Willie Mays: The Leader in Extra-Inning Home Runs
This article was written by Bill Nowlin
This article was published in Willie Mays: Five Tools
Willie Mays hit 22 home runs in extra innings, tops among all major leaguers, and four more than the second batter on the list.
When you rank in the top 10 home-run hitters of all time, it’s not surprising that you would also rank high among those who hit home runs in extra innings. As of the 2022 season, Willie Mays ranks number 6 on the list of career homer hitters with 660. With 22 homers hit in extra innings, he ranks number 1.
Some extra-inning batting statistics:
| HR | Player | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | RBI | AVG | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Willie Mays | 292 | 57 | 87 | 11 | 6 | 45 | .298 | .603 |
| 18 | Jack Clark | 179 | 41 | 58 | 5 | 2 | 41 | .324 | .676 |
| 16 | Babe Ruth* | 113 | 28 | 31 | 6 | 1 | 26 | .274 | .690 |
| 16 | Frank Robinson | 250 | 45 | 76 | 7 | 1 | 44 | .304 | .532 |
| 15 | Albert Pujols | 155 | 27 | 47 | 9 | 1 | 37 | .303 | .665 |
| 14 | Mickey Mantle | 122 | 39 | 44 | 8 | 1 | 28 | .361 | .787 |
| 14 | Hank Aaron | 254 | 38 | 76 | 13 | 4 | 38 | .299 | .547 |
| 13 | Ted Williams | 129 | 29 | 47 | 9 | 0 | 32 | .364 | .736 |
| 12 | Willie Stargell | 188 | 23 | 53 | 7 | 2 | 32 | .282 | .532 |
| 12 | Mark McGwire | 110 | 21 | 30 | 2B | 1 | 30 | .273 | .636 |
| 12 | Rafael Palmeiro | 178 | 36 | 58 | 10 | 0 | 37 | .326 | .584 |
| 12 | Jim Thome | 153 | 29 | 37 | 8 | 0 | 26 | .242 | .529 |
| 12 | David Ortiz | 139 | 17 | 37 | 9 | 0 | 26 | .259 | .583 |
Sources: Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Statistics through 2022 season. Note: Babe Ruth’s play-by-play record before 1920 is incomplete. Errors in the original chart have been corrected in the online version presented above.
Having had the most at-bats in extra innings certainly provides more opportunities.
Of the top 10 home-run hitters, nearly half don’t make the list of those with a dozen or more homers in regular-season extra-inning games. Missing are Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr., and Sammy Sosa.
Players hitting a higher number of extra-inning homers who don’t crack the top 10 for overall quantity are Jack Clark (who ranks number 103 in the number of total homers hit), Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Willie Stargell, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, and David Ortiz.1
Let’s look briefly at each of the 22 extra-inning Willie Mays home runs:
June 22, 1951: Playing at Wrigley Field in his 29th big-league game, Mays saw the Cubs’ Hal Jeffcoat hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth, tying the game, 6-6, and sending it to extra innings. Mays had a single in the sixth but had struck out in the second, the fourth, and the eighth. In the top of the 10th, with one out and runners on first and second, Mays swung at Cubs reliever Emil “Dutch” Leonard’s first pitch and hit a three-run homer to deep left off “the wall beyond the left field catwalk.”2 The 9-6 score held, and the Giants won. It was the 10th win in a row for the Giants at Wrigley. The homer was the fifth of Mays’ career.
July 3, 1951: Nine games later, Mays hit another extra-inning homer, this one at the Polo Grounds against the visiting Phillies. The score was 5-5 after nine. Both teams scored one run in the 10th. Neither team scored in the 11th, but both scored once in the 12th. The Phillies took an 8-7 lead in the top of the 13th. With one out in the bottom of the 13th, Mays homered (off Jocko Thompson) “into the left-field stands” to – once again – tie the score.3 Wes Westrum walked. Monte Irvin singled a pinch-runner to second, and Whitey Lockman hit “one of the longest singles in Polo Grounds history,” to center, winning the game.4 The ball had gone well over the center fielder’s head and “struck the bleacher wall, some 450 feet distant, on one hop.”5
July 7, 1951: Just four days later, the Boston Braves were in New York. Three times the Braves took the lead and three times a Giants home run retied the game. The score was 4-4 after the first nine innings; a two-run homer by Bobby Thomson in the bottom of the eighth had evened the score. The Braves scored, bizarrely, in the top of the 10th. Boston’s Roy Hartsfield singled. Sam Jethroe’s drive struck Hartsfield and so the baserunner was out. Jethroe stole second and catcher Sal Yvars’s errant throw went wild, allowing Jethroe to take third. (Yvars had just entered the game.) Second baseman Eddie Stanky retrieved the throw and, in turn, threw wildly to third base, Jethroe scoring. With one out in the bottom of the 10th, Mays homered to left field off George Estock, “off the left field façade, where it read 414 feet.”6 TheTimes described his homer as one that “hit the cigarette pack in deep left field.”7 The game, tied again, went to 11. The Braves scored once to take a 6-5 lead. Yvars led off in the bottom of the 11th and atoned for his miscue by hitting the third Giants home run of the day that tied the score. With one out, Stanky tripled off reliever Warren Spahn. He tagged and scored on Al Dark’s fly ball to left.
