Willie Mays homered in his first Mets at bat! 👏

[@ace942]

RIP Willie. One of the best players ever.

[@Raw_Meat_13]

R.I.P. Willie Mays. We will miss you.

[@roxannevlogs7329]

Rest In Peace 💔Thank you for my memories. I saw him late 60’s, early 70’s at the Stick w the SF Giants. Legend lives forever ⚾️🧡🖤

[@michaelschramm1064]

So did I, exact time frame. I had the good fortune to see Mays hit his 3000th base hit at Candlestick in a game hosting the Montreal Expos.

[@roxannevlogs7329]

@@michaelschramm1064 I was like 6-8 so I don’t remember well enough but I was there 🧡🖤🧡🖤⚾️

[@michaelschramm1064]

@@roxannevlogs7329 I was 10 in 1969. In 1971 I was at Candlestick when the Giants won the first (and only) game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in NL Playoffs.

[@roxannevlogs7329]

@@michaelschramm1064 I was 7 so I remember empty stadiums. Eating my hot dog and peanuts

[@mtp4430]

Willie coming up big in his first at bat as a Mets player. He wasn’t the Willie of old at this point it is career. But he still delivered some clutch hits and showed signs of the old Willie Mays magic. One of the all time greats.

[@rcjoker63]

Not his first at bat as a Met ..his first hr as a Met

[@mtp4430]

@@rcjoker63Yeah, sorry. He definitely walked his first time up. The HR wasn’t till the 5th inning. But it’s cool that you were there. My cousin was at the game also and kept the scorecard and program for his collection. I remember that Rusty Staub hit a first inning grand slam. My cousin wasn’t even a Mets fan. He was a Yankees fan but lived within blocks of Shea Stadium and would go on occasion.

[@BigBear843]

I watched the Mets every time I could on WOR TV as a youngster. Willie Mays is a baseball legend!😊

[@ScottRossProductions]

One of my many favorites...

[@Fr0st7y]

R.I.P we lost a legend

[@art4744]

Remember seeing Willie Mays play on a Saturday afternoon at Shea in 73 when I was nine years old. I could not believe that he had gray hair! It blew me away… I was done blast enough to also see him in the World Series that year. Tom Seaver versus catfish hunter. Thanks Dad for taking me to those games 🤗

[@jman2311]

Rip to one the most beautiful and influential baseball players to ever play the game . All time wise I have his top 5 dead or alive

[@alysonalcalay1594]

I was there. It was Mother's Day and I brought my mother. The straw hats were the gift to the female customers. He gave the bat to Mrs Payson after touching home plate! Let's Go Mets💙🧡

[@draidsan]

No you weren’t

[@pashanoble9359]

Rest in Paradise, Willie. God Bless

[@ASDF84.0]

RIP Willie!!! We all love you 🥰

[@stever1791]

Willie is The GOAT

[@toga1022]

Right after Babe Ruth

[@stever1791]

@@toga1022 I think Willie was the best. 2 years + in the service or he'd have had 800home runs in Candlestick Park ( Willie is The GOAT )

[@joesheetstheragman7737]

When Shea was completed, $1.39 General Admission. I was there almost every game. And that was a lot of money back then.

[@Papa-o33963]

Yes indeed. I remember when general admission was $1.50. Bless WM n All always

[@powisgood5060]

My all time favorite. ❤❤❤ hardcore

[@rcjoker63]

I remember this game as a kid…first time I ever laid eyes on Rusty Staub as a Met.. First inning Rusty belted the first grand slam I ever saw in MLB…Willie hit the HR and got all the glory but it was Rusty who won me over that day..May 14 1972

[@donnatlaw6172]

Man. I LOVED Rusty.

[@kingdoc3262]

Thanks for the date. Rusty earned his accolades too in time

[@kingdoc3262]

Was it Rusty Staub Tom Seaver Don Clendenon Tommie Agee Tug McGraw Bud Harrelson The names I remember watching them way back! Amazing Mets! And Thank you Willie!

[@realandrewcinque22]

Rest easy old friend willy just passed away of heart failure as per espn

[@dujon55]

I remember that day. Willie Mays always rose to the occasion

[@Rick-yp3jl]

Greatest ever player

[@TAYLORFAN50]

Nope, that was Babe Ruth.

