Book 'em: Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend

Willie Mays led a life you write books about.

But no one had, until James S. Hirsch's Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend.

The author's 10-year journey ended with arguably our greatest living player agreeing to open up about his life.

"Willie is a very private fellow," said Hirsch. "He is not one to bare his soul to others, even those who have known him for many years. I think in this age of self-promotion, Willie's reticence is admirable. But that doesn't mean the public shouldn't know his story."

The book, documenting Mays' rise from the Negro Leagues star to Major League icon, also serves as a history lesson.

"When I saw his career spanned from 1951 to 1973, the very first thing that popped into my mind was that his career overlapped exquisitely the modern Civil Rights movement," said Hirsch. "Here was one of the most prominent black people in America at that time of great turbulence in race relations. In fulfilling his dream Willie was a beneficiary of the very society that fellow blacks were trying to reshape, reform or topple."

Hirsch talked to Game On! about his book

Why now for a Mays biography?

 I think a biography of Willie Mays would have been good at anytime. Now is a good time because Willie is at a point in his life, he's 78, where he can reflect perhaps in ways that he couldn't have or wouldn't have years before.

Did you see Mays as a tragic figure at all?

No. Willie is very mindful of the trajectory of his life. He was born in the depression in the deep south where African-Americans were denied the most basic rights and he has this tremendous trajectory to where he is now. He is treated like royalty in any corner of the country and can go on Air Force One with the President of the United States. Willie said to me at one point  "I could never have dreamed the life that I have lived." He is very proud of the life that he lived in being a role model for kids. So, I don't think he has very many regrets at all.

But he started and ended as a solitary figure did he not?

The book is not a valentine to Willie Mays. I tried to be as evenhanded as I could be. And to Willie's credit -- he  had no editorial control -- but he didn't ask me to change a single word. Willie is a very private fellow. He is not one to bare his soul to others even those who have known him for many ways. His father Cat was very much the same. Willie kind of absorbed many of those lessons. (Friends) take Willie for what he is which is a very decent, generous fellow.

Why did he react so positively with kids?

He trusts them. He tells the story, that when he was a player, when he was going well he would get a ton of letters from adults. Then he would go into a slump and the letters from the adults would stop but the kids would keep writing him. He knows that kids will never betray him and never wrong him. Willie just has a very generous heart and to make life better for those kids even if just for those few moments.

He didn't trust many adults did he?

It takes a long time to build that trust. It is driven by the fact that he felt he was betrayed many times. He was victimized, whether it was financial or discrimination on matters of race. He never publicly talks about those experiences. He never complains about being victimized. He internalizes all of it. That his how he was taught growing up in Alabama. As Willie said "I was programmed to never raise my voice, to keep my head down" and that is what he's done for 50 plus years as an adult. I think there has been a cumulative effect of that. Hope fully, what the book does is explain why Willie is so reluctant to embrace others and trust.

Did you have trouble defining his greatness?

Every person whom I interviewed who saw Mays play one of the questions I asked "can you explain what it looked like" (for someone who had never seen him play). I must have asked that of a hundred different people. Some had these wonderful descriptions. One fan of Willie's said "watching him run the bases was if his torso was trying to catch up with his legs." Which is a beautiful description.

Did you mean this as a biography or a history or both?

 When I first got interested in Willie 10 years ago, and I saw his career spanned from 1951 to 1973, the very first thing that popped into my mind was that his career overlapped exquisitely the modern Civil Rights movement. Here was one of the most prominent black people in America at that time of great turbulence in race relations. In fulfilling his dream, Willie was a beneficiary of the very society that fellow blacks were trying to reshape, reform or topple. Whatever Willie said or did was going to be worth writing about. I wanted to intertwine Willie's life with the Civil Rights movement. I knew he had to have played some role in it. That was one of the most interesting and controversial parts of his legacy because Jackie Robinson and others were so critical of him. But I argue, and hopefully support  the case, that Willie's prominence actually made him a significant contributor to the Civil Rights movements because so many white Americans loved him and they saw him play and they embraced him. I saw this book not just a story about a great baseball player who overlapped this era and communities of baseball but it was also a way to get a glimpse at the country's changing racial dynamics.

What do you want people to gain from the book?

What is this person's legacy? What is the most important thing? As an author that is what you struggle with. His legacy was the pure joy that he brought to fans that watched him play. And then even more important were the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and the beauty of the game. That was the key. Kids know about Willie Mays. There is this sense,  this magic and beauty of the game that their parents or grandparents might have passed onto them.

Are you totally satisfied with the book?

My one regret is that I was not able to talk to Willie's wife Mae because of her Alzheimer's. She is the real heroine of the book. Everyone speaks of her as a saintly figure. Clearly she must have had great insight. She was diagnosed at such a young age (59) and that is so tough for Willie. You spend just a little time with Willie and it is clear that it is important to him that she is always cared for. I thought a lot of that. I wish I could have spent time with her.