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At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.
Willie Mays
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Willie Mays
Age: 93
Born: 1931
Born: May 6
Baseball Player
Jefferson County
Alabama
Willie Howard Mays Jr.
Willie Howard Mays
The Say Hey Kid
Really
Guys
Playing
Barons
Sports
Birmingham
Came
Professional
Guy
Ball
Year
Quickly
Black
Balls
Years
Ten
More quotes by Willie Mays
If you can do that - if you run, hit, run the bases, hit with power, field, throw and do all other things that are part of the game - then you're a good ballplayer.
Willie Mays
The catch off Bobby Morgan (a backhanded grab of the Brooklyn Dodger's line drive in September 1951 at Ebbets Field) in Brooklyn was the best catch I ever made. Jackie Robinson and (Giants manager) Leo Durocher were the first people I saw when I opened my eyes
Willie Mays
That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.
Willie Mays
When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.
Willie Mays
Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.
Willie Mays
Congratulations to Alex Rodriguez on his 660th home run, milestones in baseball are meant to be broken and I wish him continued success throughout his career.
Willie Mays
I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.
Willie Mays
What's tough is being good every day.
Willie Mays
I was a baseball player, I taught baseball, and all of a sudden I was in the business world. Now I used the baseball world to talk about their product. Not too much, just enough to keep going. Just be yourself and you'll never have a problem. That's what I did.
Willie Mays
I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act
Willie Mays
I don't rate them, I just hit them.
Willie Mays
I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day, lay down on my bed, and tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It's like crying for your mother after she's gone. You cry because you love her. I cried, I guess, because I loved baseball, and I knew I had to leave it.
Willie Mays
When I got to professional ball I used to play 150 games every year. It depends on how many games there was.
Willie Mays
It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.
Willie Mays
The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.
Willie Mays
Yes, I had to learn how to live life outside, but I had so many people help me.
Willie Mays
I'm not the type of guy to go out and just say, 'Hey, I'm raising my fist to do this and do that.' I don't think I'm that type of guy. I wasn't a leader the way other people may have wanted me to be.
Willie Mays
I think I was the best baseball player I ever saw.
Willie Mays
In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing
Willie Mays
I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.
Willie Mays