2 “Glad you could make it so soon”: Willie Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 87–89.
3 “He’d lay his hand on that rope”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 12.
4 “a contagious happiness that gets everybody on the club”: New York Post, June 24, 1951.
4 “the frivolity in his bloodstream”: Rickey, American Diamond, 125.
6 “I changed the hatred to laughter”: GQ, April 1994.
7 “The first thing to establish”: Los Angeles Times, May 23, 1962.
9 “the adventure of steel making”: TCI President A.V. Wiebel, in an undated cover letter on a TCI brochure, Birmingham Public Library (Tutwiler Collection).
9 “A spell had been laid over everything”: Excerpted from A Nigger: A Novel, in Fullerton, Striking Out Jim Crow, 40.
10 “I didn’t have any heroes”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 21.
10 “It went from him”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 13.
11 “the most important ritual”: Fullerton, Striking Out Jim Crow, 46.
12 “I made it during the Depression”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 12.
12 “the type of young person you like to deal with”: Ibid., 13.
12 “My God, look at those hands!”: Ibid., 23.
13 “We didn’t know what to do”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
13 “See the ball! See the ball!”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 7.
13 “I knew he was gonna be special”: Kahn, The Era, 246.
14 “I was pretty good”: Sport, May 1969.
14 “By the time Willie was six”: Sports Illustrated, April 13, 1969.
14 “Pick it up!”: Linge, Willie Mays, 5.
14 “Cat was an indoctrinator”: Author interview.
14 “Stand up”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 60.
15 “When I try to remember events”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 13.
15 “simply extraordinary”: From an unpublished chapter in McWhorter, Carry Me Home.
16 “a mill town of perpetual promise”: Ibid.
16 “Our parents took us to church”: Stokes, e-mail to author.
17 “We were somewhat sheltered”: Author interview.
18 “because we got the better view ”: Author interview.
19 “I told Willie, ‘Just tell the truth’ ”: Author interview with Judi Phillips.
19 “I never saw Cat negative in any way”: Author interview.
19 “My father was much more private than me”: Author interview.
20 “I felt nothing bothered him”: Author interview.
20 “I played with him for two years”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
20 “He was basically a quiet, happy-go-lucky kid”: Author interviews.
20 “My father gave me that one thing, positive thinking”: Author interview.
20 “ You want to smoke?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 13.
20 “Cat always told us”: Author interview.
22 “Willie’s hands were quicker than your eyes”: Author interview.
22 “Willie got into minor things”: Author interview.
22 “confessed [to] Christ” : From a tribute to Sarah May, distributed on her death, at Jones Chapel A.M.E. Church, July 22, 1954.
22 “My mom talked about it all the time”: Author interview.
23 “She didn’t whip me that much, because I didn’t like it”: Author interview.
23 “It was just a happy place to be”: Author interview.
23 “Sarah fed us every day”: Author interview .
23 “a good woman who took care of Willie”: Author interview.
23 “She carried me to the hospital”: Author interview.
23 “We were worried to death”: Author interview.
24 “Willie, you’re going to be a ballplayer”: Author interview with Mays.
24 “I didn’t know life could be so cruel”: Author interview.
25 “That shook him up because Otis was like a brother”: Author interview.
25 “When you lose a friend like that”: Author interview.
26 “They would bite you”: Author interview.
26 “If you didn’t bring it back clean”: Author interview.
26 “If I got put in jail and they got put in jail”: Author interview.
27 “We’d play in the street”: Sporting News, February 17, 1960.
27 “They were concerned about the quality of our lives”: Author interview.
28 “high behind”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
28 “I knew he was not an ordinary person”: Author interview.
28 “It was absolutely crazy”: Author interview.
29 “I don’t like to say this too much”: Author interview.
29 “We’ll call you Bing”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 40.
29 “Call me DiMag”: Ibid., 59.
29 “I had a hope then that I could be”: Author interview.
29 “He was always a great athlete”: Author interview.
29 “He was the greatest passer I’ve ever seen”: Author interview.
30 “heaved a seventy-yard pass which was caught, then he ran for the extra point”: Oliver, End of an Era, 90.
30 “We had a center”: Author interview.
31 “You were bearing down too hard out there”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 64.
31 “This was about survival”: Author interview.
31 “We thought he was going to throw the ball”: Author interview.
32 “In the South, you only had”: Interview with the Academy of Achievement, A Museum of Living History, February 19, 1996.
32 “I ain’t going back for the money”: Author interview.
32 “Okay . . . you play baseball”: Author interview with Mays.
33 “I said to myself right then”: Chattanooga Times, October, 15, 1954.
33 “We learned it was a big world”: Author interview.
33 “We’d go out there early, look at the field”: Author interview.
33 “Willie and I would have finished the trip alone”: Chattanooga Times, October 15, 1954.
33 “We’d eat loaves of stale bread”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 308.
34 “You be back tomorrow?”: Ibid.
34 “My father had always been a symbol”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 14; Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 70–71.
35 “Both my mother and my father had tempers”: Author interview.
36 “Willie never felt disconnected to her”: Author interview.
36 “My mom had a mouth”: Author interview.
37 “It don’t pay to dig up the past”: Sport, June 1960.
38 “We want Piper!”: Described in an obituary distributed at Davis’s funeral on May 24, 1997.
38 “If [Davis] had a chance”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 261.
39 “Boy, what are you doing here?”: An interview of Piper Davis, on June 30, 1980, archived at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 15; and author interview.
40 “Well, I’m going to the ball game”: Birmingham World, May 9, 1950.
42 “If you was black”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 19.
42 Mays’s first game: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 22. The Diamond: The Official Chronicle of Major League Baseball, July 1993.
42 “I ain’t never seen a ballplayer like that in my life”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
43 Davis’s instructions to Willie: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey; The Diamond, July 1993; recorded interview at the Hall of Fame.
46 “they played baseball without the baseball”: Author interview.
46 “He was the most exciting young player you’ve ever seen”: Author interview.
47 “He did some impossible catches in the outfield”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
47 “Nobody, and I mean nobody”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 309.
47 “That’s it”: Author interview with Mays.
49 “It was an arduous existence”: Irvin with Riley, Nice Guys Finish First, 67.
49 “Rarely were we in the same city”: Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive , 65.
49 “He was just standing there on the highway”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
49 “If we came to a right turn”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 293.
50 “Got to play a game, fellas”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 34.
50 “You can’t leave me!”: Ibid., 31.
50 “She took off her apron”: Ibid., 33.
51 “was the greatest sleeper I ever saw”: Sporting News, February 9, 1955.
51 “It was a history lesson”: Author interview.
51 “We were one of the sharpest dressed teams in the league”: Author interview.
52 “We would laugh about that”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 26.
52 The man stepped off the bus: Fullerton, Striking Out Jim Crow, 83.
53 “dare not be seen”: Rowan, South of Freedom, 161.
53 “With all the rejection we had to suffer”: Author interview.
53 “Keep your mouth closed”: Author interview.
55 “He didn’t receive accolades”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
57 “Give us $2,000 and you can have that kid”: Recorded interview at the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum.
57 “Give it to me! Give it to me!”: Birmingham News, July 9, 1965.
57 “I’d stand on the roof at Rickwood and watch him”: Ibid.
58 “He was kind of skipping and dancing around”: Author interview.
59 “They moved slower back then”: Birmingham News, July 9, 1965.
59 “Listen, you forget about Perry” : Ibid.
59 “a young Negro ballplayer”: Look, May 3, 1955.
59 “ I had no inkling of Willie Mays”: Ibid.
60 “He told me he had seen enough of Perry”: New York Journal American, June 28, 1954.
60 “Would you like to play professional baseball?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 39.
61 “Why should Mr. Hayes get anything?”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 303.
62 “The kid can’t hit a curveball”: Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive, 144.
62 “Ownership thought there was a surfeit”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 306.
62 “He was the greatest prospect I ever saw”: Boston Globe, August 3, 1994.
62 “has the attitudes”: Kahn, The Era, 190.
63 “When I finally get a nigger”: Thorn, Glory Days, 30.
63 “Of course we knew segregation was wrong”: Kahn, The Era, 188 .
64 “I don’t look at race that way”: Author interview.
66 “History was made last night”: Philadelphia Daily News, August 10, 2004.
66 “Hey, man, I don’t need no help here”: Interview with the American Academy of Achievement, February 19, 1996.
67 “Who’s that nigger”: Philadelphia Daily News, August 10, 2004.
67 “I went 0-for-Maryland”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 43.
