"Why There's No Willie Mays MOVIE"

A good friend asked me last night why there was never a Willie Mays MOVIE.  That's a fair question considering that baseball movies have been made about Gehrig, Ruth, Foxx, Jackie Robinson, Mantle and Maris, and so on....yet the one who many (myself included) consider The Greatest All-Around Baseball Player of All-Time has NO movie about him, his life, his achievements.

My answer to my friend last night was as follows: Mays (who turns 88 on Monday, by the way) didn't create CONTROVERSY or "DRAMA" like those other players did.  And most of his milestone achievements are available on YouTube now, ANYway...who needs a movie??  A Willie Mays movie wouldn't be exciting, though HE was exciting.  You see, Mays was exciting as a PLAYER...but not as a PERSON.

And I love him for that, as well as for everything I wrote here about him last November 3rd.  He IS "The Greatest Living Player" and (in my opinion) arguably "The Greatest Player EVER."  But it's his character which I admire...as much as I can admire an unsaved man.  Willie was / is just a great guy.

     He wasn't a WOMANIZER like so MANY great players were or are.

     Willie didn't break baseball's color line, but if he HAD of been the one, he would have done it, I believe, a lot easier than JACKIE did....because he was more MELLOW and easier to like..

     He didn't drink ALCOHOL like Mantle and Ruth...he drank MILK.

     He BROKE UP fights rather than START fights (think Roseboro-Marichal).

     And, he obviously didn't die at a very young age, of a tragic disease, like GEHRIG did.

I could go on and on and on!!  But in short, Mays is NOT "Movie Material" for those reasons.  And other than a documentary about him in the 60s and many TV appearances, there never has been, and probably never WILL be, a movie about Willie Mays.

BOOKS, however?? That's another story (pardon the pun).  The photo above shows four by OTHER authors and the LAST one, "Human Heroes (How To Enjoy, Without Idolizing,Them)" was by me (I did the COVER sketch of Mays, ALSO.)  Willie has plenty of BOOKS about him...in fact, I wrote a SECOND book, "Mays's Greatest Day," which I never self-published like I did the FIRST.  (So the FIRST book is out-of-print, and my SECOND never got IN print, Lol!!)  Maybe THAT book will one day be made into a movie about Willie, who knows...but for now, that's why there has yet to be a Willie Mays MOVIE.

Perhaps when he PASSES there will be one...he certainly deserves it more than ANYONE!!