[@hoodiejelo6456]

@@TAYLORFAN50Willie Mays played longer and better competition and had a longer prime + he got more all star appearances than Years Ruth played 😂 not even close!!!!

[@toga1022]

@@hoodiejelo6456 Nice try .. .Babe Ruth was the Best of the Best . .PERIOD. In the Battle of the bats, Mays is behind Ruth.

[@hoodiejelo6456]

@@toga1022 great elaboration, Willie Mays faced better pitching too and was more athletic and better defender and was in more shape, Willie clears the guy who saw at most 70 mph pitching

[@KevinMiller-xn5vu]

​@@toga1022Yeah, but Mays didn't load himself up on hot dogs the way Ruth did. In fact, when he played his final few games with the Boston Braves in 1935, Ruth was so bad, his teammates threatened not to play if he was in the lineup. You never heard anything like that about Mays.

[@michaelcrummy8397]

Who didn’t love the great Say Hey Kid?

[@humbertosesma4664]

The say kid , RIP Willie Mays

[@edwardanthony7283]

Watched this game winning hit when it happened. What a debut

[@JamesSmith-kn3vs]

RIP Willie. One of the all time MLB greats.

[@Gwan-so..]

WHOS BETTER????🤔

[@musicswdy2]

Willie Mays, the greatest ball player ever! PERIOD! I’ve seen Rickey Henderson ( a distant second best) Barry Bonds (an asterisk), Hank Aaron, Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani (moving up the list rapidly), Ken Griffey Jr. (#3 all time?).

[@Gwan-so..]

@@musicswdy2 I concur!!!

[@DKWhite-mk6qb]

C.O.L. Mr Mays . Im a Phillies fan, everybody here to see Willie me 2 but what I notice is #31 Giants is one of my fav cf Garry Maddox he ❤ Willie . G Maddox, great CF Phillies wow Love this here it's like take this kid Mays vs. Maddox

[@tommyrawlings3046]

In his last year, 1973, Don Hahn, the starting center fielder, got hurt , and Mays played really well in his place for 2 months. His fielding was still excellent and he got some very clutch hits! His play helped the Mets finish in first place!

[@thomasmcdonough6642]

The guy was just phenominal

[@Purpledawg-d9s]

What gets me now is that as a kid since I was at that time a Yankees fan I had TWO Willie Mays rookie cards that I traded away for a Tom Tresh card…so I could have the whole Yankees starting lineup clothes pinned to the spokes on my bicycle! We didn’t see them as collectors items at that point. We used the cards to make a motorcycle sound on our bikes and no sound was sweeter than your favorite players flapping in your spokes!! Like the song said “If I could turn back the hands of time”

[@AlMendez-lc5qu]

The greatest of all time

[@Diggerdog2nd]

He was so great at everything that in a way that over shadowed him as a HR hitter which is crazy being that he was no.3 & the only guy in the 600's for decades.

[@jamespera808]

RIP 🐐

[@ChillStatusTwo]

I'm old enough to remember that exact moment, plus the one where #24 was on his knees at home plate begging for that call against the A's. We may have gotten him late in his career, but I was glad we got him and I got to see him perform at Shea.❤❤❤..r.i.p. Great One,!

[@jasonnorris5298]

Willie Mays is NOT deceased?

[@ChillStatusTwo]

@@jasonnorris5298 Well he has to be close too 100 if he is, at least ALIVE, he knows how I feel. So keep on living Great One!!!♥️♥️♥️

[@williamhunter5549]

My favorite Centerfielder 31 Garry Maddox,The Secretary of Defense

[@Steve-gx9ot]

Willie was a 5 tool player. He and Ruth = top 2 all time best IMO He was powerful, fast, smooth, athletic. Smart, Clutch

[@RyansLovesDaBears]

Rip😢

[@solomonecclesia5253]

The Alabama Mt Rushmore of Sports Legends! Bear, Willie, Hank and Bo...... And not necessarily in that order! Honorable mention.... Joe Willie Namath, Sir Charles Barkley, Frank Thomas, Ken Stabler....

[@Gwan-so..]