68 “I never knew a peg ”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 103
68 “They look like Popeye’s”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 43.
68 “I just didn’t hear it anymore”: Ibid., 47.
69 “One-and-two, hitter’s weakness is high inside”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 75–76.
69 “He’s a major league prospect”: Sport, June 1956, 60.
70 “He might be a little tight”: Angell, Five Seasons, 275.
71 “You had to be better than good”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 50.
72 “You’ve got a great chance”: Ibid., 50.
72 “Hey, kid, what are you going to show me today?”: Ibid., 48.
72 “I could tell you every move Mays”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 272.
73 “When the game was over,”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 49.
73 “Willie, we’re taking you with us to Minneapolis”: Ibid., 51.
73 “I have been toning it down”: Ibid., 53.
73 “Why aren’t you here?”: Ibid., 54.
74 “literally climbed the right-center field wall”: Hoffbeck, Swinging for the Fences, 134.
74 “I just caught my spikes in the wall”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 54.
74 “That little son of a bitch”: Ibid., 54.
74 “Willie, you’re losing your control ”: Ibid., 52.
75 “He’s as good, at this stage”: Hoffbeck, Swinging for the Fences, 134.
75 “Many veteran observers feel he may well become”: Ibid., 135.
76 “I like to think that before he died”: Kahn, The Era, 249.
77 “We pick up the papers one week and say”: New York Times, June 29, 1952.
77 “If Willie Mays is in the audience”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 56–57.
77 “You just broke my heart”: New York Times, May 25, 1951.
78 Conversation between Mays and Durocher: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey; Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays .
78 “I didn’t want to go because”: Hano, Willie Mays, 47.
79 “That Stoneham letter quite frankly”: Sporting News, June 27, 1951.
80 “I had to go pack his stuff”: Sports Illustrated, July 6, 1987.
80 “You know... I really don’t like you”: Interview with Monte Irvin.
81 “No minor league player in a generation”: New York Times, May 25, 1951.
82 “My big fellows! My giants!”: New Yorker, May 1958.
83 “Dad came home one night”: Sports Illustrated, May 5, 1958.
84 “I always liked it better up there”: Ibid.
84 “Horace Stoneham’s bartender”: Author interview.
84 “Are they still in the league?”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 4.
85 “Stick it in his fucking ear!”: Eig, Opening Day, 39.
85 “Those were real nice home runs”: Allen, The Giants & The Dodgers, 193.
86 “Don’t clutter your brain with ethics”: Sport, August 1969.
86 “Good sportsmanship is so much sheep dip”: Time, July 26, 1954.
86 “Figure, you and Durocher are shipwrecked”: Kahn, Memories of Summer, 151.
86 “ If Durocher keeps them hustling”: Prager, Echoing Green, 15.
86 “public fornication”: Kahn, The Era, 28.
87 “Leo has an infinite capacity”: Ibid., 22.
87 “Carve it on my gravestone”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 13.
87 “I happened to be one of the heretics”: Day, Day with the Giants , 22.
87 “undermining the moral training”: Rosenfeld, The Great Chase, 5.
87 “Boys, I hear some of you don’t want to play”: Kahn, The Era, 35–36.
88 “an accumulation of unpleasant incidents”: Hynd, Giants of the Polo Grounds, 350.
88 “poison at the gate”: Ibid.
88 “My daughter”: Sports Illustrated, May 5, 1958, 77.
88 “Who did you have in mind?”: Hynd, Giants of the Polo Grounds, 350.
89 “Then why am I listening to this?”: Kahn, The Era, 152.
89 “Your future lies over the river, Leo”: Day, Day with the Giants, 70.
89 “Leo was on the horns of a dilemma”: Thorn, Glory Days, 57.
90 “If we don’t win it next year, boys”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 57.
91 “the Giants’ outfield seemed like a trio of morticians”: Ibid., 29.
91 “he was so hot you could’ve fried eggs”: Ibid., 66.
91 “I won’t say that Leo was suicidal”: Day, Day with the Giants, 19.
91 “Don’t let the guys give up”: Peary, We Played the Game, 152.
92 “My God”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 87.
92 “Willie, they’re going to try to find out about you”: Sporting News, August 15, 1951.
93 Mays arrives in Philadelphia: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 90–93; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 64–66.
94 “He popped it up ”: Peary, We Played the Game, 152.
95 “I’m thinking, ‘Wow’ ”: Philadelphia Inquirer, May 25, 2001.
95 “Hey, Leo, how do you like him?”: Hodges with Hirshberg, My Giants, 96.
95 “Listen, man”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 78.
95 “because I’m not feeling easy up there”: New York Post, May 28, 1951.
95 “Is everybody here crazy except me?”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 93.
96 “For the first sixty feet”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 42.
96 “I never saw a fucking ball leave”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 106.
98 “This is only the beginning”: Amsterdam News, May 26, 1951.
99 “slud into third”: Herkowitz, Mickey Mantle, 69.
99 “new way of knowing”: Tygiel, Past Time, 66.
100 “was perhaps the most one-dimensional”: James, New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, 220.
101 “You came slowly down the John T. Brush”: New Yorker, May 1958.
101 “the mightiest temple”: Thornley, Land of the Giants, 66.
102 “To a batter standing at home plate”: Prager, Echoing Green, 60.
102 “There were men faster than Willie Mays ”: Posnanski, Soul of Baseball, 33.
102 “Putting Mays in a small ballpark”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, p. 95.
102 “It’s only a slump”: Sport, June 1956.
102 “If anything, he seemed even younger than twenty”: Author interview.
103 Durocher and Mays in the clubhouse: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 273–74; Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 94–95; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 69–71.
105 “With Willie... you have to just keep patting him ”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 274.
105 “Mays was the only player”: Hodges with Hirshberg, My Giants, 98.
105 “You play like my kid ”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 274.
105 “All those nice things Leo says”: Ebony, August 1955, 36.
105 “I know they expect much from me”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 52.
106 “Aren’t you guys playing today?”: Irvin, Nice Guys Finish First, 132.
106 “Look, there’s something about Willie Mays”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 276.
107 “Did you notice how the third baseman was”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 75.
107 “can’t run, can’t hit, can’t field”: Ibid., 75.
107 “I would spike my mother”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 33.
108 “How should we pitch to this kid?”: Gilbert, The Seasons, 103.
108 “He was all smiles”: Author interview.
108 “Goddammit, can’t someone tell that guy”: Interview with Eddie Bressoud.
109 “had revolutionized outfield play”: Hano, Willie Mays, 57.
109 “Hey, Leo, didn’t you see what”: Sport, August 1969; Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 107.
110 “With the average player, you take for granted”: Ibid., 111.
110 “I don’t think any ballplayer ever related”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 106.
110 “the kid everybody liked”: Sporting News, August 15, 1951.
110 “Shame on you for not catching that ball”: Sport, June 1965.
112 “the life of the party”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 54.
112 “He electrified the clubhouse”: American Weekly, March 30, 1958.
112 “Willie answers all your questions breathlessly”: Meany, Incredible Giants, 54.
112 “a ferryboat whistle tooting frantically in a fog ”: New York Journal-American, June 30, 1954.
112 “You have to hand that thing over”: Day, Day with the Giants, 202.
112 “Race you the rest of the way for five dollars”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 101–102.
113 “Coke!... That’s six you owe me”: Sport, August 1959.
113 “Naturally, you stay a little laid back”: Thomson with Heiman and Gutman, “The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!,” 161.
114 “as violently as anybody”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 116.
114 “my pigeon”: Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive, 163–64; Irvin, Nice Guys Finish First, 148; Hano, Willie Mays, 64.
114 “You think he’s a good pitcher, Willie?”: Author interview.
114 “When I was his age”: Sporting News, September 5, 1951.
114 “When I first met Willie”: Time, July 26, 1954; Life, September 13, 1954.
115 “maybe four or five would be after Willie”: Ibid.
116 “When she hit the floor”: Ibid.
116 “Willie takes that man’s word”: Time, July 26, 1954.
116 “Okay, James, let’s go!”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 278–79; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 72–75.
117 “I’m empty, man”: Ibid.
117 “How’d you like one of these?”: Argosy, September 1964.
118 “He’s an athlete”: Irvin with Riley, Nice Guys Finish First, 31.
118 “He’s the next DiMaggio”: Posnanski, Soul of Baseball, 224.
119 “a bear trying to open”: Hodges with Hirshberg, My Giants, 94.
119 “Tell him what to do and how to do it”: Author interview.
119 “Being an infant”: Hano, Willie Mays, 63.
