Latest / OneLegUpAlex Sports / What we can Learn from the Life and Legacy of Willie Mays 6-20-2024

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What we can Learn from the Life and Legacy of Willie Mays 6-20-2024 · OneLegUpAlex Sports

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  Here's your host, Alex Garrett, as rick Wood Field, the birthplace of
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  Willie Mays's baseball career in Birmingham, Alabama, gets ready to host the San
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  Francisco Giants, that very Giants team that mister Mays wore both in New York
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  at the Polo Grounds and of course in San Francisco against the Saint Louis Cardinals.
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  I want to share a little bit of my thoughts and my adventure to
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  City Field on June nineteenth, twenty twenty four. Willie Mays, to our
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  generation, is known for the catch, but the guy had twenty four All
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  Star selections. Not only that, he was able to hit three hundred and
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  hit three thousand hits and of course hit six hundred and sixty homers. Oh,
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  by the way, while serving in the army during the Korean War for
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  not one but two years. Two years of baseball did not happen because he
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  dedicated his time and his life to serving our country so well. I had
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  seen all these tributes come in rightfully so, from politicians and from athletes that
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  sometimes don't exude the values that Willie Mays exuded. I just hope we can
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  take the legacy of Willie Mays that's being honored all week, and rightfully so,
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  and import them in our own lives, and that these athletes that are
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  shouting out Willie May's for all of his good not only on the field,
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  but in the community, and not just in the community, but in our
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  country and serving our country. I hope they can take those values and import
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  them in their own lives. The minute they feel like they can just sit
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  in the locker room in the national anthem, be that as it may.
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  I wanted to take it a city field where I filed this report On June
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  nineteenth, twenty twenty four. In nineteen seventy three, in front of a
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  roaring crowd, Willie Mays stood at this very home plan at Chase Stadium and
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  announced his retirement MLB TikTok. Hosting the game of baseball has been great to
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  me. I have guessed about everything I need. The honest thing that I'm
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  looking for out of baseball now is that I can teach other kids would be
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  as great an athletics as I was in my day. Now you may think
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  that's a joke, but that is just something from the heart. I love
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  baseball and I played it all all the time, but out the way that
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  I love it. And when I find someone but I feel that is worthy
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  of the game of baseball, I will happen. And I said to the
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  team over here, the New York Mets, right down, forgive me,
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  because I know this is hard on you, as is on me, because
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  it is this is my night, but it is your night, and I
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  hope you go on to win a playing for the New York people. And
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  of course real quick there, that is because they were in the thick of
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  the playoff race in nineteen seventy three when William Mays did this speech, and
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  of course he did contribute in that World Series, having an RBI basehead in
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  Game two against the A's and the A's would eventually win. But Mays did
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  have a contribution in that World Series, the last he would ever play.
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  But he continued, I also want to thank too much or all ball cluff
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  are taking somebody's time out. I know this is a lay on you,
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  and I hope that with my farewell tonight, you would understand what I'm going
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  through right now, something that I never feel that I would ever quit baseball,
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  But as you know, it always come a time for someone to get
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  out and I look at the kids over here. The way they are playing
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  and the way they are fighting for themselves tells me one thing. Willie say
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  goodbye to America, Thank you very much. And that was the speech from
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  one Willie Mays, and I went on to talk about how which you can
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  find at alex G NYC one. They did honor Willie Mays on the marquee
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  at City Field yesterday and I'm sure they're doing it today. And I think
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  the most incredible thing is not only Willie Mays's contributions to baseball, but New
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  York baseball. Okay, New York baseball in nineteen fifty in the nineteen fifties,
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  it was always the Dodgers, Giants and Yankees running baseball. Nineteen fifty
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  four World Series, that is, I believe the year that the Giants won
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  the pennant, the Giants won the pennant, Mays was on that team.
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  He was very much a fabric of New York baseball and then in the general
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  scheme of things Major League Baseball. He was also a two time MVP.
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  Now I look back his All Star selections, twenty four of them. That
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  means every season he played he was an All Star and selected the team.
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  I don't know that's been done before. That is really historic and really a
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  tremendous honor. Twenty fifteen, he got the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack
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  Obama, President Obama, and in fact he was at I believe in eight
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  Barry Bonds's retirement ceremony and actually said a few words there as well. Twelve
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  time gold Glover. We know how he was in the center in the outfield,
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  and I truly employ you. I'll put the link here to listen to
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  John Miller's tribute to Willie Mays. He it's like one of the last of
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  that era, that golden era of baseball has left us. And I just
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  praised I said before that clip that the class that he showed right in that
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  speech apologizing the Montreal Expos for his night, that's class right there. That
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  the athletes of today import those values, those that wisdom and that humility into
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  their daily repertoire. Before they think about, you know, sitting in the
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  locker room for the national anthem, or think about complaining about the referee or
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  just hot dogging around the bases, do what Willie did, which is play
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  hard, play the game. Well, and you will do well. That's
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  my hope for players that are exuding their compliment, their memories, their farewell
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  to the say hey kid, then import that every day, not just on
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  the day ninety three year old William Mays passed away. There will never be
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  another say hey kid. And I'm excited to see how Rick wood Yield goes
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  tonight in Birmingham, Alabama and how how they honor Willie Mays. Thanks MOLB
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  for sharing that speech. I just wanted to hear it from his words.
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  More so than a tribute. I wanted to hear play you Willie Mays's words
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  because those are the words that matter in this in his lifetime, and what
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  a life it was. So kudos to the career, the life, and
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  legacy of Willie Mays, and may we all take those values he gave to
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  the league, gave to the country, gave to the baseball world and beyond
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  and generations of baseball fans and utilize those values in our legacies in our worlds
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  as well. On the Alex Gartt podcast Network,