⚾️THE BEST EVER!!!⚾️.. be mad you’ll get over it!💪🏿..ain’t even close!..anything anyone from the 20’s,30’s,40’s is not MLB .. american 💪🏿 aboriginals had to pose as Cubans then foh!whiteboy league,, thanks Jackie!!,

[@surfshack2]

That was Garry Maddox out in left field.

[@stephenmiley4289]

What was the batting order. I see Bud harrellson was hitting behind Willie

[@Sandysitsattheseashore]

Looks so much taller in this video. HOF. ❤

[@rustybeachwood4613]

Say Hey! LFGM!!!

[@MJS_Edits2]

1 like = 1 pushup

[@kevinkhoy7171]

1973 I wanted the Mets to win the World Series for Yogi & Willie! At least it went 7 Games! To 3 × Champ. A's

[@jonniefast]

🖤🧡

[@anonnumber1]

I believe it was he second at-bat. He walked his first

[@stonesinmyblood27]

I watched the game on tv

[@floydbanks173]

It WAS his first game BUT NOT the first at bat. It was the 5th inning, not the first... Great return to N.YC. :-)

[@jameshudson169]

i expunged yogi berra's met atbats from my record book.

[@joesheetstheragman7737]

Say Hey!

[@marshallhelton1769]

That's back when the players were real men and not juice monsters like today.

[@justincase4812]

Notice that, no theatrics or pointing to the sky crossing homeplate out of tired routine.

[@alvinwagner6085]

This guy couldn’t have been that good, he didn’t thump his chest and point when he crossed home plate.

[@ryanjamesc9996]

2 likes = 2 push-ups

[@kennethmcdonough835]

My opinion (and many many others) The greatest player of all time.

[@moo-moo74]

The Gay Mests logo at the bottom right of the screen tho 🤣🤣😭

[@duvidl58]

How old was Willie then?

[@jamesy4003]

41

[@toga1022]

He was very good, but he was no Babe Ruth.

[@1963Fall]

First game as a Met, but not his first at bat.

[@ckobo84]

How did such a tiny guy hit so many home runs?

[@lawren7615]

Body Double really a young Trump

[@kingdoc3262]

The Mets were born in my early childhood while I was in my foster home. My foster father whom we called Pop had a small antenna TV we all watched the Mets on if we weren't listening on the am radio. I'm sure we all watched this moment together. Tha k you Pop! Thank you Willie!

[@kennethjackson1771]

Man that is so cool.I watched on TV too as a kid

[@musicswdy2]

@@kennethjackson1771I remember this like it was yesterday! I was crying so hard because my all time favorite ball player hit a home run against my hometown team… my San Francisco Giants! I was crying because I had a bunch of Willie Mays baseball cards that I scratched out Giants and wrote Mets with a ballpoint pen! The sad thing is I still have a few of the scratched out cards in the garage. Sadder thing is, I had a Mays autographed baseball that I got as afoul ball during batting practice in 1971 (I was 10). Willie autographed it for me that same day! I was a stupid 11 year old kid, my best friend and I would play strike out for hours on end. Well we ran out of balls (normally we used a rubber ball slightly smaller than a regulation sized baseball) one summer day. We had no money to buy another .49 cent ball, so… yeah we used my autographed Willie Mays baseball, with the strikeout box painted on a concrete wall! I instructed my friend “to make sure to throw it so it didn’t mess up,the autograph” 😂! That lasted 2 pitches! Mike threw a fastball down the middle. I turned on it and hit over the anise plants and on the roof of S&W food processing (less than 2 miles from Candlestick Park)! There had to be more than a hundred balls on that roof, we never got a signal one back! Man those were great summers! I sure do miss you Mike!!! 😢

[@davidstetson3805]

Nobody better.

[@jonmcmaster8964]

RIP Willie

[@Harlemnite7]

I was at a Mets game after Willie was traded. He ended the game in extra innings with a homerun. Notice no batting gloves or elbow pads

[@FrankJ.-ni2wu]

I was there ! A cloudy, dizzlely Sunday afternoon. We bought our box seats behind 1st, base a few weeks before they signed Say Hey Willie. It was incredible even though it barely got over the wall.!!!