119 “Coming from the South”: Author interview.
120 “innate gayety of soul”: Osofsky, Harlem, 184.
120 “Ah gives baserunners the heave ho!”: Tygiel, Past Time, 160.
121 “straw boss” and “plantation hand”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 52.
121 “It bothered me a little too”: Author interview.
121 “Black folks had their own language”: Author interview.
122 “When the newspapermen used to ask me questions”: Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961.
122 “I know you not hitting”: Life, September 13, 1954.
122 “Willie gave me a lift”: Author interview.
122 “The single greatest factor”: Irvin with Riley, Nice Guys Finish First, 156.
123 “Leo, Leo, you in there?”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 91; Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 36.
124 “took off as though it had a will of its own”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 95.
124 “Let it go!”: Ibid., 95.
124 “Willie Mays... is reaching up”: Thrive: Boomers and Beyond, Volume 1, Issue 26, July/August 2007.
125 “I’d like to see him do it again”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 52.
125 “That was the luckiest throw I ever saw in my life”: Sporting News, February 24, 1954.
125 “I have been in baseball for forty-five years”: Ibid.
125 “I was absolutely astounded”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 95.
126 “We have to catch the Dodgers”: Author interview.
127 “Warren Spahn had the best move to first base”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 276.
128 “They were having a hell of a time”: Prager, Echoing Green, 112.
128 “I don’t think there’s ever been a club”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 117.
129 “Back in those days”: Ibid., 245.
130 “touched off the wildest set-buying spree”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 48–49.
130 “by more sets of eyes than had ever before”: Prager, Echoing Green, 179.
131 “Sal, you had a hell of a year”: Sports Illustrated, April 22, 1968.
132 “sitting there like a deer in the hunting season”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 226.
132 “Attention, press”: Prager, Echoing Green, 209.
133 Please don’t let it be me: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 5.
133 “Willie may not have had a great average last year ”: Sporting News, January 25, 1952.
133 “Get [Thomson] out”: Rosenfeld, Great Chase, 233.
133 “It’s true, that first pitch was a blur”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 144.
133 “It was the biggest crowd noise I ever heard”: Thomson, “The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant!,” 253.
134 “He was acting like a condemned man who had just received”: Saturday Evening Review, August 26, 1972.
134 “he got excited and fell out”: Irvin with Riley, Nice Guys Finish First, 161.
134 “I’m glad they didn’t”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 89.
134 “I want you to know one thing”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 65.
134 “It was likely the most dramatic and shocking event in American sports”: Tygiel, Past Time, 144.
135 “Bobby Thomson brought New York City”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 147.
136 “Look how I hit”: Author interview.
138 “Willie Mays is in a daze”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 71
138 “Why would he want to take a picture with me?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 90.
140 “I had played like a twenty-year-old”: Ibid., 96.
142 “He drove a car faster than anyone”: Author interview.
142 “He’s o-u-u-t-t!”: Nunnelley, Bull Connor , 12.
145 “owes perhaps a greater obligation to”: April 15, 1952 (Unidentified newspaper in San Francisco Public Library, Research Center, Willie Mays’s archives).
146 “Get up, nigger!”: Irvin with Riley, Nice Guys Finish First, 128.
147 “That’s all right”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 315.
147 “There wasn’t much you could do except ignore them”: Author interview.
148 “His spikes caught”: Hano, Willie Mays, 76
148 “On the bench . . . we could hear the ankle pop”: Sporting News, April 9, 1952.
148 “I couldn’t stand to look at it”: Sporting News, September 3, 1952.
149 “They’re carrying our pennant chances off the field”: Sporting News, April 9, 1952.
149 “that it was doubtful that anyone in the park”: Baltimore Afro-American, April 22, 1952.
150 “My heart was in my mouth”: Author interview.
150 “Jackie was coming out here to see if I was all right?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 82.
150 “The greatest catch I ever saw in my life”: Baltimore Afro-American, April 22, 1952.
150 Praise for Mays’s catch: Sporting News, February 24, 1954.
150 “Because I didn’t have to”: Author interview.
151 “This was in Brooklyn”: Reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, June 29, 1952.
151 “I sure am going to miss him”: New York Sun, May 29, 1952.
151 “It’s undoubtedly for the best”: New York Journal-American, May 28, 1952.
152 “Just hold ’em until I come back, fellas”: Author interview.
152 “He was just having fun”: Author interview.
153 “Those young recruits would have just mobbed him”: Author interview.
153 “If you didn’t feel like soldiering”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 148
154 “There would be four or five thousand people”: Army Times, November 14, 1973.
154 “You gotta be crazy”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 150.
155 “That gives it a sense of risk”: Author interview.
155 “The pocket, where the ball hits”: Hano, Willie Mays, 80.
155 Mays’s trip to North Carolina: From a letter to Mays and author interviews with Akers and Mays.
157 Mays’s time with Poo Johnson: Author interviews.
158 “Hey, Willie, where you been?”: Sport, June 1961.
159 “I did it”: Author interview.
159 “He was aware that he was helping the cause”: Author interview.
159 “You’d never have thought Willie had ever been away”: Sporting News, November 19, 1952.
160 “I always have believed”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 102.
160 “He just made such a difference out there”: Sporting News, January 21, 1953.
161 “Willie catches the triples”: Ibid.
161 “chamber of gloom”: Sporting News, November 4, 1953.
162 Congressional hearing: Baltimore Afro-American, May 13, 1954, and July 24, 1954.
162 “I have no pride in my Army career”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 148.
164 Mays’s return to the Giants and train ride with Kahn: Kahn, Memories of Summer, 161–64; Sport, August 1969; Sport, October 1954; Sporting News, March 10, 1954.
166 “Willie must have been born under some kind of star”: Newsweek, April 5, 1954.
167 “Well, it wasn’t that good a throw”: Sport, October 1954.
168 Mays at casino: Kahn, Memories of Summer, 258–61; author interviews with Irvin, Kahn, and Mays.
170 Mays at the Biltmore: Author interviews with Irvin and Mays.
172 “If there was a machine”: Rickey with Rigor, American Diamond, 124
172 “that it was still soaring when it crashed into the seats”: Sport, October 1954.
173 “I told ya”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 111.
174 “Dodger fans, we thought you would want to know”: Sporting News, July 7, 1954.
175 “Even the Yankees themselves spend half their time”: Ibid.
175 “Of course I know”: Sporting News, July 21, 1954.
176 “That’s funny stuff”: Sport, June 1965.
176 “For the first time”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 112.
176 “When reporters started asking him”: Sport, June 1956.
176 “Willie Mays is the only ballplayer”: Collier’s, September 3, 1954.
176 “Look, Mays just lost his halo”: Sport, June 1961.
177 “Willie is wonderful to me”: Sport, June 1956.
177 “He was a captive of his hometown admirers”: Life, September 13, 1954.
178 “Durocher divided his energy between”: Saturday Evening Post, April 13, 1957.
178 “The inevitable conclusion”: Hano, Willie Mays, 96.
179 “TV natural. He spoke his lines”: Art Flynn’s brochure promoting Mays.
179 “I don’t know. Just turn those cameras on”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 158.
179 “It has gotten to the point the last couple of weeks”: Newsweek, July 19, 1954.
182 “I want my boy well protected”: Sporting News, September 29, 1954.
185 “Willie, I want you to do something”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 113.
186 “All my life”: Amsterdam News, August 1954.
187 “I had a big lucky year”: Sporting News, September 29, 1954.
187 “He’d be miffed whenever a ball was just”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 114.
188 “Sure, Willie was a bouncing, bubbly boy”: Saturday Evening Post, April 13, 1957.
188 “there were resentments on the club”: Sport, June 1956.
188 “Once you got to know how good he was”: Author interview.
189 “I told you so”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 114.
189 “the man who lost the hitting title to Willie Mays”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 90.
189 “If I hadn’t won it”: Ibid., 116.
190 “equal to the receptions for Eisenhower”: Sporting News, October 6, 1954.
190 “Willie Mays is the greatest player”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 117.
192 “My pelvis is tilted”: Sports Illustrated, September 27, 1955.
193 “muscular men not long in grace”: James, Historical Baseball Abstract, 220.
194 Ball game: Author interview.
194 two runs: Author interview.
196 “This has to be the best throw”: Conlan and Creamer, Jocko , 131.
196 “Normally, an outfielder has to make two”: Author interview.
197 “That was a helluva catch, roomie”: Author interview.
197 “Willie came running in and grabbed it off the grass”: Sporting News, October 20, 1973.
