In 2015, Mays became one of 15 baseball players to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, and he is an American hero for what he did and how he did it. Mays was 15, living in Alabama, and in awe of what Robinson’s achievement meant for him and other Black players. Robinson and others started the race, but Mays took the baton and climbed to the top of the mountain. Two years later, Mays was a 17-year-old Negro League phenom, though still in high school. By the time he was 20, he was the NL Rookie of the Year. He was the NL MVP in 1954 at the age of 23.

He was just getting started.

Mays ranks fifth all time in Wins Above Replacement (WAR), at 156.2. Number one: Babe Ruth, who, to borrow from JJ Redick, not only played against plumbers and firemen, played against only white plumbers and firemen. Number four: Barry Bonds, the poster child for steroid abuse.

Mays, a .301 lifetime hitter who led baseball with a .345 average in 1954, ranks sixth all time with 660 home runs. He trails Bonds, Aaron — arguably, the second-best player ever — Ruth, Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriguez, an admitted PED cheat.

The legitimate home run record could easily be Mays’ if fate had not intervened.

He missed all but 34 games of the 1952 and 1953 seasons because he was drafted into the Korean War. The Babe hit 714 homers. Mays averaged 46 in his first two seasons out of the service. He hit four in 1952, so say he gets 42 more that season and 46 in 1953; that would give him 88 more, or 748, which would have made him the home run king until Aaron’s 755. (If he hadn’t played 11 seasons nearly below sea level, at windy, swampy, chilly Candlestick Park, he might even have 20 or 30 more, which would beat out Balco Barry.)

But herein lies the true measure of his greatness: Mays is best remembered not just for his defense, but for the best defensive play in history. He was a slugger who preferred to play defense. He won 12 consecutive Gold Glove awards for the Giants in New York and San Francisco, his last at the age of 37. The only reason he didn’t win 16 Gold Gloves is because the award didn’t exist until 1957, his fifth full season.

And, in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, he made The Catch.

Mays was playing in center field for the New York Giants in the cavernous Polo Grounds. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Cleveland Indians slugger Vic Wertz pounded a drive to deep center field. Mays was playing shallow. He turned and ran. He didn’t need to turn back. Not only did he make an over-the-shoulder catch 425 feet from the plate, he whirled and threw in the same motion, which prevented the runner at first from advancing.

The Giants won the game and swept the series, which was Mays’ only title.

In 2018, after watching Ken Griffey Jr. and Bo Jackson and Torii Hunter and Andruw Jones run and roam and scale walls, Reggie Jackson made it plain:

“The greatest outfielder ever is Willie Mays.”

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