When I was a teenager I went to Giants games with my dad and after that with my buddies, the Morgan brothers (Leo, Bobby, and sometimes Johnny). Occasionally I went by myself too.
This was in the 1960’s when Willie Mays was in his prime as a ballplayer, on his way to 660 homers, a million stolen bases, 2 MVP awards, 12 Gold Gloves, 24 All-Star Games, and so forth.
One Sunday afternoon I was at Candlestick Park watching the Giants play when Mays came up to bat: the “say hey” guy everybody waited to see. The to-and-fro motion of people going for food slowed or stopped entirely. Even the food hawkers stopped, turned, and watched.
All eyes on Mays! I was sitting way down the left field foul line in General Admission. It was a goodly distance from home plate but I chose that seat because it provided an excellent view of Willie Mays when he was playing centerfield where he often made spectacular catches.
I normally watched every play, every pitch most carefully. When Mays came up to bat that time something distracted my attention for a few seconds; perhaps I dropped something. I was aware he fouled off the first couple of pitches but that was not unusual: good hitters do that while waiting for a pitch to clobber.
The next thing I recall was that a titter of laughter had started somewhere in the crowd. I looked up and checked out the green panorama in front of me, guessing a dog or a squirrel was running across the field but nope, no animals in sight.
Just then the pitcher threw again and there was another foul ball and there was another sweep of laughter, only louder this time. I was baffled at first and had no clue. It soon became clear!
The opposing pitcher goes into his wind-up, fires his fastball, Mays swings and sure enough: here comes another foul ball and more laughter! At first I figured the laughter just meant Mays was getting the better of the pitcher who, try as he might, could not strike him out.
That in itself is a considerable accomplishment for most hitters, meaning they won’t be fooled while refusing to strike out. That was part of it but there was more. The truth finally dawned on me when I realized each foul ball had gone to a different part of the stands. Could that possibly be the reason for the laughter?
I waited and watched carefully to test my hypothesis: another pitch, another foul ball, and yes! Each foul ball off of Mays’ bat was going to a different area of the park! Upper deck, lower deck, down the left field line, down the right field line, even straight up and back over the screen behind home plate . . . Mays was “giving away” balls!
If I had been a little slow to pick up on it, there were thousands of others slower still so with each new pitch and new foul ball, hundreds of more fans were joining in the laughter. It was no longer a modest little underground titter of sound but a growing volume of outright laughter sweeping through the crowd!
I waited to see one more pitch to confirm my suspicions and–sure enough!—the ball headed for a new area of the stands that had not yet received any previous foul balls. Mays kept track. No one section got two balls. As the number of areas that had not received a foul ball dwindled in number, it made it easy for fans to predict where the next foul ball was going to go.
It was quite strange to look across the stadium, think to yourself, hhmmm, there hasn’t been a foul ball over there . . . wait a few seconds—pitch, crack of bat—and then you watched a foul ball headed for that exact area. There was no other explanation!
The crowd was laughing because Mays was doing far more than merely toying with the pitcher; he was also placing his foul balls all around Candlestick! Even more remarkably, whenever there was a guy in a bright colored shirt with a glove, the crowd noticed that as often as not the foul ball headed straight for him so he could make an easy catch with his glove.
Of this last observation, I cannot say for sure if Mays actually aimed for the guy or whether that was pure coincidence. Given the dazzling display of prowess with the bat we were watching, I would say Mays did it on purpose as it happened more than once.
Getting a base hit in the big leagues is tough enough! Sure, a good hitter fouling off pitches is not all that unusual but a hitter being able to control the direction and distance of a foul ball? That’s unthinkable!
It means as Mays saw the pitch coming toward the plate, he’s reading the speed and spin on the ball with incredible precision. Think of it! High foul balls come off the top of the bat. He has to swing just under a speeding, spinning ball to slightly nick it, controlling the speed and angle of his bat in such a way that he could send the ball wherever he wanted to go.
It did not seem humanly possible but we were watching it happen right before our eyes!
By foul balls 6, 7, and 8 the whole stadium was in on the joke and the laughter kept growing. I don’t know what the poor pitcher thought was going on; it’s a wonder he didn’t lose his mind! There was only going to be one winner in this contest of wills between pitcher and hitter and it wasn’t going to be him.
After Mays had fouled off about 12 or 13 pitches, he saw one pitch too much to his liking and he hit a screaming line drive and took off for first base. It turned out to be only a long single but as he rounded first base and returned to the bag he got a huge ovation!
Fans in those days didn’t talk about going to see the “Giants play”; we went to see “Mays play” and he always came through! He was the most amazing hitter, defensive star, and base-runner extraordinaire imaginable.
Of all the many games I’ve seen in my lifetime, this is the only time where a baseball crowd, on a beautiful San Francisco sunny afternoon, broke into laughter.
We watched Mays “give away” foul ball after foul ball all around Candlestick Park. It still brings tears of laughter to my eyes even after all these years!
It’s a true story but one that I’m afraid that might stretch the credibility of the younger generation to the breaking point. Even for grown-ups it’s a bit hard to imagine, let alone kids.
In short form, Mays hit foul ball after foul ball; each foul ball went to a new and different part of the park; and the fans started laughing because they believed Mays was hitting foul balls to them on purpose. After that, he got a base hit and the crowd roared its approval.
This may be one of those “you had to be there” to believe it stories!
