Willie Mays Night at Shea Stadium

Willie Mays with the New York Mets (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

 

Willie Mays returned to New York in a trade on May 11, 1972.1 “It’s a wonderful feeling to be coming back here,” said the longtime Giants superstar, who left with the team for California after after the 1957 season. “I’ve always loved New York and I liked San Francisco, but this is like coming back to Paradise.”2 Mays played in 69 games with the Mets that season, batting .267 and hitting eight home runs.

Mays suffered several injuries early in the 1973 season, telling him that it was time to finally step away from the diamond.3 On September 9 Mays cracked two ribs while chasing a foul ball in a game in Montreal. When the Mets took the field in Philadelphia on September 11, Mays was not there and members of the press had started to criticize him. The criticism bothered him, his friend and agent Sam Sirkis said, and “finally he had enough. He wanted to announce his retirement.”4

The skills that led Mays to the pinnacle of baseball over the previous 20 years were diminishing. But this was perhaps the most difficult decision he would make in his career. “Baseball is my life. It’s not something that you can just walk away from and say good-bye to,” he told his teammates.5

Mays announced his retirement on September 20 when he appeared on the Today show. That same afternoon, he held a press conference at Shea Stadium. “I thought I’d be crying by now,” Mays said. “But I see so many people here who are my friends.” He said he was hanging up his uniform “because when you’re forty-two and hitting .211, it’s no fun. I just feel that the people of America shouldn’t have to see a guy play who can’t produce.”6

Mays also told the reporters that he played in 1973 only because he was in New York. “New York fans love me,” he said. “They showed me that. You know New York – when they love you, they love you. I never considered myself a superstar. I considered myself a complete player.”7

With the Mets in a pennant race, Mays was not contributing to their success. Mets manager Yogi Berra was struggling to find a role for Mays on the team. “It appears that when Willie, who admittedly is aging and hurting and without his old skills, retired, it took a load off Yogi and the team,” said Joe Black, a former teammate of Mays, after hearing the announcement.8

“Look at it. It was Willie largely who brought the Giants out of the doldrums and now it’s Willie’s inspiration – in another way – that I think will carry the Mets to the National League championship and maybe their second World Series title,” said Black, reflecting on Mays’ impact on New York baseball.9

After September 25 was announced as Willie Mays Night, Mays was left to organize the festivities with Sirkis. The two planned the event in a room at the Roosevelt Hotel with the room expenses covered by Colgate. Mays wanted to present his wife, Mae, with a fur coat. When he met with the owner of the American Fur Industry, he selected a coat that turned into a gift from owner Irwin Katz, who told Mays, “This is my personal gift to you for all the joy that you have given me.”10

The Mets were on a roll by the time Willie Mays Night arrived. They had won 17 of 25 games in September to move from fifth place to first. The official attendance was listed at 43,085 but at least one report wrote that more than 53,000 fans showed up to honor Mays.11 New York Mayor John V. Lindsay had earlier declared the day to be Willie Mays Day.

“A GIANT AMONG METS” [said] the banner in right field. None of the 53,603 at Shea Stadium had to ask who it was. … Willie Mays is so much a part of New York that the fans who gathered to shower him with gifts and hear his farewell speech on Willie Mays Night don’t think of him as a Giant any more,” wrote Don Drumm of the White Plains Journal News.12

 

A souvenir bat from Willie Mays Night at Shea Stadium in 1973. (Courtesy of Les Masterson.)

 

Mets broadcaster Lindsey Nelson was as the emcee for the evening’s event. The celebration started at 8 P.M. when Mays came out of the Mets dugout and walked to home plate. The crowd rose to its feet and applauded him for six minutes as the Mets scoreboard lit up with SO LONG, YES; GOODBYE, NEVER.