198 “He used to raise two hundred gallons”: Hano, Willie Mays, 91.
198 “Me and Willie play left field”: Author interview.
198 “It was the longest out”: Daily News, September 30, 1954.
199 “greater than Al Gionfriddo’s in the 1947 Series”: Sporting News, October 13, 1954.
199 “What the fuck are you talking about?”: Kahn, Memories of Summer, 194.
199 “I’ve been playing ball since I was a kid”: Daily News, September 30, 1954.
199 “Nobody else could’ve made that play”: San Francisco Chronicle, September 24, 2004.
199 “We knew Willie had it”: Burns, Baseball, 1994.
199 “and without making it look so hard”: Sporting News, April 13, 1955.
199 “I had the ball all the way”: Sporting News, October 13, 1954.
199 “This was the most perfectly sculpted”: Author interview.
200 “I’m playing a shallow center field”: Kahn, Memories of Summer, 255–56.
201 “It was more than just a great catch”: Burns, Baseball, 1994.
202 “When Willie would wash dishes”: Author interview.
203 “Losing the first game hurt us the most”: Sporting News, October 13, 1954.
203 “We finally found his weakness”: Sporting News, October 13, 1954.
203 “If Cleveland had won Game One”: Author interview.
206 “into the game”: Burns, Baseball, 1994.
206 “magnificent throw”: Hano, “A Day in the Bleachers,” 45.
207 “I don’t know about other players”: Sports Illustrated, April 13, 1959.
209 “We didn’t want the Giants to have”: Maraniss, Clemente, 37.
209 “I always said that was the greatest”: Ibid., 57.
209 “Instructions? What could you tell Willie?”: Collier’s, January 7, 1955.
210 “Look at that boy. He just can’t wait to get things started”: Ibid.
210 “He had a real nice apartment”: Ibid.
210 “Perhaps to some people it seemed I had changed”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 128.
211 “Give me the ice pick”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 54.
212 “take it easy”: New York Times, January 13, 1955.
212 “remains one of the most dramatic clouts”: Shannon, Willie Mays, 29.
215 “The emphasis shifted from maximum advance ”: Koppett, Fan’s Thinking Guide to Baseball, 80.
217 “that the ball sounded a little different”: ESPN documentary, 1999.
217 “If I knew I was near a record”: Sporting News, May 16, 1956.
218 “Willie runs too much”: Campanella, It’s Good to Be Alive, 270.
219 “the geometric possibilities of the play”: Author interview.
219 “Zimmerman exploded upon contact”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 155.
220 “I was kind of using his head as a fulcrum”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 102.
220 “I’ve seen him go up in the air trying for a catch”: Sporting News, June 5, 1957.
220 “the only player I ever saw”: Conlan and Creamer, Jocko, 131.
220 “Those two rabbits started running”: San Francisco Examiner, September 29, 1957.
221 “Just safe!”: Sport, 1962.
221 “A line drive”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 122.
221 “I didn’t play much those first couple of years”: Author interview.
222 “He was the game’s premier warrior”: Stanton, Ty and the Babe, 27.
223 “the favorite of all is Willie Mays”: Day, Day with the Giants, 201.
224 “It wasn’t until the letters came in”: Author interview.
227 “The Negro stars have certainly done something”: Look, September 21, 1954.
227 “A major league baseball player must have something besides”: Tygiel, Past Time, 84.
227 “smaller cranium, lighter brain, [and] cowardly and”: Hirsch, Two Souls Indivisible, 90.
227 “Don, you and Jackie and Roy”: Aaron with Wheeler, I Had a Hammer, 297.
228 “was the most difficult ballplayer”: Conlan and Creamer, Jocko, 151.
229 “anger as a confederate”: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson , 306.
229 “He was the kind of man who had”: Tygiel, Baseball’s Great Experiment, 62.
229 “Robinson, by virtue of seething pride, unforgiving resentments”: Honig, Mays, Mantle, Snider, 98.
229 Mays at the White House: Sporting News, July 20, 1955; Chicago Defender, July 23, 1955.
230 “out run, out throw, and out field”: Sporting News, January 26, 1955.
230 “I appreciate the nice things Leo said about me”: Sporting News, February 2, 1955.
230 “Mays stole the show”: Sporting News, February 9, 1955.
230 “I’m for playing the game”: Author interview with Mays.
231 “They had a black maid”: Author interview.
231 “His achievement beyond excellence”: From an NPR commentary.
232 “I saw him his rookie year”: Author interview.
232 “Willie was the greatest player playing”: Author interview.
235 “never seen a body so badly deteriorated”: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 320.
236 “Where can a guy take a piss?”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 287.
237 “What do you mean, ‘boss’?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 130.
237 “Just send it, “Care of the skipper’ ”: Our World: A Picture Magazine for the Whole Family, June 1955.
237 “I remember Willie was always very friendly”: Author interview.
238 “Monte, you’re not swinging the bat”: Author interview.
238 “I’ll miss Monte”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 26, 1955.
239 “If you hit the ball to right field”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 132.
239 “In our field, if you miss it in center, it’s gone”: Sporting News, August 31, 1955.
241 “I played in a small town in Milwaukee”: Author interview.
241 “food outfit”: Sporting News, April 6, 1960.
242 “That’s another twenty down the drain”: American Weekly, September 19, 1954.
243 “Everybody seems to be after him”: Our World, June 1955.
243 “Willie volunteers about as much information”: Sports Illustrated, April 13, 1959.
243 “They ain’t kidding me”: Our World, June 1955.
244 “I want to tell you something”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 133; Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 280.
246 “probably wouldn’t have made it”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 145.
246 “To the extent that Leo Ernest Durocher”: Author interview.
246 “His departure . . . was a source”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 145.
246 “It was a big change”: Kiernan, Miracle at Coogan’s Bluff, 161.
248 “one of the hippest women I’ve ever met”: Linge, Willie Mays , 77.
248 “America’s leading dusky playgirl”: Whisper, June 1956.
248 “He was Mr. Baseball to me”: Sporting News, October 2, 1957.
248 “He got to the point”: Author interview.
248 “I don’t believe in that”: Author interview.
249 “Marghuerite came down and went out”: Author interview.
249 “Sometimes a country boy needs to be with”: Author interview.
249 “a beautiful woman . . . who stared hard and knowing when she said hello”: Sport, June 1956; Sport, August 1969.
250 “there was no security in the major leagues”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 150.
251 “Mrs. Marghuerite Mays seems to be a very charming”: Saturday Evening Post, April 13, 1957.
251 “It wasn’t like that”: Author interview.
251 “He’s the most wonderful human being”: Sporting News, October 2, 1957.
252 “Aside from center field, shortstop, and right field”: Linge, Willie Mays, 78.
252 “I don’t think I could have made him”: Sporting News, May 2, 1956.
253 “Rigney was out to prove that Willie was just one of twenty-five guys”: Saturday Evening Post, April 13, 1957.
253 “There is some general truth to that”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 187.
253 “The one thing you must never do is holler at Willie”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 299.
253 “You don’t lose players that are part of a winning”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 140.
255 “in some ways, it was one of my most difficult seasons”: Ibid., 142.
255 “until it looked like a doll house”: Sporting News, January 16, 1957.
255 Description of house: Hano, Willie Mays, 131.
256 “The problem wasn’t bad investments”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 252.
256 “When they hit it to him”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 62.
256 “He told me to go out”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 145.
257 “All I can say is”: Sports Illustrated, April 13, 1959.
257 “He thought I didn’t care about him”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 54.
257 “the ballplayers dressed in silence or sat, heads down”: Hano, Willie Mays, 118.
257 “Playing before crowds of twelve hundred”: Sporting News, March 5, 1958.
258 “We thought from the bench”: Author interview.
258 “that expansive green grass field”: Mandel, San Francisco Giants, 248.
260 “Getting a major league team into San Francisco”: Tygiel, Past Time, 179.
260 “Do you want to move to California?”: Hodges and Hirschberg, My Giants, 137.
261 “There is no longer any chance to survive here”: Sporting News, August 14, 1957.
262 “Horace, one of New York’s own”: Sporting News, October 9, 1957.
262 “Willie’s lid flew off so easily because of his receding forehead”: Sporting News, August 29, 1956.
263 “I don’t like him to do it”: Sporting News, October 2, 1957.
263 “I don’t envy Willie”: Associated Press, April 18, 1955.
263 “I never saw the stickball-in-the-street phase”: Unnamed magazine (from San Francisco Public Library), “Trials of a Negro Idol,” June 22, 1963.
