Willie Mays turns 79 today. During the brief time I followed baseball in the sixties, there seemed to be some rule that said I, as an Angeleno, had to not only root for the Dodgers but to loathe the San Francisco Giants. I never quite understood why the public hating but my classmate Lewis used to pray for the swift and painful death of every Giant and most around me wished them at least a little grief, above and beyond losing games.
Still, there was one Giant that even Lewis couldn't hate: Willie. Lewis, like me, collected that year's Topps cards and one day when we were doing some trading, I noticed he had Mr. Mays in his Dodgers bundle. I asked him why and he said, "I dream of Willie coming to his senses and forcing the Giants to trade him to Los Angeles."
Our pal, James H. Burns, has an interesting article over in The Sporting News about the man, as opposed to the player. It's a small but nice little story.