Willie Mays

Regarded by many as the best all-around player in baseball history, Willie Mays returned to San Francisco in 1986 and now enters his 21st season in the Giants' front office. In 1993, in one of his first public statements after assuming ownership of the team, Giants President and Managing General Partner Peter Magowan announced that the franchise was signing Mays to a lifetime contract.

The Giants president also announced in 1997 that the front entrance of the club's new ballpark would feature a world-class statue of Mays and the official address of the park would be 24 Willie Mays Plaza. The 75-year-old Mays serves as a Giant emissary. He visits the Giants' minor league teams, as well as Spring Training camp. The Westfield, AL native also makes appearances on behalf of the club at a variety of civic and charitable events throughout the Bay Area, including Giants Community Fund activities, the San Francisco Food Bank and the Whitney Young Child Development Center in Hunter's Point. He has also made generous contributions to needy children throughout the country through his own Say Hey Foundation charity.

During his 22-year Major League playing career, Mays was named Most Valuable Player twice, 11 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 7095. He has 3,283 hits, 12 Gold Gloves and has appeared in 24 All-Star games. He was third on the all-time home run list with 660 until 2003 when his godson, Barry Bonds, passed him. His career batting average was .302. For eight consecutive years, he drove in more than 100 runs a season. The "Say Hey Kid" was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, the first year of his eligibility (the ninth player to make it on his first try). Mays' uniform number has been retired by the Giants, as he remains the franchise leader in games played (2,857), at-bats (10,477), runs (2,011), hits (3,187), doubles (504), home runs (646), total bases (5,907) and extra base hits (1,289).

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 century. ESPN listed him as eighth in their ranking of the top 50 athletes of the century. In 2003, Governor Gray Davis appointed Willie Mays to the State Board of Directors of the California African American Museum.

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, Ohio and Yale University, Connecticut and Mills College and Dartmouth.

Major League Baseball and the Giants honored Mays lifetime achievements in an on-field tribute prior to the 2007 All-Star Game at AT&T Park. During the festivities, the Boys & Girls Club at Hunters Point officially became the Willie Mays Boys & Girls Club at Hunters Point after the clubhouse was rebuilt.

Mays and his wife, Mae, make their home in Atherton.