264 “The ‘Say Hey Kid’ helped his image”: Author interview.
264 The final game at the Polo Grounds: Hano, Willie Mays, 125–28; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 146–49; New Yorker, May 1958; Sporting News, October 9, 1957; Washington Times, December 15, 2008.
269 “wistfully curling tendrils”: Saturday Evening Post, January 4, 1958.
271 “Some of us drink too much”: Sports Illustrated, May 5, 1958.
272 “When I’m in a slump, anybody can get me out”: Sporting News, January 15, 1958.
275 Housing controversy on Miraloma Drive: “Housing a Giant, A Memorandum on the Willie Mays Incident,” by Edward Howden, San Francisco Public Library; author interviews with Howden and Mays.
283 “When they first start out”: Sports Illustrated, March 21, 1960.
284 “You felt that no one could ever top New York”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 185.
285 “it was like you were sitting in the same kitchen together”: Ibid., 110.
285 “There is nothing quite like the smell of new beer”: Ibid., 17.
286 “It’s like a World Series”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 2.
286 “It was such a thrill”: Author interview.
287 “Willie Mays is the world’s greatest athlete”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 155.
287 Near riot in Pittsburgh: Author interviews with Cepeda, Mays, and Lon Simmons; Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 104; Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 102; San Francisco Examiner, May 26, 1958; Sporting News, June 4, 1958.
290 “How do you feel?”: Sporting News, July 2, 1958.
290 “They ask me, am I physically tired or mentally tired”: Sport, May 1959.
291 “Mays always looked out for us”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 126.
292 “He was a laid-back guy”: Peary, We Played the Game, 468.
292 “He didn’t get up in the clubhouse”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 224.
293 “Do they want me to talk to them like I would to old friends?”: Sporting News, April 2, 1958.
293 “That irritated the rest of us”: Unidentified newspaper from the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library.
294 “I got to learn to play center field all over again”: Sporting News, November 13, 1957.
295 “the Babe Cobb of Puerto Rico”: Cepeda with Fagan, Baby Bull, 2.
295 “a bronze statue standing at dress parade”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 17.
295 “It’s too bad he’s a year away”: Ibid., 53.
295 “I was in the right place at the right time”: Ibid., 103.
296 “They didn’t expect Willie Mays to land there”: Los Angeles Times , May 23, 1962.
296 “I didn’t have the disadvantage Willie Mays had”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 25.
296 “Willie is the one guy I felt a little sorry for”: Author interview.
296 “This was Joe DiMaggio’s town”: Sporting News, July 11, 1964.
297 “I wish I could have it, it’s so beautiful”: Ebony, September 1954.
297 “absolutely no basis for Willie Mays divorce rumors”: San Francisco Examiner, September 20, 1958.
297 “He hit her like he owned her”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 187.
298 “My wife slipped and fell down the stairs”: Sport, April 1959.
299 “Willie told both of us to guard the line”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 156.
300 “No, I’m not disappointed”: San Francisco Examiner, September 29, 1958.
302 “I don’t think it would have mattered who we played”: Aaron with Wheeler, I Had a Hammer, 146.
303 “Willie was playing his usual reckless game”: Sporting News, May 20, 1959.
304 “Imagine that. People getting tired of baseball”: Sporting News, November 21, 1956.
304 “I think if you play 154 games in the majors”: Sporting News, January 16, 1957.
304 “They must have declared a holiday”: Sporting News, October 30, 1957.
306 “I’ll try my best on the field”: Sporting News, November 2, 1960.
306 “I’ve disappointed the Japanese fans”: Sporting News, November 9, 1960.
306 “The only thing impressive . . . is Willie Mays’s”: Sporting News, November 9, 1960.
306 “What am I going to do?”: Sporting News, November 23, 1960.
306 “We will not barnstorm this year”: Sporting News, November 8, 1961.
307 “ragged, ugly wound”: San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 1959.
308 “It wasn’t his fault”: Sporting News, June 17, 1959.
310 “There goes an $80,000 pop-up”: Sport, Baseball’s Best, 1960.
310 “How can they call that a double”: Mandel, San Francisco Giants, 106.
310 “The boner of the year!”: San Francisco Examiner, May 8–9, 1959.
310 “What can I say?”: Ibid.
311 “[The boos] were hard to understand, but I never let on that they hurt me”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 161.
311 “This is the damnedest city I ever saw”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco , 7.
313 “It’s a business, Vin”: Hano, Willie Mays, 14.
313 “Brandt was outspoken”: Author interview.
315 “I didn’t know any of my neighbors”: Confidential, April 1960.
315 “They ran sightseeing buses to point out”: Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963.
316 “I don’t pursue people”: Sport, June 1961.
317 “Taking down a mountain to fill a sea”: Giants Yearbook, 1960.
318 “as long as the Coliseum in Rome”: Ibid.
318 “Willie should have his greatest year”: San Francisco Chronicle, April 11, 1960.
318 “Until I played at Candlestick”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 100.
318 “The area stinks, literally”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 18.
318 “Does the wind always blow like this?”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 14.
319 “Would you please take care of our”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 94.
319 “You’d start the game and the wind would be in your face”: Ibid., 95.
320 “I thought I was going to die”: Ibid., 110.
320 “Well, the cleanup crew is gonna go out there”: Ibid., 149.
320 “Who’s the stenographer?”: Ibid., 156.
320 “The wind blew me off the mound”: San Francisco Examiner, June 12, 1961.
320 “The wind, you have to feel it to believe it”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 94.
320 “We’re not going to put Willie in the sheriff’s warehouse”: Unidentified newspaper clipping from San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library.
321 “after all, it was his first one”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 13.
321 “The Candlestick weather leaves you depressed”: Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giants Dugout, 98–101.
322 “It’s not bad”: Rosenbaum and Stevens, Giants of San Francisco, 70.
322 “the howlingest winds in Candlestick history”: Sporting News, July 19, 1961.
322 “The people who built the ballpark just didn’t know”: Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961.
323 “Willie was always swinging to hit the long ball”: Author interview.
324 “baseball’s second dead-ball era”: James, Historical Baseball Abstract, 249.
324 “It looks like you’ve got something to tell me”: Sporting News, June 29, 1960.
324 “It was Rig’s job to arouse the players”: Ibid.
324 “Horace felt pressured into making a decision that he”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 166.
325 “I think Omar the tentmaker had to make it”: Bitker, Original San Francisco Giants, 156.
325 “an engaging old windbag”: Sports Illustrated, July 18, 1960.
325 “He was in uniform in body only”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 167.
325 “If a guy can pitch, he can pitch anywhere”: Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961.
325 “I guess the old man”: San Francisco Examiner, September 15, 1960.
326 “I made up my mind if the throw went to second”: San Francisco Examiner, May 31, 1960.
327 “General Douglas MacArthur and me have something”: Sporting News, November 16, 1960.
328 “When baseball people were asked what was wrong with the Giants”: Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961.
328 “so short-legged that when he sits down”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 34.
329 “I wasn’t going to squeal”: Leavy, Sandy Koufax, 128.
330 “Any time I knock in a hundred runs”: Sporting News, February 1, 1961.
331 “He has had substantial raises in the past”: Ibid.
332 “I’ve already counted eight insults to our city”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 25.
333 “The only hope now is if we crash”: Ibid., 104.
333 “They heard”: Ibid., 82.
333 “The only player on the team who doubted Willie Mays’s”: Dark and Underwood, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 76.
333 “Without Willie, the Giants are just an ordinary team”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 172.
333 “I was trying to give him the credit he deserved”: Dark and Underwood, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 77.
333 “It’s hard to say”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 38.
334 “Dark knew that Bolin was fighting”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 171.
335 “I had the feeling that I was on one side”: Ibid., 167.
335 “frictions”: Chicago Daily Defender, January 4, 1961.
335 Willie’s separation and divorce: Los Angeles Examiner, July 18, 1961; San Francisco Examiner, July 13, July 18, August 10, September 15, and November 22, 1961, January 12, 1962; Sporting News, July 26 and November 29, 1961.
339 “incompatibility of characters”: San Francisco Examiner, January 18, 1962.
339 “I don’t blame anybody but ourselves for what went wrong”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 187.
339 “When I was first divorced”: Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963.
339 “When you trust someone and all of a sudden that someone”: Author interview.
340 “Once I find the right kind of girl”: Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963.
340 “Lots of times”: San Francisco Examiner, February 19, 1962.
340 “I was really scared”: Author interview.
340 “You going to play today?”: Author interviews; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 173; San Francisco Examiner, May 2, 1961.
