John Shea, San Fransisco Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, July 9, 2007
Singular sensation: Willie Mays hits a single in front of Tigers catcher Bill Freehan in the 1968 game in Houston. He scored the game's only run and was its MVP. Associated Press photo, 1968
Whitey Ford was no slouch. He owned the best winning percentage among 20th-century pitchers, holds World Series records in career wins and strikeouts and was the ace of the great Yankees teams of the '50s and '60s.
But to Willie Mays in All-Star play, he was a batting-practice pitcher.
Mays flourished as an All-Star, and much of it can be traced to his confrontations with Ford, a Hall of Fame left-hander who used many pitches, some awfully suspicious, to fool batters and compile a 236-106 record and 2.75 ERA.
Mays had six straight hits off Ford over four All-Star Games, and the National League won them all and dominated that All-Star era, going 17-6-1 in Mays' 24 consecutive All-Star appearances.
"Sometimes you can't explain that. Whitey was always a good pitcher. Whitey was my friend," Mays said in a recent interview. "Don't ask me why. It's kind of hard to explain."
Ford doesn't get it, either.
When informed in a phone interview last week that Mays had six straight All-Star hits off him, Ford said, "I knew it was bad. I didn't know it was that bad. Six straight? How about the World Series?"
Four-for-nine in 1962.
"Well, that's good," Ford said. "It's under .500."
1964 Topps Giant
Mays' All-Star streak off Ford ended in 1961 when Ford struck him out in the first inning -- at Candlestick Park, of all places.
"It's a great story," began Ford, who traveled to San Francisco with Yankees teammate and good buddy Mickey Mantle. The two played golf the day before the game at the Olympic Club as guests of then-Giants owner Horace Stoneham, who hosted a celeb-studded party that night at the St. Francis Hotel.
"We play golf and then spend about $600 on sweaters and shirts and golf balls and charge it to Horace. We get to the party, and I tell Mickey, 'Let's give him $300 apiece.' We're about to do that, and Horace says to me, 'I tell you what, if you get in the game tomorrow and face Willie and get him out, we'll call it even. But if he gets a hit, you owe me $1,200.' I said, 'Sure, I'll bet you.'
"Well, we were rooming together, me and Mickey, and Mickey got only six hours sleep. We were drinking quite a bit. But the only thing Mickey thinks about is the bet with Stoneham. So in the first inning, I get the first two outs and then Willie's up and hits two foul balls about 500 feet.
"I say to myself, 'This is not an official game. They're not watching me closely. Let's screw with the ball a little.' So I throw him a spitball, and it starts right at him. Willie about falls down. He thinks the ball is going to hit him, and the umpire says 'strike three.'
"The inning ends, and Willie walks by me and says, 'What the hell was that you threw?' Mickey's coming in from center field clapping, and Willie says, 'What's that crazy son of a bitch clapping for?'
"I told Willie I'd tell him after the game.
"We ended up getting all the sweaters, hats and golf balls, no charge."
Ford was Mays' main All-Star victim, but not the only one. It would be tough to argue that any player was more responsible for the NL's All-Star dominance in those years -- an 11-1-1 record in the '60s -- than the Say Hey Kid.
Mays is tied with Hank Aaron and Stan Musial for most appearances and holds records for at-bats (75), hits (23), runs (20), steals (six) and multiple-hit games (six). He's the co-leader in extra-base hits (eight), total bases (40) and triples (three) and is fourth in homers (three) and RBIs (nine). He batted .307 and was the starting center fielder 18 times in one 20-game stretch.
He said he came to win.
"When I came in, the American League was way ahead. That's what I was told," said Mays, referring to the AL's 12-8 edge before his arrival. "But when I came in, other guys were coming in, too. Like Hank and Frank Robinson. We started winning games, and I wanted to play every inning."
In those years, starters didn't leave after two at-bats, get dressed and jet home. They stuck around until the end, often remaining in the game until the final out. All-Star Games lasted 10 innings in 1961 and 1966, and Mays never came out.
"I played just about every inning until the game was decided one way or another," Mays said. "There were a few of us who did that."
The Yankees won the World Series 10 times in 16 years through 1962, the year they beat the Giants in seven games. Mays hit .250 in the Series but .444 off Ford, who started Games 1, 4 and 6. For Ford, that was a great accomplishment based on how Mays owned him in All-Star Games.
Here's a recap:
-- In Milwaukee in 1955: Mays was instrumental in the greatest comeback in All-Star history. The NL trailed 5-0 before Mays singled off Ford and scored in the seventh inning (making it 5-2) and hit a two-out single off Ford to begin a three-run rally in the eighth (making it 5-5).
