Stickball, Soda & Crippling Anxiety

Today is the birthday of Willie Mays, born in Westfield, Alabama, in 1931

Leo Durocher, Mays’s first major league manager said of him that, “He could do the five things you have to do to be a superstar: hit, hit with power, run, throw and field. And he had the other magic that turns a superstar into a super Superstar. Charisma. He lit up a room when he came in. He was a joy to be around.”

It seemed to come naturally to him. In his first year with the New York Giants, neighborhood kids in Harlem would knock on his window and ask him to play stickball. He rarely said no. On the same day he hit two home runs against the Pirates, he joined them for a game in the street — and hit a third. Afterward, like he often did, he treated them to ice cream and sodas at a corner shop.

But baseball did not always return to Mays the love he showed it. Early in his career in the minor leagues — not long after Robinson had broken the color barrier — he endured racist jeers from crowds, wasn’t allowed to stay in the same hotel as his white teammates, and toward the end of the season collapsed from exhaustion after expending “more energy than the average player on worrying and thinking.”

That same anxiety he felt in the minors continued to plague him throughout his career. It’d be inflamed by divorce, financial difficulty, loneliness, and the cold welcome he received after the Giants moved west. He’d end up in the hospital multiple times with a “nervous exhaustion”. Doctors never found anything wrong. They just told him to rest.

At his Hall of Fame induction ceremony, he said to the crowd, “What can I say? This country is made up of a great many things. You can grow up to be what you want. I chose baseball, and I loved every minute of it. I give you one word – love. It means dedication. You have to sacrifice many things to play baseball. I sacrificed a bad marriage and I sacrificed a good marriage. But I’m here today because baseball is my number one love.”

Mays once explained why people loved him so much: “It’s because I love people. You can’t fool people.” He died June 18, 2024, aged 93.

Busted Knees, Broken Attendance Records, and Staff Shakeups

• How’re We Doing? – The first full month of the season has flown by. A Redditor tells the story of all 30 teams in a series of graphs. See it here. 

• Rangers Shakeup – The Texas Rangers have hired All-Star Bret Boone as their new hitting coach a day after dismissing offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and designating Leody Taveras for assignment.

• Oliver Wants In – The comic spent 11 minutes of his weekly show dedicated to minor league baseball and ended with an offer: his emmy-winning writers would completely rebrand one team.

• KBO to the Moon – Attendance for the 2025 KBO season has cracked 3 million in just 175 games, breaking the previous record of 3 million in 190 games from 2012. They’re now averaging attendance of 17,497 per game. 

• Injury Report – Tyler Callihan broke his arm hustling to catch a ball in the outfield. Tristan Casas is out for the season with a patellar tendon tear. Mike Trout is out with a bone bruise. Ronald Acuna Jr. is out with a knee injury until the end of May. Read more injury news here.

5/6/2025

Babe Ruth Hits First Career Home Run

• 1915 — On May 6, 1915, Babe Ruth hit his first career home run in the major leagues. At the time, Ruth was still primarily a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The homer came against Jack Warhop of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. The home run marked the beginning of one of the most storied power-hitting careers in baseball history. Ruth would go on to hit 714 home runs, transforming the game and helping usher in the live-ball era.