Batter up! A great baseball book: YOU NEVER HEARD OF WILLIE MAYS?!

YOU NEVER HEARD OF WILLIE MAYS?!  by Jonah Winter and Terry Widener

Some say that Willie Mays was best baseball player that ever lived!  Willie hit 660 home runs. His lifetime batting average was .302.  Babe Ruth was the only player that topped Willie on The Sporting News’ list of “Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players.”

Willie’s picture book biography written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Terry Widener is an all-time winner too – complete with sidebars filled with statistics and illustrations that are both amazing and authentic.  Readers learn about Willie’s struggle – growing up in the deep south of Alabama to getting a position in the Negro Leagues – and then the Majors.  All this during a time when many teams and fans did not accept that Blacks could play as well – or better – than Whites.   In fact, Mays began his major league career with no hits in his first 12 at bats.  On his 13^th  chance – up at bat – Mays hit a home run!  Hall of Fame Warren Spahn was the pitcher.  Later Spahn jokes, “I’ll never forgive myself.  We might have gotten rid of Willie forever if I’d only struck him out.”  It was a friendly tease but with a bite of truth.  Black players were not fully accepted.

Mays continued to improve with every game and won the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award.  Willie Mays enjoyed working with kids in Harlem.  He participated in their empty-lot stick ball games – an “inner city” game of hitting a rubber ball with a broomstick handle.  It is said that Willie could hit a shot more than “six sewers,” over 300 feet or six consecutive New York City manhole covers.

This book,  YOU NEVER HEARD OF WILLIE MAYS?!  is for baseball lovers of every – and any – age.