Legendary Corridor of Famer, and Negro League icon Willie Mays, has handed away on the age of 93.
The baseball icon beloved by followers, thought of one of many sports activities’ best gamers and the primary African American staff captain in MLB historical past, died peacefully on Tuesday afternoon (June 18).
“My father has handed away peacefully and amongst family members,” his son Michael Mays stated, per San Francisco Chronicle. “I need to thanks all from the underside of my damaged coronary heart for the unwavering love you could have proven him over time. You may have been his life’s blood.”
The MLB mourned his passing with a tribute publish to the “24-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glover, 2-time MVP, World Sequence champion, Corridor of Famer.”
The legendary slugger, nicknamed “The Say Hey Child,” for the keenness with which he greeted teammates, started his profession within the Negro Leagues. He performed with the Black Barons, serving to them attain the ultimate Negro Leagues World Sequence in 1948.
Mays skilled a tradition shock after becoming a member of the Giants three years after Jackie Robinson broke the sports activities’ shade barrier. The pioneer spent 21 years with the Giants and is ceaselessly immortalized in a 9-foot-tall bronze statue in entrance of San Francisco’s Oracle Park at 24 Willie Mays Plaza.
The Giants Mourn Willie Mays
“Right now we’ve misplaced a real legend,” Giants chairman Greg Johnson stated. “Within the pantheon of baseball greats, Willie Mays’ mixture of great expertise, eager mind, showmanship, and boundless pleasure set him aside. A 24-time All-Star, the Say Hey Child is the last word Endlessly Large. He had a profound affect not solely on the sport of baseball, however on the material of America. He was an inspiration and a hero who can be ceaselessly remembered and deeply missed.”
Mays was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015. “It’s due to giants like Willie that somebody like me might even take into consideration operating for president,” Obama stated on the ceremony.
Following his passing, Obama and others paid tribute to the pioneer.