April 30, 1954: Returning to baseball after missing most of 1952 and all of 1953 due to military service, Mays was back at Wrigley Field on the last day of April. He broke up a 2-2 tie in the top of the 14th inning. With one out, Mays homered “into the left center field seats” off Warren Hacker’s first pitch.8 It was the game-winner, though a subsequent walk, single, and Monte Irvin’s sacrifice fly gave the Giants an insurance run.
May 13, 1955: On a Friday afternoon at Busch Stadium, Mays had a 3-for-4 day. Al Dark singled and so did Mays in the top of the first. Monte Irvin doubled them both home. Stan Musial doubled home two in the bottom of the second to tie the score. Each team scored once in the third. It was still 3-3 after nine innings, and Cardinals starter Harvey Haddix was still in the game. The first batter in the 10th was Willie Mays. Haddix’s first pitch to Mays “almost removed the button from Willie’s cap.”9 The New York Times said Mays was visibly angry. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat wrote, “Mays then got up and hit the ball off the premises”10 – he homered into the bleachers in left field. The 4-3 lead held.
June 4, 1955: It was Cubs vs. Giants again, but this time at the Polo Grounds. Mays was struggling against Chicago; his home run in the fourth inning into the upper tier in left field was his first homer hit in 30 at-bats against Cubs pitching in 1955. The Giants led 7-2, but with three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth, the Cubs came from behind and tied it 7-7. In the top of the 12th, Ernie Banks singled and drove in two runs for Chicago. Mays led off the bottom of the 12th. Pitching for the Cubs was, again, Warren Hacker. Mays homered “onto the left field upper story roof,”11 bringing the Giants to within one. A single, a wild pitch, and a walk followed, but the Giants were unable to score and lost despite two Mays home runs.
June 30, 1955: The Brooklyn Dodgers won the game, hosting the Giants at Ebbets Field. In the bottom of the ninth, they scored one run to tie the game, 3-3, and send it into extra innings. Ed Roebuck took over pitching duties for Brooklyn in the 10th. Dark led off with a single. Lockman forced him at second, but Mays hit a two-run homer into the upper deck in center field, giving the Giants a 5-3 lead.12 Marv Grissom had taken over to pitch the seventh; in the 10th, Jim Gilliam singled and Duke Snider tripled. Hoyt Wilhelm was brought in to pitch to Jackie Robinson, who bunted. Second baseman Wayne Terwilliger could not handle Wilhelm’s throw to first, and Snider took advantage by sprinting safely home. Tied again, the Dodgers won in the 11th. Ramon Monzant walked Carl Furillo, who took second on Dixie Howell’s sacrifice, and scored on George Shuba’s pinch single.
July 4, 1955 (second game): On a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the ninth at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, the Pirates won the first game, 4-3, for their hometown fans. Mays – who had homered once in the first game – doubled and scored in the first inning of the second game. Pittsburgh scored one run in the second. The Giants took a 2-1 lead in the third and added a third run in the fourth on a balk. That balk call had almost resulted in a forfeit after incensed Pirates fans showered the field with bottles and cans. One can reportedly landed rather close to Mays; the game resumed after 15 minutes. The Pirates scored twice in the seventh. The 3-3 game went into extras. Reliever Lino Donoso pitched a scoreless 10th but gave up a single to Al Dark with two outs in the 11th and a two-run homer to Mays hit over the Forbes Field left-field wall.13 Pittsburgh failed to score, and the Giants celebrated a 5-3 win.
