Legends say hey to each other before Giants-Dodgers game
The coolest thing in the world happened before Saturday’s Giants-Dodgers game.
The Greatest hung out with The Greatest.
Willie Mays dropped by Vin Scully’s broadcast booth, and the two icons discussed baseball and life.
Scully did most of the talking, and Mays seemed to soak up every word and interjected when he could.
“My favorite, Willie Mays,” said Scully when introducing the Say Hey Kid to his wife, Sandra, as a dozen people looked on in the booth.
Scully, who will call his final game Sunday at AT&T Park, has never hesitated when saying the best player he ever saw was Mays, who played for the rival Giants for 21 of Scully’s 67 years behind the microphone.
In 1950, Scully began calling Dodger games. A year later, Mays broke in with the Giants.
Scully told Mays, “I always thought you could play every position on the field,” and Mays said he actually played shortstop a couple of times, once in a 23-inning game against the Mets in 1964.
“Oh, really?” Scully said. It might have been the only thing he didn’t know about the 24-time All-Star.
It didn’t take long for the discussion to turn to Mays’ famous catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, his back-to-the-plate grab in deepest center field at the Polo Grounds that was captured for all time on black and white film, the highlight of a four-game sweep of Cleveland.
Scully: “I always remember Eddie Grant’s monument at the foot of the clubhouse (in center field) was 483 (feet from the plate).”
Mays: “It was that long?”
Scully: “Yeah, 483. So that ball that you caught that Vic Wertz hit, that was probably 440, at least. I mean, that’s how far out that was.”
Mays: “I tell everybody it’s not the catch so much, it’s the situation, getting the ball back to the infield.”
Scully recalled a catch he thought was better.
“To me,” Scully said, “I tell people, ‘The best one he ever made was the line drive by Bobby Morgan at Ebbets Field.’ ”
That was 1952, and Mays dived to catch the ball and hit his head on the wall, knocking himself out.
Mays agreed with Scully it was a better catch.
Eventually, there was a game to be played, and the legends said farewell.
“God bless you, Willie,” Scully said, “I can’t begin to say how much I thank you for coming up here.”
Their embrace was one for the ages.