ARLINGTON — Growing up in Venezuela, Carlos Mendoza’s only exposure to Willie Mays was the stories his father would tell him about the Hall of Fame center fielder. But that changed when he went to the United States as a minor leaguer in the San Francisco Giants organization.
Mendoza remembers just about everything about the moment he first met the “Say Hey Kid” during spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona.
“In the locker room, I think it was in 1998,” the Mets manager said Tuesday at Globe Life Field. “I was in big league camp for the first time and he was sitting right next to Barry Bonds. Dusty [Baker] brought all of the Latinos to his locker, right next to Barry, and introduced all of us.”
Mendoza will also remember everything about the moment he learned that Mays had passed.
Much of the baseball world found out hours before Mendoza did Tuesday night, with broadcasters cutting into games to report the news of the 93-year-old’s death. But Mendoza was in the dugout, guiding the Mets to a 7-6 comeback win over the defending World Series Champion Texas Rangers.
“I just learned of the passing of Willie Mays, one of the greatest who ever played the game,” Mendoza said. “Obviously, I have stories with him because as a young player coming up through the minors, I was assigned to the Giants. When I was in big league camp, he was around at the time, so I had the privilege and the honor to be around him at the time. I was 18, 19 years old in big league camp and he was around, and I was just in awe.
“I’m sorry for the loss.”
The sports world has lost three legends over the last few weeks, with former NBA greats Bill Walton and Jerry West having recently passed as well. But the death of Mays hits different. MLB designed an entire game around celebrating the impact of Mays and the early days of his career in the Negro Leagues, with the Giants set to play the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., on Thursday.
Mays grew up outside of Birmingham in a town called Westfield and began his career with the Birmingham Barons. Two years later, the New York Giants signed him and the rest is history.
Mays became synonymous with the Giants after their move to San Francisco, making his home in the Bay Area and becoming the godfather to Bonds. But his professional career started and ended in New York, with the outfielder playing the final two seasons of his career with the Mets.
His impact has long been felt on both coasts, with an emotional Mendoza having a full circle moment of sorts as well, reflecting on how it felt to be around his influence as a young ballplayer, as the current manager of a team that proudly displays the number Mays wore in New York.
“It was like a dream for me,” Mendoza said. “I was a High-A prospect invited to big league camp. Obviously, a lot of great players in our locker room, but having Willie Mays there when Dusty Baker was in the locker room, having Willie there in the locker room sharing stories, and sharing with us as a young players, teaching us the game and how to play the game the right way meant a lot to me and all of us there.”
