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I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.

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
Barons
Birmingham
Played
Days
Making
Black
Money

More quotes by Willie Mays

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Youngsters of Little League can survive undercoaching a lot better than overcoaching.
Willie Mays
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I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.
Willie Mays
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I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em.
Willie Mays
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Baseball is a game, yes. It is also a business.
Willie Mays
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Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.
Willie Mays
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I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life.
Willie Mays
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What you are thinking, what shape your mind is in, is what makes the biggest difference of all.
Willie Mays
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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
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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
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When I was in Birmingham I used to go to a place called Redwood Field. I used to get there for a two o'clock game. Where can you make this kind of money playing sports? It was just a pleasure to go out and enjoy myself and get paid for it.
Willie Mays
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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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And my father didn't have money for me to go to college. And at that particular time they didn't have black quarterbacks, and I don't think I could have made it in basketball, because I was only 5′ 11. So I just picked baseball.
Willie Mays
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I don't mean to be bashful, but I was
Willie Mays
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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
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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
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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
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When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.
Willie Mays
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Every time I look at my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.
Willie Mays
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It isn't hard to be good from time to time in sports. What is tough, is being good every day.
Willie Mays
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I don't rate them, I just hit them.
Willie Mays