May 14, 1972, 50 years ago: Willie Mays returns to New York, after the San Francisco Giants had traded him to the Mets for Charlie Williams. He hits a home run, the 649th of his career, and it provides the winning run, as the Mets beat the Giants, 5-4 at Shea Stadium. Rusty Staub also hits a home run, in support of Ray Sadecki.
Mays had played the 1951, '54, '55, '56 and '57 seasons in New York, with the Giants, plus a fraction of '52 before he was drafted into the U.S. Army for the Korean War. It was a time when New York City had 3 great center fielders, and locals argued over which was best: Mays, Edwin "Duke" Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers, or Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.
Statistically speaking, Mays had the edge in 1951 and 1954; Snider in 1952 (with Mays unavailable) and 1955; and Mantle the edge in 1953 (with Mays unavailable), 1956 and 1957.
After the 1957 season, the Giants moved to San Francisco, and the Dodgers moved to Los Angeles. San Francisco fans loved the players who came up to the Giants in San Francisco, like Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal. But, being from a rather provincial city, they didn't really trust outsiders like Mays. A few years later, after the Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev visited America, New York sportswriter Frank Conniff wrote of San Francisco, "What a town. They boo Willie Mays and cheer Khrushchev."
Eventually, over the course of his 14 full seasons in the City By the Bay, Mays won them over. But by 1972, he was 41, and winding down. The Giants traded him to the Mets, even-up, for Charlie Williams, a pitcher who lasted in the major leagues from 1971 to 1978, and had a career record of 23-22. It's not fair to say that he was a bad pitcher, but it is fair to say that being traded for Mays was the only remarkable thing about his career.
Before this game, against the Giants, Mays was presented on the field with a mockup of a San Francisco cable car. He hadn't played a home game in New York in nearly 15 years, but he was still beloved there, as the "Say Hey Kid" who had led the Giants to stun the world by winning the 1954 World Series, thanks to his National League batting title, his daring on the bases, and his defense, including a sensational catch that saved Game 1 of the Series.
In this game, Mays led off, played 1st base, and, of course, wore Number 24. Except for a few games at the start of his career, when he wore 14, he had always worn 24. There didn't seem to be any significance to it: It was just the number he was assigned at the time.
Although Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz, a native of St. Paul, Minnesota who had seen Mays play for the Giants' former farm team, the Minneapolis Millers, and then had moved to Northern California and become a Giants fan, once showed Charlie Brown remembering his locker combination of 3-24-7 by telling Linus Van Pelt, "Babe Ruth was Number 3, Willie Mays is Number 24, and Mickey Mantle is Number 7!"
As with Mantle's 500th career home run, 5 years to the day before, Mays should have retired right there. As with Mantle, the next year and a half in uniform did him no good. Hank Aaron had just surpassed him for 2nd place on the all-time home run list. Mays, once considered the likeliest player to break Babe Ruth's career record of 714 home runs, wrapped it up after the 1973 season with 660, seeing Aaron break the record at the start of the next season.
On September 25, 1973, Willie Mays Night was held at Shea Stadium, and he told the crowd, “I look at the kids over here, the way they're playing, the way they're fighting for themselves, and it tells me one thing: ‘Willie, say good by to America.’” The Mets won the Pennant, but the entire country saw his last games in the World Series, and he looked terrible.
He was elected to the Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility, 1979, and the Giants retired his Number 24. They gave him a statue outside their new ballpark, now named Oracle Park, whose mailing address is 24 Willie Mays Plaza.
Original Mets owner Joan Payson, who had previously been the only stockholder of the Giants to vote against moving to San Francisco, said that no Met would ever wear Number 24 again. She died during the 1975 postseason, and, since then, 3 Mets have worn 24: Kelvin Torve for 7 games in 1990 before fans protested, Rickey Henderson (at least, another Hall-of-Famer) for 152 games in 1999 and 2000, and Robinson Canó for 168 games from 2019 to 2022. (Before Mays, the best Met to wear 24 was Art Shamsky on the 1969 "Miracle" team.)
Mays has not been back to Met games very often. His appearances include their 1977 Old-Timers' Day, where he appeared in a Met uniform, along with Mantle, Snider and Joe DiMaggio in their respective uniforms; the 2008 closing of Shea Stadium; and the 2013 All-Star Game at Citi Field. He is still alive at age 92, and the Mets may wait until he dies to officially retire his Number 24.
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