July 14, 1957: His eighth extra-inning home run was his first that was a walk-off. The Giants were hosting the Cubs on a Sunday afternoon. The first six runs (two by the Giants and four by the Cubs) all scored on homers, and the Cubs led 4-2 through 3½. The Giants tied it, saw the Cubs go up 6-4 in the seventh, and then tied it again, 6-6, in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out, two-run homer by Whitey Lockman. Marv Grissom – working his fifth inning of relief – saw the Cubs load the bases with one out in the top of the 12th but escaped damage. With two outs in the bottom of the 12th, Johnny Antonelli walked and Mays homered off Jim Brosnan to deep left field to win the game. Walk-off.
August 4, 1957 (first game): Mays’ solo home run at Crosley Field in the top of the eighth cut Cincinnati’s lead to 4-2. The Giants tied it in the ninth. Mays tripled and scored to start the 10th, but the Redlegs responded and tied the score again. Mays was first up again in the 12th and homered to right-center, once again giving his team the lead in extra innings. But Ed Bailey hit a solo homer for Cincy, and the game was tied yet again. The Giants went ahead for good in the 14th by scoring on – of all things – a bases-loaded, inning-ending double play. The bases were loaded on three walks. With one out, pinch-hitter Ray Katt hit for reliever Marv Grissom. It was a sacrifice fly to left, scoring one runner with the go-ahead run but a 7-5-3 double play followed when Ozzie Virgil didn’t get back to first quickly enough. Grissom got another win.
May 21, 1958: Once again on the road in Cincinnati, the (now San Francisco) Giants scored twice in the top of the first but had fallen behind 4-2 by the sixth. Lockman singled in a third run for New York in the seventh, and Mays followed with a game-tying sacrifice fly off Hal Jeffcoat. Still tied after nine, Mays led off the 10th with a home run into the right-field bleachers off Jeffcoat.14 The score held and for the third time in a row Grissom got the win on a Willie Mays extra-inning home run.
June 29, 1959: Two former New York teams squared off as the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the San Francisco Giants on a Monday night at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The score was tied 3-3 after three. Neither team scored again until the ninth inning, when each put across one run. After 12 innings, it was still 4-4. Roger Craig had started for the Dodgers, with Sandy Koufax pitching three innings in relief before being removed for a pinch-hitter, fellow pitcher Don Drysdale. Stan Williams took over for the 13th and was greeted by solo home runs by leadoff batter Jim Davenport and then Willie Mays, both into the left-field seats. Mike McCormick got the win in the 6-4 game. It was the first extra-inning game the Dodgers ever lost at the Coliseum.
July 10, 1959: Back at Crosley Field, Orlando Cepeda hit a three-run homer in the top of the first to give the Giants a 3-0 head start. Though it was 4-0, then 5-1, Ed Bailey hit a pair of solo home runs for the Reds and the scoring ran to 6-4 until Frank Robinson tied it with a two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh. In the top of the 11th, Orlando Pena pitching, Felipe Alou doubled for the Giants and was sacrificed to third. Willie Kirkland’s sacrifice fly scored him. Mays then hit a homer into deep left-center for an insurance run. The final score was 6-4.
June 29, 1961 (first game): The Giants won the first game of two at Philadelphia’s Connie Mack Stadium, 8-7, with Mays driving in five runs. He hit a two-run homer in the top of the first off Dallas Green and a solo homer in the third (also off Green), but the scoring was even at the end of nine, 7-7. Frank Sullivan was starting his fifth inning in relief for the Phillies when Mays homered into the “left-field corner of the second deck” leading off the top of the 10th.15 Juan Marichal earned the win in relief.
May 26, 1962:The New York Mets were visiting Candlestick Park on a Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. Mays had been given a day off on Wednesday, then hit five home runs in the three games that followed, including the two in this game. Each team scored in four different innings, with Mays homering in the bottom of the eighth to tie the score at 5-5. In the top of the 10th, the Mets’ Felix Mantilla homered off San Francisco’s Don Larsen for a 6-5 lead. Mets starter Jay Hook was still pitching and gave up a leadoff single to Harvey Kuenn in the bottom of the 10th. Chuck Hiller attempted a sacrifice, but it led to a force out at second base. With Hiller on first, Mays swung on a 3-and-0 count and homered “far over the left-centerfield screen” and won the game, 7-6.16 It was just his second extra-inning walk-off home run. Walk-off.
