Willie Mays scored in Atlanta on ‘greatest team ever’

Credit: STATE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Credit: STATE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Mays died Tuesday at the age of 93.

“I don’t think it would have mattered who we played. It might have been the greatest team ever,” Mays reportedly said of the 1955 Mays-Newcombe All-Stars.

The tour follows a season in which Mays led the National League with 51 home runs for the Giants. Newcombe went 20-5 with the Dodgers. Banks had five grand slams (an MLB record) with the Cubs, and teammate Sam Jones had one hit.

And Aaron, 21, hit 37 doubles while hitting .314 with a .906 OPS in his second full season with the Braves. Aaron died in 2021 at the age of 86.

In 23 major league seasons, almost all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also one in the Negro Leagues, Mays hit .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 points and won 12 Gold Gloves. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, was named MVP twice and finished in the top 10 in MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most famous defensive play in baseball history.

“Barnstorming was when you put together a team after the season and traveled the country playing wherever you could get paid,” Mays told the New York Times. “Jackie Robinson had a team with Larry Doby, Pee Wee Reese and Gil Hodges that we played against in Birmingham when I was 15. I was making $500 a month playing in the Negro Leagues before the Giants signed me. I had to take a cut when I went to play (Class) B ball in the minors. My first few years, I made more money barnstorming than I did with the Giants.