When Willie Mays Returned To New York For His Last Season

decades after he made his Mark as a fan favorite and a legend in New York City Willie Mays made his return to the city in a trade for an interesting farewell that brought fanfair criticism and a World Series appearance so let's look at how he made his return and how his legendary career ended toally sport ask ma before he would retire as one of the three members of the 600 home run club and make the Hall of Fame first ballot things started for Willie Mays in New York and he played with the team most attached to him in the Giants and of course this time they were the New York Giants in his Seven Years in New York spanning 5 and 1 half Seasons as a result of his military service he won 187 home runs while hitting 312 with a 980 Ops he also won the Rookie of the Year made four all-star teams and won MVP in the same year the Giants won their last World Series in New York in 1954 naturally he was a fan favorite and gave the love back often participating in stickball games in Harlem a couple nights a week but after 1957 maiz and the giants made the way to the West Coast in San Francisco along with the Rival Brooklyn Dodgers who are making their way to Los Angeles despite this Mae remained a favorite amongst New Yorkers even receiving a standing ovation in his final bat at the polo grounds and he remained a fan favorite and one of the best in the game all in San Francisco during the 60s he hit 350 home runs leading the league in home runs three times while hitting exactly 300 with a 935 Ops making the All-Star team in all those years winning nine of his 12 gold gloves and winning his second MVP in 196 65 and in all of those years the Giants are competitive with their best year coming in 1962 when they won 103 games to win the pennet though they would lose the World Series in seven games to The Familiar New York Yankees the giants made the NLCS in 1971 3 years into the new 14 playoff format and though the team was still contending the worst thing that happened to the Giants in this time in terms of fandom and finance was the Kansas City Athletics making their way to Oakland to bring an American League team to the Bay Area everyone in baseball loved the move to grow the game except for Giants owner horse ston and that was obviously because it directly affected his team the birth of the Oakland Athletics essentially cut the Giants attendance in half and in a time before large TV contracts attendance was the primary revenue source so to reduce costs less expensive players needed to be signed while sabish players had to be dealt even the noted fan favorites and sonm was already working on that having dealt Orlando sepa Gaylord Perry Jim har one Marell and William mby by the end of 1973 and there was another player who fans assumed would never wear anything other than a giant uniform stonom said multiple times that he would never trade Willie Mae as he was the heart and soul of the franchise but in 1971 he turned 40 years old and was obviously well past his Prime and considering they were supposed to pay him $165,000 in 1972 and 73 they were left with no choice wanting to bring maiz to a place he felt comfortable with the added Nostalgia stonum began secret negotiations with the Mets to not upset Maize but columnist found out and began speculations which is how maiz found out and on May 11th 1972 maziz was officially traded to the Mets for minor leager Charlie Williams and a rumored unknown amount of cash the surprising announcement was made in a Mayfair Hotel that Maize was returning to New York for the first time in 15 years playing for a team that didn't even exist when he was last there funny enough his first game in a mess uniform was against the Giants and he hit the game-winning home run in a 5-4 game later that night stonum and Ma had dinner with ston reportedly emotionally telling Mae how much he regretted trading him with Maize later acknowledging how much that meant to him and as for the press the New York media was praising the nostalgic return of maize reminding younger fans of how good he was and some claiming he was still one of the best in the league an obvious reach as for the San Francisco Media the coverage was negative especially in regards to the little return and the fact that this trade signaled that the Giants were an obvious Decline and they were right as the Giants would have only one season over 500 over the next five seasons and attendance dropped steadily along with the record 1974-75 brought the worst attendance numbers for the Giants in San Francisco with some games having less than a thousand fans and having virtually no money at the serve 1975 stonum sold the team to Bob lurry in 1976 and retired after 50 years in the game as for Willie Mays on the Mets there was plenty of excitement in Queens Maz didn't play every day but he brought energy to the team and broaden fans for the possibility of watching him play and as the mess dealt with mid-season injuries Maize ended up having to play older fans both at Shay and on the road came out to to watch their old hero who had a below aage season by his standards hitting eight home runs with a 267 average in 69 games but his 402 on base percentage led the team and his 466 slugging percentage was seconds and young players including Tom Siver noted his leadership problem between mes manager Yogi barah and Mae also developed during the season as barah wanted complete control over Ma's playing time the Mae F was often too much for his four-year-old body and