Dan Patrick Remembers Willie Mays | 6/19/24

Giants Hall of Famer Willie Mays passed away at the age of 93 I didn't have much interaction with Willie because he spent most of his career in San Francisco started out in New York but passing away at the age of 93 I did see him the first time was in spring training in h the 60s early 60s my father took me to a game he wanted me to see Willie Mays play baseball and I was really young at the time I knew is that he his hat kept flying off and uh that he hit a home run and I tried to get his autograph during the game not realizing that they usually don't sign autographs during the game even though it was spring training and just watching him trying to understand what greatness was when you're young and my dad said just just remember Willie Mays now he had brought up Mickey Manel as well a few other players Joe deasio Ted Williams but he always said what Willie did was different than what everybody else did and I always remembered that I didn't know what it meant at the time when I'm seven years of age but he said he does things differently than everybody else and that means he's the best all-around player that I think baseball's ever had there nobody a better center fielder than him he was a great base runner he stole over 300 bases hit over 600 home runs he batted over 300 for his career I think playing in San Francisco hurt him a little bit now I get you know he was exposed to the media the New York media playing for the New York Giants that's when you had Willie Mickey and the Duke all there in uh in the city well Brooklyn and in New York but Willie Mays I think overshadowed was the one play that he had in the 1954 World Series and it sounded like this there's a long drive way back in Centerfield way back back it is [Music] hey made just brought this TR to a beat with a cat which must have beenal illusion to a lot of people so Willie makes this great catch and he has to go a long way to get it off the bat of Vic WS he gets the ball back in I think Larry Dolby might have been the runner who didn't score he got the third Giants ended up winning the pen or winning the World Series I think in four games but we remember Willie Mays for that was also the play at the end of his career when he played for the Mets and he was in his early 40s and shouldn't have been out there in center field but what he did how he did it he did it differently than anybody who ever played the game um I remember I had interaction with him spring training uh when I was at ESPN had an opportunity to sit down with Willie uh also Willie mccovy and Orlando sepa and did an interview with them I don't think they'd ever sat down before but uh I was my show was on KBR in San Francisco and we were able to sit down with them uh will he was fascinating he really was and he's not legendary I think he's iconic because he to me if you say who encompasses everything that you need to do in baseball it' Be willly Ma because he was unbelievable center fielder base runner had power hit for average as well and uh spent two years in the military he was an All-Star 23 times won a couple MVPs and you know left his mark on baseball and hopefully the tributes will continue to pour in for what he meant and he came in I think four years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier so Willie had to put up with a lot of things not what Jackie did but he had to put up with a lot of things so here you had Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson one in Brooklyn one in New York and then of course the Giants moved to San Francisco so Willie Mays passing away at the age of 93 and the person that I always think of when you know you have these legendary iconic baseball figures passing away Tim kirchen of the mothership who had this to say about Willie Mays Willie Mays is for me the greatest player I've ever seen and I was captivated by baseball at the earliest age but when I saw Willie Mays lead off the 65 allstar game on a color TV in our house I just could not believe what I was watching he was the greatest player as Johnny Bench once put it he was the perfect baseball player he had the perfect build he had a he had a style to him that nobody else has ever had I grew up 3,000 miles from San Francisco and I worship Willie Mays every time he was on TV which wasn't very often for for me I couldn't miss it that's how great he was and I'm telling you new Scott when he broke in in 1951 he was the greatest combination of power speed and defense that the game had ever seen and here it is 73 years later and I believe with all my heart he is still the greatest combination of power speed and defense that the game has ever seen that's how great Willie Mays was it's Tim kirchen with Scott Van Pelt on Sports Center and Willie was hurt by the fact that he played in San Francisco Candlestick Park was a terrible ballpark as far as the winds go um and I just remember they had that chain link fence out there but Willie if he was going after a baseball he was going to get it and uh there are a lot of guys who individually are wonderful center fielders Paul Blair comes to mind I mean Devon white uh you know there's probably 10 to you know Ken Griffey Jr was a wonderful Outfitter uh Jim Edmonds wonderful so Willie did that better than everybody else but then he also stole over 300 bases hit 660 home runs in a better ballpark a better hitting ballpark he would hit 700 home runs easily two years uh for the military as well but that basket catch that basket catch damn that basket catch because we all tried to do it it bounce off your chest off your hand you get yelled at by your coach like stop that you're not Willie Mays like I but we want to be my father worked at McGregor sporting goods and he brought home a glove one day and it was the same model that Willie Mays had and oh my God I I was in heaven and I played shortstop which is the glove was way too big to play shortstop I mean it was like a fishing net and I just remember you know guys would come up and say is that the one Willie Mays uses I go yep that's the one now I didn't play like Willie Mays obviously but I had that glove had that glove forever ever played softball with it later on in life but uh Willie May is passing away at the age of 93 and and my thanks to Tim Kirin for the memories because it's just like with Jerry West or with Bill Walton having that experience the being able to see somebody in person meet them interview them to be able to give you a little bit of a historical backdrop but baseball losing one of the iconic figures and really not iconic just for baseball iconic for society with what Willie meant to A A large group large population to minorities with what he was doing how he was doing it but