“If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you in the eye and say Willie was better.” – Leo Durocher
At age 16, Willie Mays joined the Birmingham Barons of the Negro American League. The New York Giants purchased his contract in 1950, and he was in center field at the Polo Grounds by the next season. Mays started off slowly, but got untracked and won the NL Rookie of the Year award, helping the Giants erase a 13-game deficit to tie the Dodgers at the end of the 1951 regular season.
