Biografia de willie mays

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

Introduction 2
Summary 3-5
Critical analysis 6
Conclusion 7
Biography 8

Introduction

In this book report you will be reading about the life of Baseball Great Willie Mays. In the book Willie Mays you will see a boy from humble beginnings to becoming what no one would expect a baseball legend. This book waswritten by Arnold Hano a baseball fan himself who has written many other books on other baseball greats. This book was published by Grosset and Dunlop Publishers in New York city. This book contains 196 pages and it is a biography. I hope to enjoy this amazing story.

Summary
Willie Mays was born on May 6, 1931, a small boy in Fairfield, Alabama. Where few people imagined that the young boyplaying sandlot ball would become a world famous star athlete. His father, William Howard, was a steel worker from Birmingham. Both parents were athletes and were only sixteen at the time of his birth. His father played center fielder at the Birmingham Industrial League Semi Pro team. He began teaching Willie how to catch even before he could walk. By the age 14, Willie joined his father on thebaseball team and since his school didn’t have a baseball team he played other sports, but it became clear that baseball was his career. But as many other players who grew up poor and especially black players in the rural south, Willie knew baseball was his ticket out of poverty. Willie Mays professional career started at the age of 16, playing with the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro SouthernLeague. While his father encouraged him in baseball he also wanted Willie to finish high school. So Willie could only play home games so he wouldn’t miss class.

By the time Willie was 19, Jackie Robinson had broken the racial barrier in baseball. So in a regular game a scout from the New York Giants came to watch the game, but he didn’t came to see Willie but after a few minutes in the game herealized that there was only one player worth while there. After Willie graduated he was signed by the New York Giants for $4000 bonus, plus $250 a month salary to play in Sioux City, Iowa. But thanks to racial problems he was moved to Trenton, New Jersey. Willie Mays played in the Class B farm but quickly advanced to their AAA farm club, the Mineapolis Millers. He was only 20 when in 1951 hereceived a call to join the Giants at Polo Grounds in New York. Mays got to a bad start in the Major League going hitless in his first 12 times at bat. Other managers would have sent him back to the Minor League but not Giants’ Leo Durocher had faith in him. So Mays broke his hitless streak with a home run blasted over the left field roof. It took another 13 at bats before he hit his second majorleague home run and hit another 19 home runs before the season ended. In his first season he made one of the most spectacular catch of his career. In his first full season Mays led the New York Giants to the World Championship in 1954. That season Mays had a batting average of .345, with 41 home runs and also won the most valued player award. But his career was briefly interrupted when he was draftedby the army, so his team was unable to win the pennant during the two years Mays was absent. When he returned in 1954 he led his team to win the World Series. During the 1954 World Series Mays performed the most famous defensive play called “The Catch”. Mays married Marghuerite Wendell in 1956. They had a baby boy, Michael, just two years later. Willie Mays had a great throwing arm with 7,095putouts, the all time record for an outfielder. Mays also had a batting average of .302 and also averaging 100 runs a year with a record of 660 home runs that puts him in third place of the all time home run He also won the golden glove 12 times and the MVP award in 1954 and 1965. The Giants moved from New York to San Francisco in 1958 making it hard for Mays to get love from the fans since its not...