
Originally Posted by
538280
Yeah, some of the WS numbers between the Abstract and the WS book are different by one WS here or there. I guess that's one of the cases.
Anyway....Willie Mays. Glad to see he has his own thread. Here's an old link that was given here a long time ago, a public service announcment Mays made warning of "blasting caps":
http://homepage.mac.com/pjfraser/bla...heater104.html
I love that clip!
One thing I've always been interested in is how the new San Francisco Giants fans reacted to Mays when he first came to SF. You'd think they'd embrace him, it's not often you get arguably the greatest baseball player ever blow into your town, but I've read before that they didn't always like him that much, because they thought of him as a New York star, and wanted their own star to represent San Francisco. They latched on to Orlando Cepeda in that way, and for a while they liked him even more than Mays. At least that's what I"ve read. Anyone else have any knowledge on the fans' reception of him?
It was part because Willie was first famous in NY, and part because he was already a superstar and up on the pedestal when he came west. And it wasn't so much Cepeda that the fans latched on to, but McCovey. Stretch just played in a way that captured the fancy of the crowd, with that awesome long swing of his. Orlando was a great player, but McCovey was electric to watch.
There is a lot of talk about Willie and his relations with the fans, but it never struck me as being as bad as people seem to think it was. And of course now, he's pretty much treated as a deity at ATT Park.
“Well, I like to say I’m completely focused, right? I mean, the game’s on the line. It’s not like I’m thinking about what does barbecue Pop Chips and Cholula taste like. Because I already know that answer — it tastes friggin’ awesome!"--Brian Wilson
Bookmarks