with this he knew 1973 would be his last year injuries and decline were now too much of a concern and his performance as 1973 began made it obvious to everyone ma arrived a day late to spring training and left in the middle of spring training as a result Yogi Bara find him $1,000 and the fact that this was the end became painfully obvious as the season started getting put on the disabled list earlier in the year with little playing time that at one point caused him to leave a game early after not seeing Bara write his name in the lineup at the Midway point of the Season he was hitting just 208 with three home runs and 33 starts he did make the allstar for the 24th and final time thanks to special intervention by chub fenny some journalists described his performance as tragic one New York colist saying his followings are now so cruel that I'm relieved when he's on the lineup players were naturally more sympathetic noting how hard it was for him to continue with this point with the injuries and his old age with tug McGrath saying that he sometimes forced himself to play and he would get hurt trying to do that may had his 66th and final home run on August 17th and earlier that month the Mets announced an upcoming Willie M night in September at Shay and though not official it made things very obvious to the public that 1973 was in fact the end ma received sing Ovations while playing on the road for the last time in different cities and he officially announced his retirement on September 20th on The Today Show and later held a press conference where he said when you're 42 and hitting 221 it's no fun I feel that the people of America shouldn't have to see a guy play who can't produce though he didn't realize the people of America in fact love doing that either way wiie may not was held on the 25th with the likes of Joe dagio Stan muel Duke Snyder another teammates and celebrities present ma didn't even play that night as the Mets picked up a 2-1 win over the exposes and he never played a regular season game after September 9th but his career wasn't over just yet as despite winning 82 games the Mets won the NL East the Mets went up against the r in the NLCS and may helper sore order in game three after fans began throwing trash at Pete Rose after starting a brawl with Bud harelson Maz would make one appearance and game five going one for three with a pinch hit RBI single as the Mets won 7 to2 to Clinton and O pennet and make them the worst team by record to ever win a pennet which meant May's career would end in the World Series against the defending Champion Oakland Athletics whose existence in part led to Mays ending up in New York and after the injury to Rusty stab Maize was starting his first game in over a month in game one of the World Series in center field Maize went one for four in game one as the Mets loss then in game two Mae came into pinch run and made a critical error that allowed the a to tie the game and send the game to extras but he redeemed himself by hitting the go-ahead single in the 12th off righ fingers to add 34% of the Met's win probability as they took game two and this would end up being the last hit of his career as he pinched hit in the 10th of game three and grounded out then he didn't appear again as a met LW in seven games denying them a chance to be the worst World Series winning team of all time and putting an end to the legendary career of Willie Mays May final years is reminiscent of many final years of great players kind of sad to watch knowing the prime years are well gone but allowing fans to appreciate the final moments just like we got to appreciate Tim Duncan final moments when he retired at 3:00 in the morning in terms of added value it was a lose lose for both teams but the trade was much more significant than what happened on the field despite only playing one and a half subpar seasons for the Mets ma would have his number retired in 2022 at City Field decades after the Met's original owner Joan pacon promised he would be the last met to wear number 24 the the introduction of the mess in 1962 represented filling the space for the vacant Dodgers and Giants the team Maz is most associated with and where he got his start in terms of performance maiz doesn't deserve the Met number retirement but it seems to be more of a nod towards what he had already done in New York for a team that moved West the trade in the end was a great representation of the time in New York in the move the trade brought a tough period for the Giants losing the franchise player while the move allowed ma to end his career the same way it started losing the World Series or playing in New York not to be overshadowed by what he had already done and maybe one day the Mets will bring back another Legend like Bobby Bonia to give him a chance to earn money from the Mets the same way he has for over a decade by doing absolutely [Music] nothing oh

Channel: Sportsesque

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Keywords: willie mays mets, willie mays mets number retired, willie mays mets home run, willie mays mets highlights, willie mays mets world series, willie mays ny mets, willie mays 1973 world series, 1973 world series, willie mays catch, willie mays, willie mays highlights, willie mays interview, willie mays swing, willie mays documentary, willie mays defense, willie mays giants, willie mays home run, mlb documentary, willie mays night shea stadium, mets 1973

Id: _gjOgjE69ME

Length: 9min 30sec (570 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 04 2024