The Kids
Willie Mays turned 79-years-old today.
It’s easy to look at Mays and the (few) players of his ilk and start waxing poetically. Getting entrenched in Mays’ greatness is nearly unavoidable. Read an article about Mays or look at his player page and the enchantment will suck you up like quicksand. There’s a lot to be written and a lot to be read about Mays. About his being the prince of the sepia-toned utopia. About his pain. About his fights with villains just to take the field as a black. About his ability to make basket catches easier than N.B.A. rims. Even about his supposed tarnish legacy by spending some time with the New York Mets.
There’s a legitimate case to be made that Mays is the best baseball player ever. Rally’s WAR has him amassing about 155 wins over his career, which puts him fourth all-time behind names like Cobb, Bonds, and Ruth; and just ahead of names like Aaron, Wagner, Speaker, and Musial. Presumably most of the reading audience did not get to enjoy Mays with the baseball knowledge they’ve since acquired. But if a poll were to be taken on which recent player people thought most emulated Mays’ style of play, doesn’t Ken Griffey Jr. glide by with victory?
Everyone knows the tale of Griffey’s body deserting him and depriving the world of the opportunity to say they just saw the best ballplayer to ever live – although, Bonds … — and everyone knows that Griffey made highlight reel grabs, hit towering home runs, and did it all while rocking his cap backwards. Even his nickname, The Kid, is a play on Mays’ Say Hey Kid moniker. And, like it or not, the twilight of Griffey’s playing days are taking a certain resemblance to Mays’.
Griffey has a .237 wOBA this year and an aggregate batting line of .214/.316/.386 since rejoining the Mariners prior to the 2009 season. 26.4% of Griffey’s balls in play have turned into hits this season – a stark increase from 22% last season – and Griffey is even striking out less than in 2009, yet his batting average is worse, his walks have dropped, and his power is non-existent. Griffey Jr. is a designated hitter and yet his upside might be a .305 wOBA.
Even the ticket office and merchandise boosts Griffey supposedly gave the Mariners have disappeared. Seattle has already set a record low in Safeco Field attendance this season, and their series against the Tampa Bay Rays has about as many plastic chairs present as fans. The venom for Griffey might be at an all-time high as well. There’s no upside here.
For all intent and purposes, it’s time. And Griffey probably knows it. The amazing thing about the end of Mays’ career is how much play it gets. You know, that 1973 season saw Mays appear in 66 games and post a .302 wOBA. In 1972 he appeared in 88 games and hit for a .365 wOBA. In the years before that, Mays had consecutive .400 wOBA seasons. What Mays did in 1973 did not tarnish his legacy. What Griffey Jr. is doing now should not tarnish his legacy. Griffey Jr. is a ballplayer hanging around for one more curtain call, one more big hit, and one more doubleheader. This is hardly an unusual end to the career of a superstar.
What Mays did though, by walking away at the first sign that it was time … that’s something I don’t think Griffey or most players would ever be able to emulate. And I think that speaks to just how special Willie Mays is and will forever be.
Your linking to Ken Griffey, not Ken Griffey Jr.
I don’t feel like Total Zone completely captures how good a CF Willie Mays was. It has him at 135 for his career, which is great, but the same metric has Andruw Jones at 182 through only 13 seasons. In fact, his Total Zone numbers are very comparable to, say, Ichiro (by all means a good defender, by no means an all-time great). I think such measures will grant a major advantage to current era players because the data is much more complete. Heck, it has Barry Bonds putting up a better season (+30) than Mays ever approached-his caree high was +20. There’s a significant difference between the defensive value Willie Mays provided and that of Bonds, even though Bonds was a corner outfielder. TZ gives the edge to Bonds though (even if it’s not context-neutral).
So yes, I would say you could make a case that Mays was the best ever.
i don’t think walking away on top makes you better….i don’t know what it makes a player, but it doesn’t make him better…why emulate that? why quit when you can still play? the general response seems to be that it is somehow embarrassing or degrading. i think that the people suffering the embarrassment are the fans, not the players….I’d much prefer to hear about griffey junior’s stats in his 50+ league than have him quit baseball….I prefer the play til you drop dead mentality
Embarassment is not quite an accurate descriptor of how I feel about Junior as an M’s fan. His failure to hit a baseball as a platoon DH when that is all that is being asked of him is incredibly frustrating. His upside is a bad offensive player regardless of position. Griffey was a great player and was a lot of fun to watch. I don’t want to watch him keep sucking until management has to pry the bat out of his hands. I think he would be a great first base coach who occasionally takes BP with the team. I don’t get the sentiment that he should keep playing until he has nothing to offer to any MLB team and then keep going for another season after that.
But… he’s in the best shape of his life. 🙁
Willy Mays decline began at 41 and he walked away from much less money. Ken Griffey began his age related decline at 36, although he was not so great from 31-35 due to injuries) and milked the cow for another 30 million in his declining years. Mays might have done the same, but he was a wage slave before Free Agency. I don’t think it says anything about Mays character, not at all. Apples and elephants here.
Griffey was a great player in Seattle, but from age 31 on, he put up pedestrian numbers (115 OPS). He will be in the HOF because of what he did from 19 to 30 (OPS+ 147). A great hitter in a great lineup. My how things have changed.
I don’t blame Griffey a bit for hanging on. The Mariners offered him a contract knowing he was toast. Stupid owners doing stupid things lead to bad teams. The Mariners had a great chance to be something really special this year, but they continue to have trouble understanding you have to score more runs than the other team to win. Runs score because someone knocks ROB in. It’s called the RBI. A BB maybe earn you 0.3 runs according to a model but it does not change the scorebard without help. Only the HR does that. You need HR hitters AND guys who get on base. One without the other does not work.
It is a shame to see a career derailed by injuries, but we all know what could have been.
But what was was still good enough for me to say he’s in the Hall. Griffey just loves the game of baseball and doesn’t want to walk away.
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