A biography for Willie Mayshasn’t been written yet.
“I don't mean to be bashful, but I was.”
“People talk about that catch and, I've said this many times, that I've made better catches than that many times in regular season. But of course in my time, you didn't have a lot of television during the regular season. A lot of people didn't see me do a lot of things.”
“I didn't say I was that smart, I said I went to class and I enjoyed what I was doing.”
“I think I was programmed to do good things when I came into the majors. I knew how to play.”
“In 1950, when the Giants signed me, they gave me $15,000. I bought a 1950 Mercury. I couldn't drive, but I had it in the parking lot there, and everybody that could drive would drive the car. So it was like a community thing.”
“I played with the Birmingham Black Barons. I was making 500 at 14. That was a lot of money in those days.”
“In order to excel, you must be completely dedicated to your chosen sport. You must also be prepared to work hard and be willing to accept constructive criticism. Without one-hundred percent dedication, you won't be able to do this.”
“I would try and help everybody, because the game was so easy for me. It was just like walking in the park.”
“I'm a very lucky guy. I had so many people help me over the years that I never had many problems. If I had a problem, I could sit down with someone and they would explain the problem to me, and the problem become like a baseball game.”
“That's how easy baseball was for me. I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I had the knowledge before I became a professional baseball player to do all these things and know what each guy would hit.”
“When I'm not hitting, I don't hit nobody. But, when I'm hitting, I hit anybody.”
“The greatest challenge I think is adjusting to not playing baseball. The reason for that is I had to come out of baseball and come into the business world, not being a college graduate, not being educated to come into the business world the way I should have.”
“I was very fortunate to play sports. All the anger in me went out. I had to do what I had to do. If you stay angry all the time, then you really don't have a good life.”
“I was very blessed with a good body. Never got hurt. Never was in the hospital. The only time I was in the hospital was when I would get exhausted a little bit, and go in for a check-up or something.”
“At ten I was playing against 18-year-old guys. At 15 I was playing professional ball with the Birmingham Black Barons, so I really came very quickly in all sports.”
“Maybe I was born to play ball. Maybe I truly was.”
“I always enjoyed playing ball, and it didn't matter to me whether I played with white kids or black. I never understood why an issue was made of who I played with, and I never felt comfortable, when I grew up, telling other people how to act.”
“I don't compare 'em, I just catch 'em.”
“They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.”
“Defense to me is the key to playing baseball.”