New York Giants center fielder Willie Mays leaps high to snare a ball near the outfield fence at the Giants' Phoenix spring training base, Feb. 29, 1956. NEW YORK — Willie Mays, the electrifying "Say Hey Kid" whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball's greatest and most beloved players, has died.
He was 93. Mays' family and the San Francisco Giants jointly announced Tuesday night he had died earlier in the afternoon in the Bay Area. "My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones," son Michael Mays said in a statement released by the club.
"I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life's blood." The center fielder was baseball's oldest living Hall of Famer.
He was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News' list of the game's top stars. The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza. Baseball great Willie Mays smiles prior to a game between the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco, Aug.
19, 2016. Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
"All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other.