342 “ I walked to the mound”: Sport, June 1967.
342 “Man, after you get two in a game”: Milwaukee Journal, May 1, 1961.
343 “I feel terrible about that bat”: Author interview.
344 “We’ll never play tonight”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 225.
344 “Ladies and gentlemen”: Ibid.
345 “New York... hadn’t forgotten me”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 175.
346 “The man who was in the dirt more than any other”: Sport, August 1963.
347 “You have to throw at him twice”: Author interview with Robert Creamer.
347 “I was just wild”: Sporting News, May 4, 1960.
347 “That’s a damn lie”: Associated Press, April 25, 1957.
347 “Use Marichal”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 246.
348 “I’ll wear it until it falls off”: San Francisco Examiner, February 28, 1962.
348 “Who wouldn’t approve of a deal for Mays?”: Sporting News, April 25, 1962.
349 “I don’t want to manage Dark’s club for him”: Sport, October 1962.
349 “If he had known how upset”: Ibid.
349 “I have the shakes”: Author interview.
350 “I thought the pressure on Mays”: Plaut, Chasing October, 132.
350 “Win”: Ibid., 98.
351 “lacked the guts to be a manager”: Einstein, Flag for San Francisco, 41.
351 “Let’s go, bussy”: Plaut, Chasing October, 108.
351 “The driver cranked up the motor”: Ibid.
352 “I’ve seen eight hundred guys with their shirts off”: Author interview.
352 “I used to have to ask Durocher”: Plaut, Chasing October, 140.
352 “The Big Man just discovered who the Big Man really is”: San Francisco Chronicle, June 11, 1971.
353 “The place is full of ghosts”: Sport, October 1962.
353 “Yeah, my first fight and I hope my last one”: Chicago Defender, May 29, 1962.
354 “Willie . . . is a lucky boy”: San Francisco Chronicle, May 30, 1962 .
355 “It was getting hot in the pennant race”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 178.
355 “I’ve never been so tired”: San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 1962.
355 “The trip from the West Coast”: Plaut, Chasing October, 156.
355 Cincinnati collapse: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 168; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 179; Perry, We Played the Game, 540; Plaut, Chasing October, 157; San Francisco Chronicle, September 9, 1963; San Francisco Examiner, September 14, 1962; Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963; Sport, August 1963.
357 “They just mobbed him”: Author interview.
357 “most African American players were jealous of Willie”: Author interview.
360 “Then when they saw my number”: Sporting News, September 29, 1962.
360 “Willie, the Dodgers could have taken charge”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 182; Plaut, Chasing October, 164.
361 “Can you guys score a run?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 183;
361 “were staying out until three or four o’clock in the morning”: Plaut, Chasing October, 166.
361 “wrathful glances over at Dark and the coaching staff”: Ibid., 167.
361 “I just didn’t realize how many outs there were”: San Francisco Examiner, September 28, 1962.
363 “ We owe the Giants something”: Sports Illustrated, October 8, 1962.
364 “Maybe the ball got away”: San Francisco Examiner, October 2, 1962.
364 “I think it was the moment where San Francisco fans”: Plaut, Chasing October, 175.
364 “I let him know it was a bad call”: San Francisco Examiner, October 3, 1962.
365 “Only Willie Mays”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 189.
365 “Durocher got up laughing”: Plaut, Chasing October, 182.
366 “Even the most famous player of his day might top that sinker”: Sporting News, January 17, 1979.
366 “To be truthful”: Plaut, Chasing October, 184.
367 “Worst inning I ever saw in my life”: Durocher with Linn, Nice Guys Finish Last, 11.
367 “You crazy?”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 172.
367 “I don’t like to be around drunks”: Plaut, Chasing October, 189.
368 San Francisco airport scene: Author interviews; Einstein, Willie’s Time, 172; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 190; Plaut, Chasing October, 193; Rosenbaum and Stevens, Giants of San Francisco, 30; Sporting News, October 13, 1962.
369 “Willie, are you as tense”: Rosenbaum and Stevens, Giants of San Francisco, 182.
370 “Well, naturally—they have men”: Hano, Fall Classics, 178.
370 “Even Candlestick Park”: Caen, Best of Herb Caen, 30.
370 “If we lose now”: Hano, Fall Classics, 181.
371 “It was the one ugly moment in the Series ”: Ibid., 180.
371 “How do you feel about the nation’s economy?”: TV Guide, October 5, 1963.
371 “I didn’t eat breakfast this morning”: Sports Illustrated, October 15, 1962.
372 “Once he had gone into left center”: Hano, Willie Mays, 188.
372 “After that Mazeroski home run in 1960”: Ibid., 182.
373 “I was going for the bomb”: Rosenbaum and Stevens, Giants of San Francisco, 190.
373 “I felt I had real good stuff on it”: Plaut, Chasing October, 197.
373 “A man... rarely”: Rosenbaum and Stevens, Giants of San Francisco, 192.
374 “A few inches”: Hano, Fall Classics, 175.
374 “By the time they got the ball home”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 247.
374 “A man hits the ball as hard as he can”: Hano, Fall Classics, 175.
374 “Matty would have been out by a mile”: Plaut, Chasing October, 197.
374 “Elston Howard and I”: Bob Costas interview, 1994.
376 “I never set goals”: Birmingham News, February 9, 1968.
376 “I committed myself to make the trip”: Sporting News, October 17, 1962.
378 “Get me talking about kids”: Coronet, May 1955.
379 “Hey, Willie”: Described by Knox, and confirmed by Mays, in unpublished article.
380 “You and I have to work together”: Author interview with Simmons.
380 Mays’s visit to the Western Pennsylvania School for the Blind: Pittsburgh Press, May 3, 1963; Sporting News, May 18, 1963; San Francisco Examiner, May 3, 1963.
381 “Are you the batboy this year?”: Author interview with McKercher.
382 Mays with O. J. Simpson: Sports Illustrated, May 11, 1987; author interview with Mays.
384 “I know Willie has helped out a lot of people financially”: Author interview with Johnson.
386 “Dear Willie”: All letters from the Sporting News, December 15, 1962.
386 “They didn’t come to see me”: Sporting News, March 2, 1963.
387 Mays’s house, description and quotes: Ebony, August 1963.
388 “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked”: Author interview.
389 “Mays set a lifestyle standard”: Author interview.
389 “He treated me as if I was someone in the family”: Author interview.
390 The Mendelson documentary: Author interviews with Mendelson and Mays.
391 “No prepared documentary in the history of television”: San Francisco Examiner, October 6, 1963.
392 “Make sure you show me doing bad too”: TV Guide, October 5, 1963.
394 “no longer commanded the conscience of America”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 176.
395 “I can’t explain exactly how I feel”: McWhorter, Carry Me Home, 442.
395 “What this country needs is a few first-class funerals ”: Ibid., 503.
396 “unless immediate federal steps are taken”: Ibid., 530.
396 “ What could I have done at that particular time to stop all that?”: Author interview.
398 “That’s just the way Willie is”: Author interview.
398 “I’ve never had an argument with him”: Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1961.
399 “When you hit over .300”: Sporting News, November 5, 1966.
399 “trying to destroy [me] emotionally”: Cepeda, Baby Bull, 85.
400 “The only guy who was nice to me in the clubhouse was Willie”: Author interview.
401 “From a business standpoint”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 255.
401 Mays talking to Shemano about bankruptcy and finances: Ibid., 252–56.
401 “the quick way to find your way to the soup kitchen”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 211.
403 “If I had met Jake ten years ago”: San Francisco Examiner, April 22, 1964.
403 “Hey, Gary!”: Author interview with Shemano.
403 “If Willie wasn’t the greatest”: Ibid.
404 “In the twelfth or thirteenth”: New York Times, July 2, 2008.
405 “In the dugout, every time Willie comes up”: San Francisco Examiner, June 3, 1963.
405 “You could just mention it in passing”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 175.
405 “It is the closest I’ve seen a man come to being killed:” Hano, Willie Mays, 192.
405 “only way to get Willie out is to hit him in the back”: Argosy, September 1964.
406 “Here we go again”: Sporting News, June 15, 1963.
406 “The 32-year-old superstar is about as washed up as General Motors”: Ibid.
406 “We want to know, Mr. Stoneham”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 213.
407 “Willie: Sorry I didn’t make the team”: Sporting News, July 20, 1963.
407 “I just play the game”: Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1963.
408 “take the boys to supper”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 258.
408 “Alvin managed percentages, not people”: Sporting News, October 2, 1965.
408 “He didn’t convert anyone to his politics”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 215.