Then Mays was presented with numerous gifts. The bounty included several cars, golf clubs, his and hers snowmobiles, lifetime supplies of records, scotch and champagne, two trips, and enough clothing for him and Mae to fill up several closets.13

“Old teammates, old rivals, friends, and the hierarchy of sports and politics turned out to pay tribute to the weary, ailing old warrior,” said one account.14 Pee Wee Reese and Duke Snider were there. Bobby Thomson and Dusty Rhodes showed up. Larry Doby and Black, who had barnstormed with him early in his career, were there. Joe DiMaggio and Stan Musial stood among the baseball luminaries at home plate.

Several players shared stories with the crowd. “All I can say [is] I hated to see him come to bat, I hated to see him get on base and it was a tragedy when we hit one to him,” said Snider.15 Reese told this story: “I’ll never forget the time there were runners on second and third, first base was open and Willie was at the plate. [Dixie] Howell was catching because Roy Campanella was injured. [Howell] had suggested to Walt Alston [the Dodgers manager] that we pitch to Mays. Before Walt got back to the dugout, Willie had hit the ball out of the ballpark.”16

After others had showered him with praise, it was time for Mays to address the crowd. First he apologized to the players and fans for delaying the game. Then he told them “This is a very sad night for me. I may not look it but in my heart I’m sad because I hear you cheering for me and I am unable to do anything for you.”17

He closed by saying, “I look at the kids over here and they are playing and they are fighting for themselves tells me one thing: Willie, say good-bye to America.”18 In one final gesture, Mays held his hand high in the air and waved his cap at the crowd. “Yea, Willie,” came the roar from the kids. The parents couldn’t applaud for crying.”19

Mays hugged Mae and his son Michael. He raised his cap and saluted the fans as they shouted back their admiration. As he slowly walked back to the dugout the Shea Stadium, organist Jane Jarvis played “Auld Lang Syne.”

Mets left fielder Cleon Jones, who was also from Alabama, was watching in the dugout. “I felt I wanted to cry,” he said later. “I know how Willie must have felt to say he can’t perform anymore. It got next to me. I think I might have dropped one or two tears. It was one of those times when you cry inside.”20

The Mets took the field at 8:35 to face the Montreal Expos. Left-hander Jerry Koosman started for New York. Koosman had a 12-15 record but had gone 4-1 with a 2.83 ERA in September. Montreal got two hits through the first four innings, a walk in the second and a double in the third, but couldn’t score. The Expos had two singles against Koosman in the fifth but they were unable to get a runner to cross the plate.

Rookie right-hander Steve Rogers started for the Expos. He entered the game with a 9-4 record and a 1.32 ERA.21 Rogers matched Koosman and kept the Mets from scoring through the first four innings despite allowing runners to reach base in the first, second, and fourth.

The Mets grabbed the lead, 1-0, in the fifth. Bud Harrelson led off with single. Koosman’s sacrifice moved him to second. Wayne Garrett singled to put runners at the corners. Felix Millan’s fly ball to left plated Harrelson.

Montreal tied the score in the sixth. Ron Woods singled with one out and stole second. Koosman walked Bob Bailey. Bailey was thrown out at second when the Expos tried a double steal. With Woods on third, Garrett threw wildly to first on Hal Breeden’s grounder. Breeden reached second on the error as Woods crossed the plate, tying the game 1-1.

The Mets reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the inning on Jones’s one-out home run. Jones later said that Mays was one of his childhood heroes while growing up in Mobile and he was pleased that he could provide the winning hit.

“When you played as a kid, did you pretend that you were Willie Mays?” Jones was asked. He said he followed fellow Mobile native Hank Aaron more closely but “it depended if I got to the ballgame early or late. If I got there late, somebody else was Willie Mays and I had to be somebody else.”22

Koosman got in trouble in the seventh. After a pair of two-out singles put the tying run in scoring position, Mets manager Berra called on Tug McGraw. The first batter he faced was Felipe Alou, who hit a long fly ball to left-center.

Jones got a good jump and caught the ball while running at full speed with his arm fully extended. “I know Alou hits a lot to left-center and right-center, so I cheated a little to make sure I could get to one in the gap,” Jones said. “I didn’t think I’d get it when it was first hit but I just kept running and saw the ball was hanging. I got to the right spot at the right time.”23

Mike Marshall, making his 88th appearance of 1973, relieved Rogers in the seventh.24 He walked McGraw and gave up a single to Garrett that put McGraw on second. But Millan hit into a double play to end the inning without the Mets scoring.

