Willie
Mays was my hero back in the mid-late 50’s. In this 2010 interview in
GQ Magazine, Willie tells this wonderful story about when, as a
17-year-old, he faced the ageless, legendary Satchel Paige for the first
time:
"It was 1948. Satchel had a very, very good fastball. But
he threw me a little breaking ball, just to see what I could do, and I
hit it off the top of the fence. And I got a double. When I got to
second, Satchel told the third baseman, 'Let me know when that little
boy comes back up.'
"Three innings later, I go to kneel down in
the on-deck circle, and I hear the third baseman say, 'There he is.'
Satch looked at the third baseman, and then he looked at me.
"I
walk halfway to home plate and he says, 'Little boy.' I say, 'Yes, sir?'
because Satch was much older than I am, so I was trying to show
respect.
"He walked halfway to home plate and said, 'Little boy,
I'm not going to trick you. I'm going to throw you three fastballs and
you're going to go sit down.' And I'm saying in my mind, 'I don't think
so.' If he threw me three of the same pitch, I'm going to hit it
somewhere.
"He threw me two fastballs and I just swung...I swung
right through it. And the third ball he threw, and I tell people this
all the time, he threw the ball and then he started walking. And he
says, 'Go sit down.' This is while the ball was in the air.
"He was just a magnificent pitcher."
