OAKLAND — Players respectfully hustled out of the Oakland Coliseum dugouts, doffed their caps, and stoically joined a moment of silence Tuesday night for fallen baseball legend Willie Mays.
It was here, in this decaying stadium soon to be abandoned by the Athletics, that Mays delivered his last hit and finished patrolling centerfield in an unparalleled Hall of Fame career.
In Game 2 of the 1973 World Series, a 42-year-old Mays delivered a go-ahead RBI single up the middle off Rollie Fingers in the 12th inning, helping the New York Mets win 10-7 before a crowd of 49,151.
Tuesday night, only a couple thousand fans were scattered across the Coliseum’s lower two levels as the A’s opened their seventh-to-last homestand in Oakland, ahead of their eventual move to Las Vegas and three-year layover in Sacramento.
But a hush quickly engulfed the mostly empty stadium at twilight, as an image of “Willie Mays, 1931-2024” appeared on the blackened videoboards above the foul posts. Some 40 minutes earlier, Mays’ death (at age 93) was announced by the San Francisco Giants, the major-league organization he broke in with in New York in 1951, and for whom he brilliantly shined until a 1972 trade to the Mets.
“I was a kid growing up and I read a biography on Willie, and I just wish I was half the player he was,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “The catches that he made, the smile that he had, the impact he had on the game of baseball — his loss is felt today and will be for a long time.”
A’s centerfielder J.J. Bleday said he was “100 percent” aware of Mays’ impact on baseball.
“I’m devastated for him and his family. The dude was an absolute legend, bigger than baseball,” Bleday said after Tuesday’s 7-5 win over the Royals. “I saw a picture in Tampa in the away locker room of him coming in with a bunch of bats, and it was the coolest picture I’ve ever seen. … Prayers for him and his family. He gave so much to the game and had an unbelievable life.”
Mays appeared in 24 big-league ballparks over his major-league career — not to mention the other diamonds beforehand in the Negro Leagues and minors — but he never played a regular-season game in Oakland. Interleague play wasn’t introduced until 1997.
As Mays closed the final season of his career, the 24-time All-Star and 12-time Gold Glove winner came to Oakland for the 1973 World Series. He went 1-for-4 as the Mets dropped the opening game, 2-1. In Game 2, Mays entered as a ninth-inning pinch runner for Rusty Staub, and his go-ahead single ignited the Mets’ winning rally to even the series at 1-1; that game also marked the final time he put on his glove to patrol centerfield.
“Obviously there are a lot of great centerfielders but he was the pinnacle of it,” Kotsay said.
Mays’ final plate appearance came in Game 3 of the World Series at Shea Stadium, where he entered as a 10th-inning pinch-hitter for Tug McGraw and grounded out in the 3-2, 11-inning loss by the Mets. Mays did not remain in the game to play center field, as pitcher Harry Parker took Mays’ spot in the order. The A’s would prevail in seven games to capture their second of three consecutive World Series crowns.
Source: www.mercurynews.com