It’s amazing to think that pitchers and catchers report in less than a week. For some, the baseball season cannot come soon enough. So, to whet your baseball appetite, here’s a clip of quite possibly the greatest player of all time, plugging his new book, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, written by James S. Hirsch, on last night’s Daily Show.
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Willie Mays Plugs His Book, Talks About Stealing Money From Kids
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↵↵⇥“I didn’t let nobody get to me in that way. I played in a couple of towns where they would call me names and different things, and every time I’d hear a name, I’d hit it further. So every time they’d call me some name, I’d hit it further.”↵⇥↵⇥“I was playing in a town, and I hit two home runs one night, two home runs the next night, and a triple. The next day, the announcer came on the air and said, ‘ladies and gentlemen, you see that little kid coming across the mound?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, leave him alone. He’s killing us out here.’ ↵⇥
↵⇥↵⇥“Cheer me so I don’t hit nothing.”↵⇥
↵↵Much of the interview focused on the difficulty Mays had being a black ball player during that time in our nation’s history, which presumes the book spends a lot of time on that as well. Stewart left the whole topic of steroids out of the interview, which was actually quite conspicuous. But honestly, wouldn’t you rather hear about Mays stealing money from Leo Durosher’s seven-year old boy than what he thinks about Mark McGwire’s admission?↵
↵What's ironic about that story – pocketing money from Durosher that was for his kid (and the roommate of Mays on road trips) to buy nice steak dinners instead of 'soul food' – is that Mays has been notoriously stingy about money over the years. Take this report by Leon Neyfakh in the New York Observer from back in 2007 when this book was announced. ↵
↵↵⇥In exchange for his cooperation, Mr. Mays will receive an undisclosed portion of the proceeds from the book, which, after a heated bidding war, sold for $1.35 million, according to a source close to the negotiations. Mr. Mays’ lawyer Jeff Bleich, told The Observer that the former Giants centerfielder plans to donate his cut of the money to his charity, the Say Hey Foundation, which helps send underprivileged kids to college.↵⇥↵⇥That’s a move that many say is out of character for the notoriously Scrooge-like Mr. Mays. “He’s a guy who always felt like people were trying to milk off of him throughout his career,” said Jeff Pearlman, who recently wrote a biography of Mr. Mays’ god-son, Barry Bonds. “He thought a lot of guys were making a lot of money off him—namely the Giants and Major League Baseball—and that he wasn’t getting what he deserved. So I imagine when these guys are writing these books, Mays feels like, ‘This is another guy trying to get paid off of my name.’”↵⇥
↵⇥↵⇥According to the veteran baseball writer Peter Golenbock, Mr. Mays has appeared bitter during the past fifteen years, “perhaps over the fact that these days ballplayers are making over $15 million a year and Willie was making $100,000, if that.” That bitterness has apparently been an obstacle for those looking to write about him.↵⇥
↵↵It’s important to note that Mays has worked with other authors in the past, despite the reportedly high price tag. I’ll never understand how retired greats handle the news of contract negotiations in the current sports landscape. I understand inflation, but to think that high school kids are getting signing bonuses for ten times more money than Mays made in his entire career, it’s understandable why the guy would want to protect himself.↵↵Yet no matter how it worked out financially, it’s great to see Mays telling his version of these stories at this point in his life. To have him back on the interview circuit is like watching a living, breathing, baseball museum. That’s priceless.↵
↵↵For an excerpt of the book, click here.↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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