: 3283 hits in 2992 games, a lifetime batting average of .302, 7752 putouts, and 660 home runs.
In this hour, Mays recalls his career in scenes filmed at home with his wife in Northern California, on the diamond in his new role as a special coach for the New York Mets (the team he retired from) and at ceremonies in which he was inducted into the Black Athletes Hall of Fame.
NOTE: Mays led the NL with 51 home runs (HR) in 1955. In 1956, he stole 40 bases, leading the NL for the first of four straight years. He won his first of 12 Gold Glove Awards in 1957, a record for outfielders. The Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, and Mays contended for the batting title until the final day of 1958, hitting a career-high .347. He batted over .300 for the next two seasons, leading the league in hits in 1960. After leading the NL with 129 runs scored in 1961, Mays led the NL in home runs in 1962 as the Giants won the NL pennant and faced the New York Yankees in the World Series, which the Giants lost in seven games. By 1963, Mays was making over $100,000 a year, setting a record at the time with a $105,000 contract for that season. In 1964, his manager Alvin Dark named him the Giants' captain. He led the NL with 47 home runs that year. He hit 52 the following year, leading the NL and winning his second MVP award. 1966 was the last of 10 seasons in which he had over 100 runs batted in (RBI). In 1969, he hit the 600th home run of his career; he got his 3,000th hit in 1970. Traded to the Mets in 1972, Mays spent the rest of that season and 1973 with them before retiring. He served as a coach for the Mets until 1979 and later rejoined the Giants as a special assistant to the president and general manager.