[@1977TA]

I wish Willie had spent his entire career as a Giant. Going back to New York allowed him to retire where his MLB career began however, he was never at home in a Mets uniform. Forever Giant RIP.

[@anonymike8280]

True, and he lived in Millbrae, California for the rest of his life, in a neighborhood where a number of former San Francisco pro athletes lived. Had a girlfriend who grew up there and lived there as an adult too. She knew Willie Mays and he was a neighbor to her. I didn't ask her anything about him though and I never met him. Later, I worked in Washington with a guy who grew up in the Bronx and whose father knew all the ballplayers back in the early 1950s, I'm not sure why. Never heard any bad about Mays away from the yard.

[@raytewell7067]

If you grew up in baseball,then there's no doubt .

[@gloryprodz757]

W

[@frankpalancio8471]

What year was this? Gary Maddox playing LF for SF?

[@frankbandera6591]

Willie had great reaction time. Oh right ... Red Juice. *Mays’ Locker Was Source of Amphetamines--Milner* ~LA Times, 9/13/85

[@joesheetstheragman7737]

Polo Grounds? Where's the Duke.

[@MikeCee7]

Lindsey Nelson must have ESP, because apparently, he’s calling it a home run, before Willie even hits the ball. (unfortunateIy, I can’t indicate a timestamp on these YT shorts) RIP Willie.

[@topgun6981]

Ode to Sir Willie Mays spelling out his name: "Willie Mays, SIR to all of us. I, like many looked up to you with pride. Love you immensely for the road you paved for us of a brown hue. Lasting memories are going to be our tapestry of you. "I so admire Sir Mays" are utterances in many a head now and beyond. Excellence in being is what you are with a resounding AMEN. May your family turn to god for inner strength. Anything is possible as God has shown you. Your breath of sustainable achievements will be forever lasting. So Sir, I write this to bid you farewell to enjoy eternal rest."🫶🏾👊🏾

[@Michael-cx1zi]

Good for him. Probably the best player ever.

[@tomc2376]

when I think about Mays and his Mets days, I also think about Tommie Agee. wonder what he thought about sharing CF with Willie.

[@offthecuffcraig]

Not his first at bat...first game

[@rem1762]

Today baseball is dead. Boring ass sport.

[@shanenolan085]

41/42 Years Young at this time too ⚾️⚾️

[@Losfhc]

First home run first at bat as a NY Met also Kaz Matsui and Brett Baty correct me if I’m wrong who else belongs on this list

[@Gianforcaro]

Willie did NOT homer in his 1st at bat as a met!!! In his 1st at bat, he walked and later scored when Rusty hit a grand slam home run in the first inning. Willie’s home run came later on in the game.

[@tomvanriper8084]

Homered in his first Mets game, not his first at-bat.

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

He was my favorite player.

[@joetalentoh]

how can you not be romantic about baseball?

[@davidrice3337]

What about all of those dropped fly balls

[@darrell9439]

I NOW SEE WHY HE IS CONSIDERED A LEGEND ALTHOUGH HE WAS CLOSING OUT HIS GREAT CAREER IN A DIFFERENT UNIFORM OTHER THAN THE SANFRANCISCO GIANTS ! ❤ SINCERELY LOVE ALWAYS FOR A GREAT GENTLEMAN AND BASEBALL PLAYER ! SINCERELY MAY HE NEVER BE FORGOTTEN ALONG WITH ANY GREAT AND QUALITY PLAYERS OF HIS GENERATION AND BEFORE ! SINCERELY MR.DARRELL CLAY

[@kennethlynah5805]

That had to feel good for Willie 👏 #LGM

[@Bill-uo6cm]

I watched the game on TV when I was 9 years old.

[@robertmurphy440]

AMAZING MOMENT

[@Gajh2014]

How is that his first at bat though?

[@scottl.1568]

Sweet 👍

[@joesheetstheragman7737]

Also, I worked for Harry M Stevens, what a great man.

[@donnatlaw6172]

God bless him. He came back! Payson did one great thing before trading Tom Terrific. Alas, his career ended here...

[@jimmyperkinsCHS1984]

That’s Barack Obama

[@kevincrain7499]

I remember Willies iconic catch tat was over his head. I wasn't born yet but everyone that loves baseball , knows of that catch.