Mays also leaped at the wall to glove Ted Williams' towering drive that looked like a home run -- "he was at second by the time I caught it" -- and Stan Musial won it with a homer in the 12th.
-- In Washington in 1956: Mays hit a pinch-hit, two-run homer off Ford to put the NL ahead 3-0 in the fourth, and the NL cruised 7-3.
-- In Pittsburgh in 1959: Ford entered in the eighth, and Mays greeted him with an RBI triple to score Hank Aaron and cap a two-run rally and turn a 4-3 deficit into a 5-4 victory.
-- In New York in 1960: Ford was the starting pitcher in his own park, Yankee Stadium, but Mays opened the game with a single and stole a base and added a third-inning homer. The NL won 6-0.
"I remember Whitey coming back after All-Star Games, saying, 'I don't care what I throw, he hits it,' " recalled Bobby Richardson, Ford's teammate in New York. "Willie was the show of seemingly every All-Star Game."
Mays won two MVP awards but could have had several more. For one thing, he played in 11 All-Star Games before Major League Baseball started giving out the awards in 1962.
"We played a lot without getting awarded anything. Look at the Gold Gloves," said Mays, referring to the defensive awards that weren't issued until 1957, at which time Mays started a streak of winning 12 in a row.
He was named All-Star MVP in 1963 and 1968, though he had just one hit in each game. In '63 in Cleveland, he went 1-for-3 but had two RBIs, two steals, scored twice and robbed Joe Pepitone of extra bases in a 5-3 victory, the first of eight in a row (and 19 of 20) for the NL.
At Houston in '68, a year in which pitchers dominated hitters, the 37-year-old Mays went 1-for-4 and scored the game's only run. He opened the first inning with a single, advanced two bases on an error and wild pitch and scored when Willie McCovey hit into a double play.
Mays' best All-Star year was 1960 when he went 6-for-8 and hit for the cycle.
All-Star Games were played twice a year from 1959 to 1962, and Mays went 3-for-4 in Kansas City on July 11, 1960. Two days later at Yankee Stadium -- in Mays' return to New York two years after the Giants' departure -- he went 3-for-4 again. He singled, doubled and tripled in the first game and homered in the second (off Ford, of course) to complete the two-game cycle.
The NL swept that year, and nobody other than Mays had more than three hits in the doubleheader. The Dodgers' Walter Alston managed both games -- two of his seven All-Star victories -- and Mays recalled one time Alston asked for help with the lineup.
"He said, 'OK, you make out the lineup,' " Mays said. "I said, 'OK, I'll lead off.' I could hit a home run or walk and steal second. (Roberto) Clemente, I put him second because he hits behind the runner, and he could get me to third in some kind of way. Hank was a flyball hitter, a home-run hitter, put him third. Put Mac (McCovey) fourth. After that, they can put in anyone else they want to."
That was the order in 1966, a 2-1 NL victory in 10 innings. Mays singled and scored the first run.
Mays said his favorite All-Star Game was at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in 1959. He was the cleanup hitter, and his game-winning triple off Ford came in the eighth after the AL moved ahead in its half of the inning.
"That triple went over Mickey's head," said Mays of Mantle, smiling. "It was a big center field."
Other memorable All-Star Games involving Mays were 1954 in Cleveland (his first; he entered in the fourth as the center fielder, and Duke Snider moved to right); 1961 at Candlestick (he doubled home Aaron to tie the game in the 10th and scored the winning run on Clemente's single); 1962 in Washington (he chased down a ball hit by Luis Aparicio with two aboard in the ninth to end a two-run victory); 1964 at Shea Stadium (he drew an 11-pitch walk to begin the winning rally in the ninth); and 1965 in Minnesota (he homered to open the game, drew two walks and scored the winning run).
Willie Mays, Juan Marichal and Johnny Callison at the 1964 All-Star Game.
Juan Marichal was the MVP in '65, throwing three scoreless innings and receiving one more vote than Mays (46-45) among writers and broadcasters. McCovey was MVP in '69 after homering twice, and Bobby Bonds homered and doubled to win the '73 MVP. That's five MVPs for the Giants over 11 years.
But the All-Star among All-Stars was Mays, whose average through the '68 game was .348, before he went 0-for-9 in his final five games in his late 30s and early 40s. Williams once said, "They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays."
Just ask Ford, who won a Cy Young Award in '61 by going 25-4, though he was overshadowed by Roger Maris' and Mantle's pursuit of Babe Ruth's single-season homers record.
"Ted and Willie were the toughest batters I ever faced," Ford said. "But I had a little success against Ted."
E-mail John Shea at jshea@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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