Willie Mays is one of the first baseball players I remember growing up in the Bay Area, but I really knew very little about him until I read this biography (which is the tail end of my efforts to read the notable non-fiction books off the New York Times list for 2010--not being a huge baseball fan, the three biographies of baseball players have fallen into the bottom of that reading pile).
The strength of this book is that there is a consistent protrayal of the kind of man Willie Mays was. He had a strong sense of how tenuous his position in baseball was--he wasn't the first black man, but he was amongst the first, and so he had to be extra cautious and careful, as well as being a superstar. He wasn't sure he had it in him, and he sought mentorship throughout the first half of his career to get through the ordeal psychologically. By nature he was not social, and avoided drinking and carousing, which probably kept him out of a certain kind of trouble.
The book does not give us much insight into Mays as a man rather than as a ballplayer. The part of the book that deals with Mays as a role model is the most insightful. Jackie Robinson criticized him throughout his career for not doing enough for African-Americans, but Mays felt like in his own quiet way, he did alot. He was approachable and not a prima donna. He signed autographs and he attended to fans. His charitable efforts were focused on children, and he had a nice way with them. At the end of the book the reader has a great deal of respect for Mays, and a sense of his integrity.
No comments:
Post a Comment