Harlem B&G Club awed by Willie Mays documentary
NEW YORK — It’s Black History Month and on Friday night, Major League Baseball hosted about 40 kids from the Boys & Girls Club of Harlem (N.Y.) at MLB headquarters for a particular screening of the critically acclaimed HBO documentary “Say Hey, Willie Mays!”
Before the film began, the movie’s director, Nelson George, had a chat with the youngsters for 10 minutes. He wished the youngsters to comprehend how nice Mays was on the sector. Throughout the Fifties and ‘60s, Mays was the LeBron James of MLB, George mentioned. Not solely may he mash the baseball, Mays was excellent defensively. People are nonetheless speaking about his wonderful over-the-shoulder catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series towards the Indians. The children who watched the movie have been oohing and aahing whereas watching Mays make that spectacular catch.
“I want you to see the process of how Mays came from being a kid in Alabama to making himself a global icon,” George instructed the youngsters.
Keion Watson, a workers member on the Boys & Girls Club, was the one particular person within the room who knew the title Willie Mays, however he didn’t understand how nice he was till Friday.
“Mays reminds me of a Michael Jordan-type player,” Watson mentioned. “It’s loopy seeing Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge hit his dwelling runs, and then you definately had Barry Bonds. It’s loopy to see how baseball has grown through the years.
“There isn’t segregation [now]. As a pioneer of baseball, I’m sure Mays had a vision of seeing baseball as it is now. I can’t imagine being a Black person during his era. Mays does pave the way. Man, I almost shed a tear.”
George additionally wished the youngsters to comprehend how a lot of a mentor Mays was throughout his enjoying days, largely with the Giants. Mays realized easy methods to be a pacesetter from his father, William Howard Mays, Birmingham Black Barons (Negro Leagues) supervisor Piper Davis and former New York Giants supervisor Leo Durocher. All three confirmed Willie Mays the precise strategy to play the sport of baseball.
By the time the Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, Mays turned a pacesetter in his personal proper to plenty of the Latin gamers, together with Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda. It’s nicely documented how a lot Mays helped Bonds and his father, Bobby Bonds, throughout their enjoying careers.
“To me, the film is about mentorship,” George mentioned. “The concept is you get data, you hearken to your elders, however you shortly change into an elder as nicely and be a part of this chain of data we love. To me, that’s what made the movie work.
“When we first sat down with Willie, he kept using the phrase, ‘So-and-so took care of me and so-and-so took care of me.’ This is something important to him,” George mentioned. “Then he said, ‘I looked out for blah-blah-blah.’ I realized that was a big thing in his life.”