Hanging on to a one-run lead, McGraw got into an eighth-inning jam. He gave up a leadoff single to Wood and walked Bailey. Breeden hit a grounder to McGraw who threw out Woods at third. The lefty reliever ended the threat by getting out the next two Expos.

The Mets had another chance to score in the bottom of the eighth. Jones walked with two outs. Don Hahn doubled but Jones was thrown out trying to score.

McGraw retired the Expos in order in the ninth, notching his ninth save of the month as he helped Koosman earn his 13th win of the season.

The Mets now had a seven-game winning streak, giving them a 1½-game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mays watched the game from the dugout. With the pregame ceremony, he felt he was retired from baseball. He hadn’t played since September 9. Mays spoke to Mets owner Joan Payson after the game and told her he was planning to return home. “She urged him to reconsider. “You can’t go home now,’ she said. So he stayed.”25

When he heard about Mays’ announcement, Tom Seaver said, “There are individuals you know you’re going to have to tear the uniform off of. It’s like a battlefield and you’re in the trench, and the mentality is exactly the same with baseball. You’re going to fight and play until they tear the uniform off. And you got that sense with Willie – they were going to have to tear the uniform off him. It’s sad to see, but it’s a beautiful thing to, because of the love he had for what he had done for some twenty-odd years.”26

Mays did not play in another regular-season game. He did get into one game and drove in a run in the National League Championship Series against the Cincinnati Reds as the Mets won the series in five games. Mays played three games and drove in another run in the World Series as New York lost to the Oakland Athletics in seven games.27

The Mets honored Mays again on August 27, 2022. The team retired his number 24 when it held its first Old-Timers Day in 28 years. When Joan Payson, the Mets’ first owner, recruited Mays to come back to New York in 1972, she promised him that the team would retire his number.

Payson died before she could honor that promise and future owners failed to carry it out. “A promise was made,” said Mets team President Sandy Alderson. “It needs to be fulfilled.” Cleon Jones said Mays deserved the honor. “He was a difference-maker in the ballpark and a difference-maker in the clubhouse,” said Jones. “He made the atmosphere in the clubhouse conducive to winning.”28

Mays, then 91 years old, did not attend after undergoing hip surgery, but he sent a statement that was read by his son Michael. “I can never forget the way it felt to return to New York to play for all the loyal Mets fans. I’m tremendously proud I ended my career in Queens with the Mets during the ’73 World Series. It’s an honor to have my number retired in my two favorite cities – New York and San Francisco. New York was a magical place to play baseball.”29

THOMAS J. BROWN JR. is a lifelong Mets fan who became a Durham Bulls fan after moving to North Carolina in the early 1980s. He was a national-board-certified high-school science teacher for 34 years before retiring in 2016. Tom taught science to ELL students in the last eight years of his career and still mentors many of them. He has been a member of SABR since 1995, when he learned about the organization during a visit to Cooperstown on his honeymoon. Tom became active in SABR after his retirement, writing biographies and game stories, mostly about the New York Mets. He loves to travel with his wife, always visiting major-league and minor-league baseball parks whenever possible. Tom also loves to cook and writes about the diverse recipes that he makes on his blog, Cooking and My Family.

 

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for box-score, player, team, and season pages, pitching and batting logs, and other pertinent material. The author also viewed Mays’ farewell speech on MLB.com, which can be accessed at https://www.mlb.com/video/mays-speaks-on-his-night-in-1973.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYN/NYN197309250.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1973/B09250NYN1973.htm

 

NOTES

1  The San Francisco Giants traded Mays to the New York Mets for Charlie Williams and $50,000. “We’re hopeful that Willie will help us this year and maybe next,” said Mets President M. Donald Grant. “… I personally hope he’s here for the rest of his baseball life.” Red Foley, “Mets Deal Brings Willie ‘Back to Paradise,’” New York Daily News, May 12, 1972: 95.

