Willie Mays RIP

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of baseball great Willie Mays at the age of 93. He was one of my favorite baseball players when I was a kid and I had been watching him play on television for several years. The first time I saw him play while sitting in the stands was in 1962. My great-uncle Tom would often take me and my brother Tom on the trolley to see the Phillies play down at Connie Mack Stadium. We got excited when the Giants were in town. By 1965 Tom and I were taking the trolley to Phillies games by ourselves and we loved going down to see Willie Mays while sitting in the outfield bleachers. My brother had a life-long obsession with baseball statistics that started when we were kids and Willie Mays was one of the players he focused on. We had all of his baseball cards from the 1960's. The last time I saw him at the ballpark was in 1969 and he retired just before I got out of the military. Well, I never liked the Mets back then anyway. Say Hey, Willie Mays.