sparks of electricity

    I very much enjoyed those Reader Comments on the NYT Willie Mays article.  Reading them, I thought how the human spirit is transported by Something Really Good -- for baseball fans, Willie Mays is their Rolling Stones.

     After Jackie Kennedy's Tour of the White House was televised in 1962, one reporter wrote that she spoke with "[something-or-other] and verve."



     Verve is a word not frequently used in current discourse:  the dictionary defines it as --
"vigor and spirit or enthusiasm."

     I thought the Willie Mays comments had a lot of verve....

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Robert E. Malchman
Brooklyn
My first baseball game was 50 years ago this past Sunday.  My Dad took me to Shea, and the Mets beat the Giants 9-5.  

So at my first game, I saw Willie Mays.  

I think I knew he was famous, but at my age then, I didn't know the history.  Now, of course, I do -- and it's a treat for me to be able to say I saw him play in person.




[Oh, I forgot -- one of the Commenters applied
 the word "verve" -  !  Check it out below!]

Ron Blair
Fairfield, Iowa
While in my teens I had the good fortune to be a vendor at Candlestick Park.  Five Giants from those times, the mid 60's, are now in the Hall of Fame:  Mays, McCovey, Marichal, Cepeda, and Gaylord Perry.  



It was a combination of ebullience, verve, and sheer talent that set #24 apart from other stars however:  it wasn't only that he was the rare 5-tool player, each of his tools were elite (hitting for average, for power, defense, running, and throwing).  

He often would make the All Star game his personal showcase.  When Mays came to bat I stopped my hawking - all eyes were on home plate.  He commanded that quality of attention.  What a force of nature!



Alan 
Tampa
Hank was great no doubt, but it's hard to beat the numbers, really impossible, of the old timers like Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.  That was the dead ball era, but the batting averages were phenomenal




M2
Oregon
Hank Aaron was a great baseball player, one of the greatest ever for sure.  

At the risk of getting into an endless back-and-forth about Willie and Hank, let me just say that not only did Willie spend two years of his prime in the military but he played most of his career at the meat locker known as Candlestick Park.  

If Willie had played in Milwaukee or Atlanta his numbers would be even more impressive.  The other thing is not quantifiable:  Willie was just so exciting to watch.  It seemed Willie emitted sparks of electricity.

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