I remember him telling me I said why's your hat always fall off and he said I I'm I have a smaller hat and that's why it f he wanted it to fall off it made it seem like he was running even faster and I believe he was a quarter back in high school I mean he was he was an athlete playing baseball and uh one of the one of the great players if you have Mount Rushmore he's certainly up there uh poll question today Sean what are we going to go with uh what you know I was wondering actually if that Willie May's highligh of his over the-shoulder catch is that the coolest highlight of all time wow that's tough to say certainly one of the most iconic you know he made what was probably an impossible catch look routine and that's what's amazing I think center field was 454 ft away like when you think of a center field it might be like 404 so 454 maybe and he is tracking that down now you catch it he turns what we don't see on the Highlight is he throws the ball to second base from deep deep deep center field and he throws it to Second and I think he keeps Larry Dolby at third so they don't score they didn't score in the inning and it was a big play but they did I I think they won 40 series sweep but that I think when people say oh Willie ma oh the over the-shoulder basket catch it's pretty good catch to have it's pretty awesome yeah it it's a pretty great highlight like yeah that's that's how I was and also Tim brings up when you see something in color cuz we saw things in black and white growing up and it just looked different and all of a sudden when you got to see a baseball game on TV in color you're like damn all of a sudden it was it was Sports Disneyland for me I'm like oh God that's that's how those uniforms look you know just everything was like vibrant and uh you know Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and Mickey Manel uh the Brooklyn Dodgers I mean all of those teams that you got to see the Cincinnati Reds all of a sudden it brought baseball to life in a different way way yes and it is true when you couldn't see everybody at you know a moment's notice it was much more of an appointment to be like all right let's see what this dude is all about the you know the Yankees are playing whoever so and so is in town or this is on TV you know it was it was a much bigger deal yeah because we didn't have you know obviously with the Advent of cable we got to see everybody or league pass you get to see everybody there's no novelty to it back then that's why the All-Star game was so powerful because the American League National League they didn't like each other they didn't face each other uh they didn't socialize with each other and that's why we cared about the All-Star game like my team in my league ended up winning and you know to see Willie May because he was on the west coast and to be able to go okay what's the big deal and then all of a sudden you saw the big deal and then you're like all right I get it because I didn't see dagio I didn't see Ted Williams um really started probably in the early 60s when I got to see uh a lot of these players at least started to be able to follow them then get baseball cards and then you would have the game of the week that's it you might have a highlight or two maybe but you I was in Cincinnati so it was basically the Cincinnati Reds and I started following them religiously in uh what 1967 Johnny Bench tells the story he's at the All-Star Game he's 20 years of age Willie Mays walks over to to him he says you should be our starting catcher Johnny's like oh my God it just made my day made my All-Star game cuz Willie Mays came over to talk to me and I'm 20 years of age so a lot of cool things about this and uh you know a lot of great memories you know when you when you say Willie Mays the say Hey kid and I think as Legend would have it I never asked him about this he got his nickname Say Hey Kid because he didn't know guy's name so he'd just say hey so he was the say hey kid and that's how he got his nickname yeah paing I'm on YouTube right now watching Willie May's catch in the World Series and it's interesting to see it in context because I've seen it real quick on Sports Center and places he's running towards a wooden wall with no padding by the way and then there's a hard right angle on one corner of the wall and there's 40 more feet of Outfield before a brick building with a metal staircase going up to it it looks like he's playing baseball in a lumber yard or a machine shop back there I just don't know you when they had the concept of an outfield wall did anybody think what happens if our ball players crash into the wall it's it's a complete right angle it's like a 90° angle and it's all wood no padding and then you go back another 5050 fet and there's a brick building with more lack of padding okay but look at Candlestick Park they had a chain length fence out there Willie's going up catching you could catch your spikes in it I mean crazy crazy no one ever thought you know what I mean it's not like NASCAR eventually got padded walls you know baseball is like uh there's nothing wrong with having padded walls out here for some reason they were worried about the Integrity or whatever it might be like no no we we'll get weird carams Off the Wall yeah Paul yeah I I found what you're talking about I've got Willie Mays playing in the Outfield at Candlestick and it's a 8 foot chain link fence that you'd find like an old playground and then when they modernized it they put one of those like a digital boards which is electric and you could run into that as other option now you had Barry Bond's dad Bobby bonds was the right fielder for the Giants so Willie playing center field and then Bobby BNS who was a great right fielder uh you know really a great player but you had Willie there you had Willie mccovy as well uh Orlando sepa I mean the Giants had you know some wonderful players there but I always loved and and I didn't get a chance to enjoy the Rivalry when Willie Mays and Sandy kofax would go against one another because that is like the ultimate like if you're saying this pitching matchup I got Sandy kofax and I got Willie May that's must C TV that would have been must C TV didn't get the opportunity only Clips or you know the World Series when it came around uh or a playoff game I should say but uh yeah Willie Mays at the age of 93

Channel: Dan Patrick Show

Views: 8,547

Keywords: Dan Patrick, The Dan Patrick Show, Danettes, Sports, Audience, DIRECTV, AT&T, dp show, mclovin, perloff, paulie, paul pabst, seton o'connor, fritzy, todd fritz, mlb, baseball, NBA, basketball, ncaa, college, nfl, football, super bowl, mancave, man cave, hot take

Id: d1bNXnt8As8

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2024