The New York Yankees are my favorite baseball team since 1978. But San Francisco Giant / New York Met WILLIE MAYS is my favorite all-time baseball PLAYER!! See, the Giants were my FIRST team from 1960 until I switched to the Yankees. And, the recently-turned 89 year-old Mays is, undoubtedly, the greatest ALL-AROUND player of all-time. (He was the "Greatest LIVING Player" before Yankee legend Joe DiMaggio died, and he DEFINITELY owns that title NOW, since Joe D. passed in 1999.)
This is why, 40 years ago today, I jumped at the chance to MEET Willie face-to-face!! I didn't have far to go....only about two miles, as he was visiting a BAR in Newark, NJ (my birthplace.) The next day would be one year since I started my fledgling carpet cleaning business, and I had a wife and young daughter to support, but I took off for an hour mid-day to meet "The Say Hey Kid."
Driving there (to Roseville Ave. in Newark) I went down BLOOMFIELD Ave. where, ironically, DiMAGGIO appeared live the previous October as Grand Marshall of the Columbus Day Parade. I say "ironically" because Mays has confessed to "idolizing" Joe when he was young, and I was retracing JOE'S steps now to get to where WILLIE would be on THAT day in MAY.
At my destination now, I encountered Mays and his entourage OUTSIDE the bar (I did not go IN, for religious reasons) and I was surprised that others were NOT waiting for his limo to pull up, as I was. (The BIG crowd was apparently IN the tavern!!) I was GLAD though, because it gave me an opportunity to TALK with him "alone" for a second and get the photos shown above. He was 49 then, but still looked like he could play ball if he wanted to.
So what did I SAY to Mays, in that first encounter?? Well, as he was often compared to HANK AARON, I said "Willie, you were better than Aaron ANY day," to which he smiled and replied "Tell that to AARON." I did not follow him INTO the bar, but, after that exchange I went back to work.
In the photos above, you'll see a man with a cowboy hat...he was one of my distinguished COMPETITORS in the carpet cleaning business, and he helped arrange Mays's trip to Newark. Yes, Mr. Ebon was a FORMIDABLE business man, but by God's grace I lasted 35 years in the same business despite his presence!! And in the 1990s, I met Willie Mays "live" two OTHER times. He was signing autographs at the grand openings of his now-defunct "Willie Mays Country Chicken" restaurants, here in the SUBURBS of Jersey. By this time I had twin SONS added to my family, to go with my daughter. I took THEM to meet Willie, but, at that point he was crabby and VERY out-of-shape. I wish they could have been with me to meet him that FIRST time, 40 years ago TODAY.
My new BOOK about Mays (pictured above) should be on Amazon SOON, along with my other 4 books. I was a bit discouraged to see that ANOTHER author released a new "Mays" book on Amazon, just YESTERDAY. Frankly, it looks far more sophisticated than mine, but just as God helped my business to survive despite the competition of Mr. Ebon, He can bless my WRITING career despite the competition. For example, the cover to MY book is a do-it-yourself DRAWING of Mays with my photo at age 9 superimposed. The OTHER Mays book is FAR more "professional" in appearance but hey, 40 years ago I started out painting my own design on my new VAN for my new BUSINESS, and I survived despite how competitors like Ebon had more vans and more capital to have PROS paint their fleets!!
(In my opinion, that other author made a tactical mistake by prominently mentioning that OBAMA likes Willie Mays, but that's HIS problem, Lol!!)
As for Willie, several years ago I wrote in my now out-of-print book "Human Heroes," the following..."I just pray Mays gets saved before he leaves this earth one day. Being the 'Greatest Living Player' will cause lots of us to mourn him when he dies, but it won't get Willie Mays into Heaven! Only the Blood of Christ cleansing our sins away can accomplish that." Amen!!
No comments:
Post a Comment