408 “You laid down on me”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 199.
409 “Could Felipe Alou have come across”: San Francisco Examiner, September 8, 1963.
409 “Very well built”: New York Times, April 11, 1964.
410 “We came to a par-3 hole”: San Francisco Chronicle, December 23, 2003.
411 “A man doesn’t have to move around”: San Francisco Chronicle, May 2, 1964.
413 “I knew what Dark was saying”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 218.
413 “Willie, I’m making you captain of the Giants”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 259.
414 “laughed at our jokes even when they weren’t funny”: Author interview.
414 “Okay, twenty-four, let’s go over the ground rules”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 217.
415 “I told you something like this might happen”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 205.
415 “It’s too early to think about managing”: New York Journal-American, 1964.
415 “bigot, an advocate of white supremacy”: Rampersad, Jackie Robinson, 386.
415 “the last Negro in the Deep South has it made”: Ibid., 390.
417 “It hurt him a lot”: Author interview.
417 “Breast or bottle?”: Leavy, Sandy Koufax, 127.
418 “Those of us who were accustomed to the way Dark”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 207.
419 “Shut up!”: Ibid., 210–11.
420 “I was definitely misquoted on some”: Dark and Underwood, When in Doubt, Fire the Manager, 96.
420 “I thought I proved my feelings”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 268.
420 “I was actively sick”: Ibid.
421 “is the greatest player”: Author interview.
421 “It is my own opinion that you cannot”: Hano, Willie Mays, 198.
421 “I have a lot of tension”: New York Herald Examiner, May 5, 1964.
422 “I’ve spent a lot of time with Willie”: Sporting News, November 28, 1964.
422 “I love it”: New York Post, June 1, 1964.
423 “as a very mixed up little boy”: New York Daily News, September 5, 1964.
423 “I’m always more aggressive then”: Saturday Evening Post, June 22, 1963.
423 “a stand-up comic”: Author interview.
423 “Have you ever suffered from fainting spells?”: Sporting News, March 19, 1966.
423 “Home run in the Polo Grounds”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 107.
424 Mays’s testimonial dinner: Sporting News, January 30, 1965.
425 “Suppose it had been Mays and McCovey”: Sport, September 1966.
426 “could cuss, chew tobacco, spit”: Prager, Echoing Green, 49.
426 “I’m scared to death of guns”: Sporting News, January 30, 1965.
427 “I think it makes any job easier”: Sporting News, October 2, 1965.
427 “When the Giants are on the road”: Sporting News, January 30, 1965.
427 “As for periodic rests”: Ibid.
427 “I’m going to put more responsibility”: Ibid.
428 “All the players were friendly toward us, but Willie exceptionally so”: Author interview.
428 “I watch [Mays] in the outfield”: New York Post, September 13, 1965.
428 “He was a like a second father”: Author interview.
428 “Given the amount of ground that Willie covered in the outfield”: Author interview.
429 “a nod a hello and a throaty chuckle”: Sporting News, July 30, 1966.
429 Mays and Jim Ray Hart: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 229; author interview with Mays.
430 “Why all the fuss?”: Sporting News, June 12, 1965.
430 “If I’m in the park, I’m playing every play even if I’m not in the game”: Sport, 1965.
430 “as if his upper torso was chasing his legs”: E-mail from David Rapaport.
432 “Here comes the king!”: Sporting News, July 24, 1965.
432 “He’s like Mantle”: St. Paul Dispatch, July 13, 1965.
435 Roseboro-Marichal fight: Cepeda, Baby Bull, 98; Einstein, Willie’s Time, 242–47; Roseboro, Glory Days with the Dodgers, 1–13; Leavy, Sandy Koufax, 180; Mandel, San Franciso Giants, 130–35; Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 279–83; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 231–35; Peters, Tales from the San Francisco Giant Dugout, 76; Vrusho, Benchclearing , 63–68; NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture, “Crime and Punishment: The Marichal-Roseboro Incident,” Spring 2004; New York Times, August 23–24, 1965; Sports Illustrated, August 30, 1965; Sporting News, September 4, September 11, and November 27, 1965; author interviews.
442 “I will always treasure”: Mays with Einstein, Willie Mays, 287.
442 “Are you sore?”: Sporting News, September 11, 1965.
443 “I threw you the first one”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 236.
443 “She can have it”: Sporting News, October 2, 1965.
443 Home run off Claude Raymond: Angell, Game Time , 82–84; Einstein, Willie’s Time, 226–28; Hano, Willie Mays, 206; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 236; Sporting News, January 1, 1966.
446 “Don’t forget”: Sport, May 1968.
447 “Willie, the kids will listen to you”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 239.
447 “Cool it, baby”: Hearst Headline Service, November 24, 1965.
448 “I know, but I’ve been going ”: Sporting News, January 1966.
449 “I don’t think Shemano’s doing a damn thing for you”: Author interview with Franks.
449 “Sometimes when you have a friend”: Author interview.
450 “I constantly told Willie”: Author interview.
450 “My father ended up losing everything”: Author interview.
450 “My dad’s got a couple of days left”: Author interview.
450 “I was a guy who couldn’t handle that”: Author interview.
451 Mae Louise Allen: San Francisco Chronicle, December 15, 1971; San Francisco Examiner, February 1, 1976; San Jose Mercury News, February 17, 1995; author interviews.
456 “Willie surrounded that base”: Argosy, September 1964.
456 “He would swing them from behind his right”: E-mail from Rapaport.
456 “I know what you’re doing”: Interview for HBO special, Costas Now, July 2008.
457 “a mounting roar from the stands”: Sports Illustrated, April 10, 1961.
458 “I know the way he runs”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 63.
458 “Do you know you’re only eleven behind”: Sporting News, September 25, 1965.
458 Breaking Mel Ott’s record: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 248; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 243; New York Sunday News, June 26, 1966; Saturday Evening Post, July 30, 1966; San Francisco Examiner, May 5, 1966; Sporting News, May 21, 1966, and January 7, 1967; author interviews.
462 “That one”: San Francisco Examiner, August 18, 1966.
462 “We’re supposed to be impartial”: Hano, Willie Mays, 216.
463 “No, goddamn safe!”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 250–51.
465 “I think that record is here to stay”: Sporting News, August 13, 1966.
466 “Look, time marches on ”: Sporting News, July 8, 1967.
466 “He looked tired and weak and sick”: Sports Illustrated, August 7, 1967.
466 “Some guys can go 0-for-4 the way I have and lose”: Ibid.
467 “I can’t think just of myself”: Ibid.
467 “I could have got you, kid:”: ESPN documentary, 1999.
467 “Willie Mays . . . is not Willie Mays”: Sports Illustrated, August 7, 1967.
467 “I was furious and embarrassed”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 247.
469 Robinson’s comments on Mays, and Mays’s response: Chicago Daily Defender, February 20, March 18, and April 6, 1968, August 20, 1966; Pittsburgh Press, April 15, 1968; Sporting News, March 30, 1968.
473 “If any part of me was not satisfied with Willie”: Author interview.
474 “Sometimes people misunderstand the civil rights era”: E-mail to author.
475 “Willie, it wasn’t me”: Author interview.
475 “What Willie appears to have forgotten . . . is that there have been MANY times”: Baltimore Afro-American, April 2, 1968.
475 “This award means a great deal to me”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 73.
476 “more time with hospital inmates than any other six athletes”: Baltimore Afro-American, February 9, 1965.
477 “No, that wasn’t it”: San Francisco Examiner, January 24, 1979.
477 “next Willie Mays”: Mandel, San Francisco Giants, 153.
478 “He had to find ways to entertain himself”: Author interview.
478 “You had the greatest baserunner against the greatest fielder”: Author interview.
478 Bobby Bonds: Chicago Defender, August 7, 1973; Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 20, 1979; Sporting News, July 3, 1965; Sporting News, March 19, 1966, October 19, 1968, June 26, 1971; author interviews with Mays, Barry Bonds, and Pat Bonds.
480 “I was trying to be nice and warn Mays”: Sporting News, June 29, 1968.
480 “He didn’t want to go to a team unless”: Author interview.
481 “Willie was always challenging me,”: Linge, Willie Mays, 152; author interview.
484 “Why do you want me to bat leadoff?”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 251.
484 “Look at him”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 63.
484 “Ordinarily, you don’t mind needling from the fans”: Sporting News, September 28, 1968.
485 Dugout incident with King: San Francisco Examiner, June 25, 26, 29, 1969; Einstein, Willie’s Time, 315; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 252.
485 “People cringed in sympathy”: Pro Sports Weekly, October 9, 1969.
