by Casey Mensing

Created on: July 19, 2009   Last Updated: March 06, 2011

Every die-hard baseball fan has seen The Catch. The iconic image of Willie Mays running full speed towards the center field wall of the Polo Grounds and making a magnificent over the shoulder basket catch to rob Vic Wertz of what could have been the game winning hit in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series.

William Howard "Willie" Mays Jr, was born May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama. 'The Say Hey Kid', as he was nicknamed, is considered to be the greatest all around baseball player in the history of the game. This notable title being supported by his first ballot election to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979. Mays was also voted to the MLB All Century Team, and placing second on the Sporting News list of the 100 greatest players.

Mays' professional career began in 1951 with the New York Giants. Despite a slow start to his Major League career, Willie would finish the 1951 season by helping the Giants reach the World Series. The Giants would eventually lose the Series to the New York Yankees, but Mays ended up winning the Rookie of The Year Award.

In 1952, Willie Mays was drafted by the United States Army. He would go on to spend most of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season playing baseball at Fort Eustis, VA, until his service was up.

Mays returned to the Giants outfield in 1954 and hit a league leading .345 and would win the National League Most Valuable Player award while leading the Giants to a World Series victory over the Cleveland Indians.

After the 1957 season, the New York Giants would leave the famed Polo Grounds and the city of New York, and relocate to San Francisco, California. Mays would spend the next fourteen years building his Hall of Fame resume in the city by the bay. Some of the highlights were winning his second MVP award and hitting his 500th career home run in 1965. In 1970, the Sporting News named him the "Player of The Decade" for the 1960's.

After being traded by the Giants, Willie Mays would spend the last two seasons of his professional career back in New York as a member of the Mets. While playing with the Mets, Mays played in his last World Series in 1973, after which he retired at the age of forty-two with a career .302 batting average and 660 career home runs.

Mays has spent the three decades since his retirement as a very active baseball spokesperson and personality. He has appeared in TV shows, films, and making the rounds of various baseball events including the 2007 All Star Game, in which he threw out the first pitch and was honored for his special contributions to the game.

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