Willie Mays is considered by many to be one of the greatest baseball players ever. During 22 seasons of major league play, "The Say Hey Kid," as he was called, set a new standard for all-around excellence and versatility, demonstrating a high level of proficiency in all of the five "tools" of the game: hitting for average and power, fielding, throwing and base running.

Willie Mays was born in Westfield, Alabama, a small town on the outskirts of Birmingham. His father worked in a steel mill and played semi-pro baseball. His mother had been a high school track and basketball star. Almost from the time he could walk, his family encouraged his athletic abilities. He attended games with his father, sitting in the dugout and serving as batboy for the steel mill team, thus allowing him to absorb baseball strategy at a very early age.

After the family moved to nearby Fairfield, Alabama, Willie attended Fairfield Industrial High School. He excelled at football, "his best sport" he claims, and basketball as well as baseball. He was adept at everything he tried. As he developed his athletic skills, he also developed his mind. By the time he was 14, he was playing semi-pro baseball. He quickly established himself in the game and was recruited to play with the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro League, which was then the Black equivalent of the major leagues. He completed high school while playing professional baseball on weekends, school holidays and the summer months.

In May, 1951, when he was 20 years old, he became the starting center fielder for the New York Giants and was later named "Rookie of the Year." In that first partial season, he hit 20 home runs, batted in 68 runs, consistently displayed outstanding fielding ability and helped his team win the National League pennant. The Giants later met the Yankees in Willie's first World Series. He would go on to play in three more before his career was through.

Willie Mays' major league career was immediately interrupted in 1952 when he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served 22 months at Fort Eustis in Newport News, Virginia. His return to baseball in 1954, his first full season, was extraordinary. He led the league with a batting average of .345, hit 41 home runs, won the Most Valuable Player Award, and led the team to the World Series. In the first game of the series, with the score tied in the eighth inning, Mays made an amazing over-the-head catch of a 462-foot drive that had come to be known simply as "The Catch." As impressive as "The Catch" was, Mays' throw back into the infield was even more so. It prevented the runners from advancing and sparked the underdog Giants to go on to win the game. They then swept the series 4 - 0.

In 1958 the New York Giants moved to San Francisco where Willie would continue to astound fans as he flourished under the adverse conditions of a bitter cold and windy Candlestick Park. In San Francisco, he was named League MVP for the second time, played in his third World Series and was named captain of the team.

Willie retained a love of the game as his fame grew. From the early New York years when he would get up early to play a game of stickball with the kids who lived in the neighborhood of his Harlem boarding house on St. Nicholas Place, through his years in San Francisco where he won over a new hometown crowd, the exuberance and joy that he exhibited were infectious. Willie Mays loved baseball.

After a successful and exciting career in San Francisco, where he played from 1958 to 1972, Willie Mays returned to New York to join the Mets. After two seasons that included his last World Series, he retired in 1973.

During his career, Willie Mays was named Most Valuable Player twice, eleven years apart, first as a New York Giant and then as a San Francisco Giant. He holds the all-time record for putouts by an outfielder with a career total of 7,095. He has 3,283 hits, 12 Gold Gloves and has appeared in 24 All-Star games. In eleven of those All-Star games, he played all nine innings. He was third on the all-time home run list with 660 until 2003 when he was passed by his godson, Barry Bonds. His career batting average was .302. For eight consecutive years, he drove in more than 100 runs a season. Willie Mays was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979; the first year of his eligibility.

More recently, Willie Mays has received numerous honors as one of the premier athletes of the past 100 years. "The Sporting News" ranked him second only to Babe Ruth among the 100 greatest baseball players of the past century. ESPN listed him as eighth in their ranking of the top 50 athletes of the century. In 2003, Willie Mays was appointed to the State Board of Directors of the California African American Museum by Governor Gray Davis.

Willie Mays continues to be involved with the San Francisco Giants organization, serving as Assistant to the President. He is also the spokesperson for HealthSpring, a Medicare Advantage plan benefiting Senior citizens in the Southeastern part of the country as well as the spokesperson for The Institute on Aging in San Francisco. He has received honorary degrees from Ohio State University, Yale University, Miles College, Dartmouth College and San Francisco State University.

Willie Mays lives with his wife, Mae, just outside of San Francisco in Atherton, California. He is a San Francisco Giants Season Ticket Holder and attends almost all of their home games.