486 Home run number 600: Associated Press, September 23, 1969; Atlanta Journal, September 16, 1969; New York Times, October 1, 1969; Pro Sports Weekly, October 9, 1969; San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 1969; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 253.
488 “It’s been written, Curt”: Snyder, Well-Paid Slave, 104.
491 “I believe I was crying”: Author interview.
491 “Friends came out to see how I was doing”: Interview with Bob Costas, Costas Coast to Coast, 1994.
492 “Is that Gibson?”: Gibson on HBO special, Costas Now, July 2008.
493 “I don’t feel excitement about this now”: Sporting News, August 1, 1970.
493 “In twenty-two years . . . Willie has gained a pound and a half”: Sporting News, August 28, 1971.
493 “The pitcher, Don Sutton, looked”: Sporting News, August 22, 1970.
496 “I remember that very distinctly”: Author interview.
496 Mays’s birthday party: San Francisco Chronicle, May 7, 1971; San Francisco Examiner, April 20, 1971; Sporting News, May 7, May 22, July 17, 1971; author interviews.
496 “Some people look at their fortieth”: San Francisco Examiner, January 12, 1971.
499 “He couldn’t get out of the way”: Author interview.
499 “They kept saying we were a dead horse”: Sporting News, October 16, 1971.
500 “Let them celebrate”: New York Post, October 1, 1971.
501 “I felt one of them could get Tito home”: Chicago Daily Defender, October 9, 1971.
502 “I believe he was hurt and embarrassed”: Author interview .
503 “I want to marry you”: Ebony, February 1972.
503 “Hi, little boy, you need anything?”: Author interview.
504 Wedding and married life: Associated Press, February 26, 1974; Ebony, February 1972; San Francisco Chronicle, December 15, 1971; San Francisco Examiner, November 29, 1971; San Jose Mercury News, February 17, 1995; author interviews with Willie Mays, Jessie and Bud Goins, and Judi Phillips.
507 Mays’s trade: Associated Press, May 6, 1972; New York Daily News, May 14, 1971, May 12, 1972; New York Times, May 10, May 12, 1972; San Francisco Examiner, May 12, 1971; Sporting News, May 20, 1972, September 8, 1973; author interviews; audio tape provided by Lon Simmons.
511 “Willie gave me his glove right there:” Author interview.
511 “It’s kinda hard to consider Buck the enemy”: Chicago Daily Defender, May 16, 1972.
511 “I felt something in my leg”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
511 “Willie Mays ran the bases”: Sport, October 1972.
512 “When I went out in the outfield”: New York Times, May 12, 1972.
512 “Willie Mays had always been my hero”: Golenbock, Amazin’, 290.
512 “I looked at him and the top button of his uniform”: Author interview.
514 “I wanted to come and talk to you fellas”: August 18, 1972, unidentified newspaper clip in Mays file in the San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Public Library.
515 “Mays knows that we New York fans”: Sport, October 1972.
516 “I can’t live on that”: Author interview with Alden.
516 “Christian, Jewish, Muslim”: Black Sports, June 1973.
516 “It’s simple”: Ibid.
517 “I think I sacrificed only ten times in my career”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid , 99.
517 “It was not just one guy like Willie Mays”: Barra, Yogi Berra, 357.
518 “His failings are now so cruel”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 334.
518 “ When he was batting, I felt I was up there”: Associated Press, February 27, 1974.
519 “unless public opinion demands it”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid, 218.
519 “I don’t know what I’m going to do next”: San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1973; New York Daily News, May 16, 1973.
520 “Willie was forty-two and he was hurt a lot”: Golenbock, Amazin’, 293.
520 “There are individuals you know”: Author interview.
520 “Grant was derogatory against Willie”: Author interview.
520 “The Mets didn’t want him”: Author interview.
520 “This is my personal gift to you”: Author interview with Sirkis.
521 “black power”: Ibid.
521 Final press conference: Long Island News, September 21, 1973; New York Daily News, September 21, 1973; New York Times, September 21, 1973; Sporting News, October 6, 1973.
522 Farewell night: Chicago Daily Defender, September 29, 1973; Long Island News, September 26, 1973; New York Daily News, September 27, 1973; New York Post, September 26, 1973; New York Times, September 26, 1973; San Francisco Chronicle, September 26, 1973; Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 269; author interviews.
524 “We began pouring it on”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid, 237.
525 “Look at the scoreboard!”: Ibid., 247.
526 “If those are Met fans” : Sporting News, October 1973.
526 “I came in a winner, and I’m going to leave a winner”: Vintage World Series Films, DVD, Oakland Athletics.
527 “The Mets . . . have no name players”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid, 313.
527 “It’s got so you pray they won’t”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 338.
528 “Here’s the unusual thing”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid, 275.
529 “No way! He didn’t touch him!”: Vintage World Series Films, DVD, Oakland Athletics.
529 “I can’t see, man”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
529 “He had to get a hit”: Fall Classics, 202.
530 “I think he had a good shot at it”: Born to Play Ball, 2000.
531 “I don’t care if he was in a body cast”: Rosengren, Hammerin’ Hank, George Almighty & the Say Hey Kid, 296.
532 “I don’t feel nothin’ yet, man”: Ibid, 297.
532 “Mae could tell you”: Bob Costas interview, 1994.
533 “For two years after I retired”: New York Times, July 14, 1979.
534 “unanimity is a word some baseball writers can’t spell”: New York Times, September 18, 1978.
534 “It wouldn’t be normal”: Associated Press, January 25, 1979.
535 Hall of Fame Speech: Associated Press; Daily Press (Utica), August 6, 1979; Hershey Telegraph, August 10, 1979; Morning Union, August 6, 1979; New York Daily News, August 6, 1979; New York Post, August 6, 1979; New York Times, August 6, 1979; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 6, 1979; Sporting News, August 18, 1979; United Press International.
537 Banned from baseball: Akron Beacon Journal, February 25, 1981; New York Post, October 27, October 30, 1979; New York Times, October 30, 1979; Snyder, Well-Paid Slave, 100; author interviews.
538 “When you’re the star of a ball club”: Mays with Sahadi, Say Hey, 276.
538 “Jackie! There’s twenty-two thousand people”: Author interview with Brandt.
539 “When they didn’t put him in the starting lineup”: New York Post, July 20, 1983.
539 Amphetamines controversy: Times Union (Albany), September 13, 1985; Boston Globe, April 19, 2002; Kansas City Times, September 11, 1985; New York Daily News, September 14, 1985; New York Times, March 3, 1986; Pittsburgh Press, March 31, 1986; Costas Now, on HBO, July 17, 2008; author interview with Mays.
541 “I didn’t like it when I started”: West, March 24, 1991.
541 “It’s killing me”: Author interview with Baer.
541 “we are going to look for stronger, more clarified”: New York Times, March 19, 1985.
541 “This is a happy occasion”: Ibid.
542 “My wife knew that every day when I got up”: San Francisco Chronicle, February 13, 1986.
543 “He’s constantly on the road”: Unidentified newspaper clip in the Mays file in the San Francisco History Center of the San Francisco Public Library.
543 “It would be real hard to write a job description”: West, March 24, 1991.
543 “Who’s going to tell this nigger”: Author interview with Zeller.
544 “He started out with pretty normal skin”: Author interview.
544 “You have to assume that everyone wants something”: Interview with Judy Kaufman.
544 “Well, it’s good and bad”: West, March 24, 1991.
545 “This is the greatest moment of my entire life”: Pearlman, Love Me, Hate Me, 142.
545 “Willie said, ‘I got the answer’ ”: Author interview.
545 “Can he hit?”: Author interview.
546 “He would always give me his blessing”: Author interview.
546 “I want him back on the field”: San Francisco Chronicle, August 24, 2003.
546 “ Barry came in”: Author interview.
546 “I think it’s appropriate”: MLB.com, April 12, 2004.
547 “Be nice to those guys”: Author interview with Miller.
547 “I’ve always told Barry”: USA Today, April 14, 2004.
547 “If not for my father or for Willie”: Author interview.
547 “If I get robbed”: Author interview.
548 “When Willie would come to visit”: Author interview.
550 “What’s in here?”: Author interview.
551 “I think in these kids”: Author interview.
552 “This is Giant’s house”: Author interview.
552 “always symbolized perfection”: Einstein, Willie’s Time, 35.
553 “I did things that no one else did”: Author interview.
555 “It came from the heart of each and every one”: E-mail to author.
556 “It’s important that the people of Fairfield”: Author interview.