Willie Mays On Tour

Only reason that Willie was willing to talk is because of his book

He has been a prick to everyone for years. Why roll out the red carpet for him now.

 

Check out this story Jack Curry did on Willie in 2002:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/21/sports/on-baseball-even-at-71-mays-can-take-some-good-swings.html

 

I wasn't talking about that specific story, I'm talking about Mays being on a media tour and presumably doing many interviews with other outlets.

 

Well, shit, I didn't know fans are done with it. It seems to be a big topic on talk shows every year when Hall of Fame results are announced. I guess all those callers are writers. Who knew?

 

Smasher, the callers to sports talk radio are about as representative of the fan base as are the racist commenters at the bottom of a Web article. But go talk to some fans. They understand how steroids happened and where the era will end up in history. Yet the writers, drunk on their own self-importance and needing a column during a slow news cycle, discuss their HOF ballot as if they're rendering a Supreme Court majority opinion. Then they go on with their radio buddies (co-workers in many cases) and hold a circle jerk. Meanwhile, what few callers there really are, are screened in such a way that anyone with an IQ above 80 isn't let on.

So there's how you hear discussion of this "hot topic."

A-Rod, Manny, McGwire ... you name it, there were very very few fans who had a whole lot of angst about the revelations. And back to the origin of this thread, believe it or not, there are people who would read an article or a book about Willie Mays to find out something about Willie Mays, not more conjecture about Barry Bonds.

 

I'd rather hear Willie Mays talk about baseball as he lived it rather than hear Bob Feller tell the kids to get off his lawn. Like I said, not every damn baseball story has to be through the prism of steroids.

 

Steroids aside I hate it when a guy who has been a prick for the past 20 years now is willing to talk because he wants to sell a book.

I hate it even more when the media rolls out the red carpet for this type of tour.

 

Um, because he's Willie Mays?

 

OK, the people who call talk shows don't represent fans....but I can get a true consensus by talking to random people.

Got it!

 

So what. Are you suggesting they should treat him with kid gloves?
There have been a lot of questions that Willie has not been willing to talk about and fans deserve an answer.

I would like to know if he feels his godson has devalued some of his records.

 

I meant that you cover him (you implied he not be covered even though he put out a book). And OK, since you obviously have a burning need to know what Willie Mays thinks about his godson, I'll help you out: Willie Mays loves his godson and didn't think he did a thing wrong. You'd be deluded to think he'd say otherwise. You're welcome.

And why, pray tell, would you grill a guy in his 70s when you'd get a lot better story talking about the past?

 

Because the only reason the guy is doing it is for the money.