Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend

I just started reading an advance copy of “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend” (by James S. Hirsch) on Friday. (The book is scheduled to be released this coming Tuesday.) It’s going to take me a while to get through it – after all, it’s close to 600 pages worth of ‘reading.’ (The info on the book lists it as 628 pages – but that includes source notes, etc. In actuality, the book is closer to 566 pages of ‘story.’)

I’m enjoying “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend” so far. It’s incredibly well sourced and crafted. From what I’ve read to date, the book has what I call “The Time Machine Effect” – meaning, as you read it, you truly feel as if you were there, in real time, watching all that is being described, etc. The author, Hirsch, excels at painting a picture with his words that pulls you in to the story.

In any event, David Takami just did a review of this book for the Seattle Times. Click here to read it. Here’s a few snips of what he had to say about “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend” -

In “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” James Hirsch, author of “Hurricane: the Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter,” has written an enormously entertaining and wide-ranging biography — a fitting tribute to Mays, the Hall of Fame ball player, and a thoughtful account of the complex and often misunderstood man. That this book got written at all is a notable accomplishment. Mays is famously prickly with reporters and refuses most requests for interviews. After seven years of trying, Hirsch finally got Mays to meet with him and talk.

True baseball fans will delight in the author’s edge-of-seat game reports and picture-perfect descriptions of Mays’ superlative talents. He was the game’s first “five-tool” player, excelling at hitting, hitting for power, base running, throwing and fielding. One special treat: Hirsch devotes an entire chapter to Mays’ legendary over-the-shoulder grab of Vic Wertz’s line drive — known as “the Catch” — in the first game of the 1954 World Series.

This is a superb baseball book, but it’s also a riveting narrative of Mays’ life and times, ranging from his penchant for fancy suits to urban development in New York City to the giddy cult of celebrity. In the mid-1950s, Willie Mays was as famous as anyone in the country, gracing the cover of Time and other magazines and appearing on numerous television shows

This is a 600-page book that never flags and educates as it entertains. But what I’m most grateful for is the chance to “see” the player whom I’ve only imagined. I grew up idolizing Willie Mays but was too young to ever see him play. This book makes me feel like I have.

Based on how far I’ve gotten with “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” I agree with everything that David Takami says about it. This is one new baseball book that you’ll want to check out.

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