2  Foley.

3  The Mets medical staff had to frequently drain fluid from Mays’ knees. He had hurt his left knee playing in the outfield. When he favored the right one, it eventually caused him daily pain. Mays also injured his right shoulder when he misjudged a leap against the outfield wall. He was so hurt that he played only three games in September.

4  James Hirsch, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend (New York: Scribner, 2010), 519.

5  Hirsch, 520.

6  Hirsch, 521.

7  Hirsch, 521.

8  Will Grimsley, “World of Baseball Bids Good-bye to One of Greatest Performers,” Selma (Alabama) Times-Journal, September 26, 1973: 11.

9  Grimsley.

10 Hirsch, 520.

11 Don Drumm, “Fans Say So Long,” White Plains (New York) Journal-News, September 26, 1973: D1.

12 Drumm.

13 Newspapers reported on the many gifts Mays received. Other gifts that were mentioned: two limousines, a Mercedes Benz, 100 record albums, a lifetime supply of Atlantic Records recordings, lifetime supplies of Teachers scotch and Moët champagne, a set of luggage, a Fisher console stereo system, a private telephone system, a collection of Willie Mays dolls and games, bedsheets, towels and bedspreads, numerous clothing outfits, a silver tray, a trip around the world, a trip to Mexico, a typewriter, a mink coat and watch for his wife, Mae, an honorary doctorate from Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama.

14 Grimsley.

15 Frank Dolson, “Thousands Cheer Mays in His Last Hurrah,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 26, 1973: C1.

16 Sam Goldaper, “Baseball Says Good-bye to Willie Mays and Era,” New York Times, September 26, 1973: 29.

17 Ron Drago, “We Love You Willie,” Hackensack Record, September 26, 1973: D1.

18 “Mays Speaks on His Night in 1973,” MLB.com. https://www.mlb.com/video/mays-speaks-on-his-night-in-1973.

19 Grimsley.

20 Hirsch, 524.

21 Rogers eventually finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting to Gary Matthews.

22 Drumm, “Fans Say So Long.”

23 Ron Drago, “Cleon Contributes Special Gift to Mays,” Hackensack Record, September 26, 1973: D1.

24 Marshall made 92 appearances in 1973 to lead the league for the second time in two years. Marshall set the major-league record for relief appearances (106) in 1974, when he played for the Dodgers.

25 Hirsch, 524.

26 Hirsch, 520.

27 Perhaps even more significant than his play on the field was the role Mays played in third game of the series. Cincinnati’s Pete Rose tried to break up a double play in the fifth inning with a hard slide into second. He knocked down New York shortstop Bud Harrelson, who jumped up and charged Rose. Both benches emptied and the two teams brawled for over five minutes before the umpires separated the players. When Rose took the field in the sixth, Mets fans pelted him with all sorts of items. After he was almost hit with a bottle, Rose walked off the field. Cincinnati manager Sparky Anderson said he wouldn’t continue the game until his players were safe. When the Mets’ public-address announcer asked the fans to stop, they ignored him with a chorus of boos. National League President Chub Feeney consulted with umpires and asked Mets manager Berra to send out a player to calm the crowd. Berra chose Mays and when Mays left the dugout the fans cheered him. He gave the peace sign to the fans and pointed to the scoreboard, reminding them that the team was ahead 9-2. Then he went down the foul line along with Staub, Seaver, and Jones. Mays shouted to the fans, “We’re ahead! Let ’em play the game.” Hirsch, 525.

28 “Mets Retire Willie Mays’ No. 24 in Surprise Moment at Old Timers’ Day,” The Athletic, August 27, 2022. https://theathletic.com/3543073/2022/08/27/willie-mays-mets-number-retirement/.

29 Associated Press, “New York Mets Retire Willie Mays’ No. 24 Jersey in Old-Timers’ Day Surprise,” ESPN.com, August 27, 2022. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/34473093/new-york-mets-retire-willie-mays-no-24-jersey-old-rs-day-surprise.