playing baseball well was celebrated far
and wide and those who saw him tell of
how the pitchers facing him would try to
knock him down but will eat smile shake
his head and all about the town the
people who knew Willie they would grin a
little bit because they knew he’d get
right up and get himself a hit I grew up
in northern New Jersey and Willie Mays
was my hero and he was so much my hero
that when the family that lived next
door to my mom and dad’s house put their
house up for sale their name was
bringing a man and his wife named
brennan and they put the house up for
sale and i had read since I read
everything about Willie Mays that he and
his wife were looking for a new home and
I suggested to my folks that there was
no particular reason why they shouldn’t
by the burnings house because it was
pretty close to to the Polo Grounds it’s
an easy shot into New York through the
lincoln tunnel and it was a perfectly
nice brick house and and besides we had
a backyard and Willie could teach me how
to play center field so that when he was
finished with the Giants I would step
right in and it seemed like a pretty
good idea to me the idea was flawed in a
number of ways one of course was that I
lived in a completely segregated
neighborhood and Willie Mays wouldn’t
have been allowed to buy the house next
door but that never occurred to me isn’t
that great a kids don’t make those
distinctions and I thought I was about
six or seven years old and it was time
to get ready for Halloween and I I said
well there’s only one choice I’m going
to go as Willie Mays
and and either my father or my mother I
don’t remember which thought well if
we’re going to do Willie Mays we might
as well go the whole route and so they
burnt some cork and they blackened my
face and I wore my Willie Mays number 24
Giants uniform and I went to the
northeast elementary school and thereby
integrated it I also went door-to-door
in the neighborhood and the house on the
other side of the US that the Brennan’s
were on one side the Cochran’s were on
the other and the Cochran’s had a maid
named Lenny and I thought be a good idea
to go to the Cochran’s house to show
Lenny my Willie Mays costume and
fortunately Lenny had a sense of humor
and she laughed so hard she almost fell
down you didn’t want to make him mad if
you were on the mound he dust himself
off smile and then he’d turn your pitch
around then trot around the bases as it
left the old ballpark and every Giants
fan would cheer as happy as a lark oh he
could hit no doubt of that and he could
run as well he’d leave his hat behind
sometimes and those who watched could
tell that any ball hit toward him he
could catch it on the fly one writer
said his glove was where the triples
went to die and once against the Indians
in 1954 he ran in centerfield until he
couldn’t anymore and stuck his glove
into the air and caught the long flyball
that no one but him could have caught
and that was not quite all he turned and
lost his cap of course to make his
mighty throw and all the runners on the
bases had nowhere to go for any
Cleveland fans the telling of this story
hurts the guy who hit the ball and saw
it caught that was Vic Wertz but that
was not the only day upon which Willie
Mays made one of his amazing catches his
amazing plays he caught balls in
Milwaukee
and in brooklyn in LA he caught them in
the dead of night and on each sunlit day
this is a piece i wrote a years ago when
two young women came to see me and said
we really like your poetry and i said i
don’t write poetry I rest doggerel there
may be a line of poetry in there
somewhere but it’s it’s pretty well
hidden and they said no he liked it we’d
like to have a book come out of your
stuff and I said gee that’d be nice and
so I wrote two pieces on spec on
speculation this was one of them and
then I didn’t hear from them for about a
year and I called one of them and she
said well it didn’t work and so but I
had this and I thought what the heck and
so I I think I put it on the air and
eventually it came out in a book and and
and then at somewhere along this process
of my distant connection to Willie Mays
my friend jim hirsh wrote a wonderful
biography of Willie and it was a tough
project for Jim and it speaks to his
perseverance because Willie Mays didn’t
want to participate in the creation of a
book about himself and Jim just kept
banging away at it and finally he got
Willie to agree to see him and work with
him and and and he produced a terrific
book and in the process of doing that he
met a woman named Renee who was Willie’s
assistant and caretaker Willie’s about
85 years old now and he is very nearly
blind and so Renee helps him with pretty
much everything that that he has to do
and Jim put the episode about my
halloween costume in his biography of
Willie Mays and I think Renee thought
that was pretty funny when she read it
and Jim took advantage of that