June 13, 1963: The Cubs were at Candlestick when Mays did it again on a Thursday afternoon. The scoring was sparse. Both starters went all the way – Dick Ellsworth for the Cubs and Billy O’Dell for the Giants. Mays had saved O’Dell a run in the second inning with a throw some 300 feet in the air from the warning track to Joey Amalfitano at second base, for a double play. In the top of the fifth, after a double, a walk, and another double play, the Cubs had a man on third. Pitcher Ellsworth singled off O’Dell and Chicago took a 1-0 lead. Felipe Alou homered for the Giants, leading off the bottom of the seventh. O’Dell retired each of the final 13 batters he faced, through the top of the 10th. First up in the bottom of the 10th was Willie McCovey, who flied out to center. Second up was Willie Mays, who homered “over the center-field screen at the 400-foot mark” and won the game, his third extra-inning walk-off.17 Walk-off.
July 2, 1963: This game was the famous scoreless pitching duel between Juan Marichal of the Giants and Warren Spahn of the Milwaukee Braves, which went on and on for 15 full innings without a run for either team. There were a few threats here and there through the first seven innings. (Among them, Mays had thrown a runner out at the plate in the fourth inning and McCovey had hit an apparent game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth, only to have it ruled foul by the first-base umpire.) But from the eighth through the 13th only once did a team (the Braves) get a runner as far as second. In the bottom of the 14th, Kuenn led off with a double and Mays was intentionally walked. The Giants loaded the bases but could not score. Heading into the bottom of the 15th, each pitcher had given up eight base hits. Hank Aaron – described by the Milwaukee Journal as “the Braves’ best bet to break up a deadlock” – was 0-for-6. With one out in the bottom of the 16th, Mays connected off the first pitch he saw from Spahn for a game-winning home run “far over the left-field fence.”18 Walk-off.
August 4, 1963: Just over a month later, the Giants were at Wrigley Field. It was another low-scoring game. In the top of the fourth, Orlando Cepeda reached safely and took second on a throwing error. He scored on Ed Bailey’s single. The Cubs got a run in the top of the eighth when Ron Santo led off with a solo home run off starter Billy O’Dell. The Cubs loaded the bases but couldn’t score in the bottom of the ninth. The second Giants batter in the top of the 10th was Willie Mays, who hit a solo home run “which barely cleared the left field bleacher wall” off Lindy McDaniel.19 Or perhaps landed higher; the Chicago Tribune said it was on a 2-and-0 count and went “halfway up the seats in the left field bleachers.”20 Wherever it landed, it did the trick. Reliever Don Larsen, who had shut down the threat in the ninth, retired the Cubs in order in the 10th.
June 13, 1967: It was almost four years before Mays hit another homer in extra innings, though he had hit 154 other homers in the interim and led the league with 47 in 1964 and both leagues with 52 in 1965. On June 13, 1967, he played indoors – at the Astrodome in Houston. The Giants scored once in the top of the second; Astros pitcher Dave Giusti homered for two runs in the bottom of the inning. Mays entered the game in the top of the sixth, pinch-hitting, and grounded into a double play. In the top of the eighth, left fielder Jim Ray Hart tied it, 2-2, with a solo home run. In the top of the 10th, Giusti gave up a one-out walk and a single, and was relieved by Barry Latman, who struck out Hart. Latman walked Jim Davenport, loading the bases. Mays was up and ready to do damage. First-pitch swinging, he “drove it so far from the plate a $5 stamp wouldn’t have been enough postage to get it back.”21 It was a grand slam that “landed 10 rows deep into the second deck of the left centerfield seats.”22 The Astros went down in order in the bottom of the 10th.
September 27, 1968: The Giants were in second place, nine games behind St. Louis. The host Reds were in third place but had no hope of reaching second with only three games to play. The small Crosley Field crowd saw Mays go 4-for-7. San Francisco scored once in the second, Cincinnati scored twice in the sixth, and the Giants tied it, 2-2, in the top of the seventh. After 14 innings, it was still 2-2. The third Reds pitcher of the game was Ted Abernathy, who came in to pitch the 15th. It was three minutes before midnight, and apparently the crowd had dwindled to something like 1,500. The first batter Abernathy faced was Mays, who homered to deep right field. Mike McCormick got the win in relief for San Francisco.
