Baseball Legend Willie Mays Is Dead At 93

Willie Mays, a Hall of Fame baseball player known to fans as the “Say Hey Kid,” diedTuesday at age 93.

“My father has passed away peacefully and among loved ones,” his son, Michael Mays, said in a statement released by the San Francisco Giants. “I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood.”

Mays played center field in the MLB from 1951 to 1973 for the New York Giants, the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. He hit 660 home runs and won one World Series during his 22 seasons.

Tributes quickly poured in from other members of the Giants family.

“I have no words to describe what you mean to me,” Barry Bonds, another Giants player recognized as one of the sport’s all-time greatest, posted on social media in a tribute to Mays. “[Y]ou helped shape me to be who I am today.”

“I fell in love with baseball because of Willie, plain and simple,” Giants president and CEO Larry Baer said in a statement.

In 1951, he was the National League’s Rookie of the Year, exploding onto the scene just four years after Jackie Robinson famously broke baseball’s color barrier on the Brooklyn Dodgers, helping usher in a new era in the MLB. Mays’ excellence played its part in helping desegregate the league, exposing fans, reporters and decision-makers to the wealth of baseball talent that had been relegated to the Negro Leagues .

The entirety of Mays’ career presents an argument that he was the greatest all-around baseball player ever. On top of 660 home runs, Mays collected 3,283 hits, 338 stolen bases, two National League MVPs and one batting title. His 7,095 outfield putouts prevails as an MLB all-time record, and when paired with his 12