connection and he gave Renee this book
with the page folded down with the the
piece about Willie Mays and
god bless her she read it to him st when
I heard that that it happened I said Jim
I gotta talk to this woman I got to find
out what happened because Willie Mays
gave me so much when I was growing up
just by being Willie Mays just by doing
what he did it was fantastic and he said
all right well I’ll put you in touch
with Renee and and he gave me her email
address and i emailed her and I said I
understand you read my daughter all
about Willie Mays to Willie how did it
go and she said well I read it to him
and I got to the end and he said keep
going and I said I can’t there isn’t any
more and he said oh well then read it
and she said so I read it to him again
and he got this cheshire cat grin and I
thought I don’t have to do anything else
I gave something back to Willie Mays and
he grinned how could anything be better
than that and I had this little
connection with Renee as a result so we
sent some emails back and forth and she
even sent me back some doggerel the one
thing it Willie said about the the
doggerel was he said them he didn’t
mention another catch that I made that
was even better than the one in the
nineteen fifty four World Series I made
it off Carl Furillo and so I thought we
got something here when Willie hit a
single and only got two first just when
the pitchers looked toward home he’d
show a mighty burst of speed and then
when they looked around and they’d see
an empty space for Willie who had been
on first would be on second base was
willie mays an all-star he was almost
always there he’s also in the Hall of
Fame and should you ever care to visit
that museum full of hitters who were
great and pitchers fast or crafty who
threw sinkers that sunk late and
managers who knew the tricks of winning
baseball games and others so
accomplished that you’d surely know
their names if i were to recite them hey
perhaps i’ll try a few babe ruth and
walter johnson and sai yeung chlamydia
to Ty Cobb of course in Sandy Koufax
also Satchel Paige who pitched until
he’d reached a ripe ish oldish sort of
age will Willie is among these guys for
he has earned his place and so the
plaques in Cooperstown portray his
well-known face I couldn’t let it go I
had to ask Renee if maybe Willie would
be willing to be on the radio show that
I do only a game and she said gee I
don’t know i’ll ask him I’ll see but
he’s he’s kind of reluctant to do that
sort of thing and it turns out that over
the years Willie has been stung a number
of times by people who have
tried to get him to do things and then
ripped him off and promised him you know
some sort of financial reward and not
come through so he’s pretty reluctant to
do that kind of thing and eventually
Renee got back to me and she said if I
give you will ease phone numbers he’s
agreed to talk to you if I give you will
ease phone number will you promise to
burn it right after you call him and I
said absolutely but I didn’t and so I
called him and there was Willie Mays on
the other side of the line and I said
how you doing he said I’m doing all
right he said where are you I said in
Boston he said I thought you grew up in
New Jersey Renee told me you grew up in
New Jersey and I said yeah I did I did I
moved up to Boston about 3540 years ago
but I did grow up in New Jersey and he
said where and I said Montclair and he
said that’s where Larry Doby lived and I
said yeah Yogi Berra too and then we
were off and we talked for a while and I
asked him if he’d be willing to come on
to only a game just a phone conversation
and unfortunately he was not willing to
do that and so that was pretty much the
end of my actual connection with him
although at least we did have a little
fun with it and as I say I got that
Cheshire cheshire cat grin and then last
May Willie turned 85 and so I thought
well I better commemorate that I got in
touch with Renee again and I said if I
send you something to celebrate Willie’s
85th birthday will you read that to him
as well and she said sure absolutely and
so I did and this is what i sent your
older as we all are we’re not running as
we did but
will always be for me the ageless say
hey kid I thank you for the joy you
brought to one new jersey kid by doing
with such skill and joy the wonders that
you did happy birthday Willie Mays and I
got in touch with Renee after and I said
how’d it go and she said well it was a
little shorter you got half a Cheshire
Cat grin but that was pretty good the
end of this piece goes like this his
numbers are impressive and they justify
his fame but what was more impressive
was the way he played the game he looked
as if he couldn’t wait to step up to the
plate and even standing still he somehow
looked completely great and if you
looked at baseball games for several
million days you might not see a player
quite as good as Willie Mays thank
[Applause] [Music]