Mays is overflowing with youthful memories, but focuses on kids futures
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Willie Mays has a lot of baseball memories that will bring a smile to his face, but he also wants to focus on future generations of baseball players. “I like to help people,” he says.Deanne Fitzmaurice / The Chronicle 2004
To sit and talk with Willie Mays is to walk into the Polo Grounds or Candlestick Park, hang with Monte Irvin or Bobby Bonds, lose your cap running first to third, and make a basket catch or three.
Willie Mays makes us young again. He makes us feel good about ourselves, our environment. He makes us reflect and smile. He makes us want to do better and be kinder.
‘Octopus:’ Birmingham’s superstar shortstop belongs in the Hall of Fame
Updated Feb 22, 2021;
‘In the Negro Leagues, they called Artie Wilson “Octopus” because it was like he had eight arms that reached everywhere.’
If you’re a baseball fan and even if you’re not, I urge you to read every word of Joseph Goodman’s column about one of the greatest shortstops of all time and why he belongs in the National Baseball Hall of Fame:
Here are a few excerpts:
The best shortstop that most young baseball fans have never heard of was from speck-of-nothing Springville, Alabama, and when he would walk into the dugout for spring training he’d say, “Never fear, Artie’s here.”
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By the time Casey Stengel became manager of the Oakland Oaks for the 1946 season, the franchise already had nearly a half-century of backstory. Sometimes it stood tall and strong among Pacific Coast League competitors, but often seeming overshadowed by the San Francisco Seals, whose city was about five times
By the time Casey Stengel became manager of the Oakland Oaks for the 1946 season, the franchise already had nearly a half-century of backstory. Sometimes it stood tall and strong among Pacific Coast League competitors, but often seeming overshadowed by the San Francisco Seals, whose city was about five times the size of the Oaks town of 67,000 when the rivalry began. The Seals story (with their five PCL titles, multiple DiMaggios and Lefty O Doul and hit-crazed Smead Jolley) may be more commonly told, but the Oaks are every bit as much a part of baseball history.
Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
For The Birmingham TimesÂ
 James âJakeâ Sandersâs voice was hoarse but that didnât stop him from expressing his joy that Major League Baseball now views the Negro Leagues as major league.
âThatâs the greatest thing that could have ever happened for the Negro League ballplayer because we have been left out of everything,â said the 86-year-old former outfielder whose Negro League career in the 1950s included stints with the Kansas City Monarchs, Raleigh Tigers, Birmingham Black Barons, New Orleans Bears and Detroit Stars. âThatâs the best thing that could have ever happened.â
Major League Baseball announced in mid-December that it is reclassifying the Negro Leagues as a major league.
December 17, 2020
The year 2020 has not been filled with good news as far as baseball is concerned, but on Wednesday, some arrived. After lengthy study, Major League Baseball announced that it will officially recognize seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 as major leagues. For as overdue as the decision is, it’s first and foremost an official acknowledgement as if one was needed that the baseball played in those leagues at a time when MLB’s shameful color line was in effect was of comparable quality.
“In the minds of baseball fans worldwide, this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the Major Leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country too,” said Bob Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, via MLB’s press release. “This acknowledgement is a meritorious nod to the courageous owners and players who he