"Of DiMaggio and Mays"

I'm at it again!! A new letter to the New York papers questions why Willie Mays is still not being named Joe DiMaggio's successor as "Greatest Living Ballplayer"...20 years after DiMaggio's death.

Here's the letter, which I just e-mailed to papers in the city BOTH of them played in...

Editor,

It's hard to believe that, 20 years ago this week, New York Yankee great Joe DiMaggio died.  "The Yankee Clipper," in his latter years, often referred to himself as "The Greatest Living Ballplayer" and the entire baseball world went along with that.  But why has no one named Willie Mays "The Greatest Living Ballplayer" since Joe D.'s demise?

I'm a Yankee fan, but if you go strictly by stats, Mays was "The Greatest Living Ballplayer" even while DiMaggio was still with us. True, DiMag was married to Marilyn Monroe, was considered better looking than most men and starred in more TV commercials than Mays.  And Willie grew up idolizing Joe, not vice versa.  But Mays was always better as a ballplayer in nearly every major category, and that's what "The Greatest Living Ballplayer" designation should be all about.

I have to ask this question: Is it possible that Mays has not been given the honor because of some sort of lingering racism in America? There was a time in this nation, after all, when Willie would not have even been allowed to play in the major leagues.  In any event, 20 years is long enough to wait to see Mays get his due.  Unlike Joe, it's not in Willie's nature to speak of himself as "The Greatest Living Ballplayer," so Major League Baseball needs to do it for him.

Chet Jelinski

To see OTHER letters I've had published over the years, regarding this very theme, check my blog for November 3rd, 2018.  The photo above has Mays on the right, DiMaggio on our left and it's from the 1950s.