Remembering Willie Mays: A Legendary Baseball Icon

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Transcript

00:00You know, one player history of the game passed away last week at the age of 93, Tuck, and

00:08that, of course, is Willie Mays.

00:09They had a great event in Birmingham celebrating his life.

00:12I know that you got a chance to get up close and personal with Willie many times, a lot

00:17of opening days there that you spent with him being there, and I'm sure it was probably

00:23emotional to see him pass away last week.

00:25Any good memories that you have there that you could share with us?

00:28Yeah, that was a tough week last week.

00:33When I first found out about it, you know, I had to take a couple of days to myself just

00:38kind of, you know, just get my head together, get my thoughts together, because I remember

00:43when I was playing there, I had grounded out to the shortstop probably four times.

00:51I came upstairs, I ripped off my batting gloves, and Willie was sitting in the office and he

00:56sees me, and he calls me, he goes, hey, what are you doing?

01:00I said, I'm getting new batting gloves, the batting gloves aren't working.

01:03He goes, no, they're throwing you that pitch, you got to hit that ball to left center.

01:07I said, Willie, I'm trying, he said, don't try, just do it.

01:11And that was the type of guy he was, he was direct about it, he wouldn't, no bones about

01:16it.

01:17They're going to throw you that pitch, just hit it to left center, just hit it, let it

01:19go there.

01:20And I go up next to the bat, didn't think about it, I hit it, ball goes to left center,

01:23I get a double, and I'm just sitting there going, man, if it's that easy, wow, I should

01:30be doing this all the time.