April 15, 1969: The score was 5-5 after seven innings in Cincinnati, after a 30-minute rain delay in the sixth. In the top of the ninth, the Giants scored three runs to take an 8-5 lead – but the Reds matched that in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the 10th, pitcher Mike McCormick led off with a home run to right field. Mays (batting leadoff) followed that with a homer to left field. Why was a power hitter like Mays hitting in the leadoff slot? Giants manager Clyde King explained, a tribute to the slugger a few weeks from turning 38: “Because he is the fastest man getting from first to third on a single.”23 The Reds tied it, though, with two runs of their own. In the bottom of the 12th, with Gaylord Perry pitching for San Francisco, Alex Johnson led off with a triple. Perry then gave intentional walks to the next two batters. Johnny Bench singled to right-center and won the game. It was the fourth extra-inning homer Mays had hit in Cincinnati.
June 6, 1971 (second game): The Phillies won the first game of two in San Francisco, 1-0. Mays had been 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. His first three times up in the second game he grounded out, flied out to second base, and hit into an inning-ending double play. The Phillies took a 2-0 lead and were still ahead 3-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth, when the Giants tied it, perhaps inspired by a leadoff Mays double. Ken Henderson singled, driving in Mays. A sacrifice sent him to second base. Henderson scored the tying run on a Bobby Bonds single. In the 10th, the Phillies’ Jim Bunning gave up two one-out singles (one to Mays) and – after an intentional walk – escaped a loss on a force play at the plate followed by a groundout to first unassisted. In the 12th, the score still 3-3 and Joe Hoerner pitching for Philadelphia, the 40-year-old Willie Mays came up again, with one out, and “smashed a cloud-dusting 12th-inning home run” that “reached the seats deep behind the left-field screen.”24 Walk-off.
After a May 11, 1972, trade to the New York Mets, Mays homered eight times the rest of the season and six times in 1973 but none of his home runs were in extra innings. One provided the winning runs in a game during the fifth inning of the July 21, 1972, game against the Giants in San Francisco. On August 12, 1972, his sixth-inning homer provided the run that sent a 1-1 game into extras; the Mets beat the Cubs in 10, on Tommie Agee’s home run. On June 9, 1973, his third-inning homer gave the Mets a 3-2 lead in a game they won, 4-2, against the Dodgers at Shea Stadium. The final home run of his career was in the third inning of a game at Shea against Cincinnati on August 17. It was a solo home run off Don Gullett. The Reds tied it 1-1 in the ninth, and won 2-1 in the 10th.
- Extra-inning home runs in road games: 14
- Extra-inning home runs in home games: 8
- Extra-inning HRs that were walk-offs: 5.
- Extra-inning home runs that were game-winners (provided the final go-ahead run): 14, 9 of which were on the road
- Extra-inning home runs in losses: 3, one at home and two on the road
Extra inning homers by inning:
- 10th: 11 (June 22, 1951; July 7, 1951; May 13, 1955; June 30, 1955; May 21, 1958; June 29, 1961; May 26, 1962; June 13, 1963; August 4, 1963; June 13, 1967; April 15, 1969.
- 11th: 2 (July 4, 1955; July 10, 1959)
- 12th: 4 (June 4, 1955; July 14, 1957; August 4, 1957; June 6, 1971)
- 13th: 2 (July 3, 1951; June 29, 1959)
- 14th: 1 (April 30, 1954)
- 15th: 1 (September 27, 1968)
- 16th: 1 (July 2, 1963)
Through 2019, Mays is the only batter to have hit at least one career home run in each of these seven extra innings, the 10th through the 16th. No other batter has homered in the 10th through the 15th. Eight have homered in the 10th through the 14th innings – in alphabetical order: Dante Bichette, Jack Clark, Jason Giambi, Howard Johnson, Graig Nettles, Andy Pafko, Albert Pujols, and Carl Yastrzemski.
A bit of a personal postscript
Reflecting a personal interest in Ted Williams, I could not help but notice how Ted Williams stands out on the list for the fewest number of strikeouts in extra innings among the top homer hitters.
| HR | Player | AB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | Willie Mays | 292 | 40 |
| 18 | Jack Clark | 179 | 41 |
| 16 | Babe Ruth* | 113 | 22 |
| 16 | Frank Robinson | 250 | 49 |
| 15 | Albert Pujols | 155 | 14 |
| 14 | Mickey Mantle | 122 | 19 |
| 14 | Hank Aaron | 254 | 29 |
| 13 | Ted Williams | 129 | 7 |
| 12 | Willie Stargell | 188 | 65 |
| 12 | Mark McGwire | 110 | 30 |
| 12 | Rafael Palmeiro | 178 | 18 |
| 12 | Jim Thome | 153 | 56 |
| 12 | David Ortiz | 139 | 23 |
Sources: Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Statistics through 2022 season. Note: Babe Ruth’s play-by-play record before 1920 is incomplete.
The next-closest had twice as many strikeouts. Frank Robinson had seven times as many as Williams (albeit in twice as many at-bats), and both Thome and Stargell had more than that.
BILL NOWLIN pretty much only saw American League games while growing up in the Boston area, so never saw Willie Mays play. He does wish the Red Sox had signed Mays when they had the opportunity, but there are a lot of things to regret from that era. He has worked as a political science professor, co-founded the Rounder Records label, and has written or edited a lot of books and articles about baseball.
SOURCES
In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org.
Thanks to Tom Ruane of Retrosheet for providing information regarding rankings and to Trent McCotter and Lyle Spatz.
NOTES
1 Joey Votto surpassed Clark during the 2022 season, claiming the number-102 position.
2 Edward Burns, “Giants Defeat Cubs in 10th, 9-6,” Chicago Tribune, June 23, 1951: B1. The New York Times said the Mays home run had gone “high into the seats in left.” Louis Effrat, “Mays’ 3-Run Homer in 10th Halts Chicago for Polo Grounders, 9-6,” New York Times, June 23, 1951: Sports 10.
3 Associated Press, “Giants Top Phillies in 13th to Gain on Beaten Dodgers,” Hartford Courant, July 4, 1951: 14.
4 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Giants Defeat Phils with Two Runs in 13th,” New York Times, July 4, 1951: Sports 21.
5 Sheehan, “Giants Defeat Phils with Two Runs in 13th.”
6 Jack Barry, “Giants Rally 3 Times with Homers, Tops B’s in 11th, 7-6,” Boston Globe, July 8, 1951: C42.
7 Joseph M. Sheehan, “Giants Defeat Braves, 7-6, with Two Runs in Eleventh,” New York Times, July 8, 1951: Sports 1.
8 Edward Prell, “Cubs Lose, 4-2, in 14th,” Chicago Tribune, May 1, 1954: 1.
9 John Drebinger, “Mays’ Hit in 10th Tops St. Louis, 4-3,” New York Times, May 14, 1955: 14.
10 Jack Herman, “Mays’ Home Run in Tenth Beats Cardinals, 4-3,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 14, 1955: 14.
11 Edward Prell, “Banks’ Single Beats Giants After Miksis’ Homer Ties ’Em,” Chicago Tribune, June 5, 1955: B1.
12 The home run gave Mays 10 RBIs in the three games against the Dodgers. He had stayed in the game despite being thrown out at the plate in the eighth, the collision sending catcher Rube Walker to the hospital with a left shoulder injury. John Drebinger, “Dodgers Rally to Down Giants in Eleventh Inning on Pinch Single by George Shuba,” New York Times, July 1, 1955: 15.
13 Lester J. Biederman, “Pirates Finally Get That Relief,” Pittsburgh Press, July 5, 1955: 24.
14 Associated Press, “Giants Win in Tenth on Mays’ Homer,” Washington Post, May 22, 1958: D1.
15 Bob Stevens, “Mays’ Spree Caps 8-7, 4-1 Wins,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 1961: 39.
16 Rob Stevens, “Mays’ Two HRs Edge Mets, 7-6,” San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1962: 37, 39.
17 Bob Stevens, “Mays Beats Cubs, 2-1, on 400-Foot Homer in 10th,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 1963: 53.
18 Bob Wolf, “Spahn Loses Shutout on Homer by Mays,” Milwaukee Journal, July 3, 1963: Part 2: 9. The actual headline was a line score comprising 31 zeroes and the number “1” in the bottom of the 16th.
19 “Mays Homer Beats Cubs, 2-1,” Chicago Daily Defender, August 5, 1963: 24. The Defender suggested that Mays was getting revenge for being thrown out on an attempted steal of third base in the top of the eighth.
20 Richard Dozer, “Cubs Lose in 10th,” Chicago Tribune, August 5, 1963: Section 3: 5.
21 Bob Stevens, “Giants Win on Mays’ Slam,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 1967: 53.
22 United Press International, “Mays ‘Slam’ in 10th Wins,” San Diego Union, June 14, 1963: C2.
23 Associated Press, “Johnson Finds ‘Right Movement,’” Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, April 16, 1969: 37B.
24 Bob Stevens, “Mays’ Homer Gives Giants Split,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 7, 1971: 47.