BY GREG PRINCE

From NYGPS Member and Mets Blogger (FAITH & FEAR IN FLUSHING) extraordinaire Greg Prince
A GREAT REVIEW OF THE EVENT!

Third Time’s Another Charm

Is there any better antidote to chilly days than Willie Mays? Is there any doubt that No. 24 could melt the 24 inches of snow projected to blanket our Metropolitan Area if you gave him a bat, a glove and another go with 24-year-old legs? Is there a sunnier thought 24 days in advance of Pitchers & Catchers than that which results when one considers the greatest center fielder there ever was?
Say no to all of the above because, Say Hey, Willie Mays was in town over the weekend, reminding all of us lucky enough to spend a few minutes in his presence that greatness doesn’t grow old. It just gets better with age.
The Willie Mays I saw on Saturday was the Willie Mays who acts as ambassador for the game he made his own a scant 64 years ago. There are many Willie Mayses. Willie the phenom from 1951. Willie the megastar by 1954. Willie the idol of millions forever after. Willie from Uptown, when he lived around the corner from where he worked and played ball at both addresses (stickball on St. Nicholas Place, baseball on Eighth Avenue between 155th and 157th Streets). Willie of the West Coast after he was transferred on business. Willie who left his heart in New York and came back to find it well cared for in 1972. Willie who Said Goodbye to America two weeks before helping bid the Big Red Machine au revoir in the fall of 1973. Willie the living legend, in and out of uniform for decades since.
Yes, there are many Willie Mayses. But when you get right down to it, there’s only one Willie Mays.
The Giants — currently of San Francisco, ancestrally of Manhattan — keep coming up with good excuses to give Willie Mays a ride back to his baseball hometown. They keep winning the World Series. Not every year, which would be gauche, but every other year. Then they take a few days out of their busy California schedule and visit New York with a trophy and an icon in tow. The trophy’s a lovely keepsake, but it’s somebody else’s. When the Giants come around, I don’t greet them in order to relish their spoils of victory.
I come to be near Willie Mays. Success hasn’t spoiled that sensation.
To offer a little background to those of you who haven’t heard it before, I’ll tell you that at the age of nine, when I was already deeply and eternally bound to the fortunes of our Metsies, I became fully aware that they were preceded as “N.Y. (N.L.)” by another outfit, one that even wore the same NY on their caps. This was 1972. I was in third grade and had begun to soak up the history of those larger-than-life New York Giants. There was an article in Baseball Digest that introduced me to John McGraw and Christy Mathewson. There was a biography in the East School library that profiled Mel Ott. Suddenly, there was a trade made by the New York Mets that netted them the greatest of New York Giants. Continue reading →

By; Chris Haft
http://m.giants.mlb.com/news/article/107523294/willie-mays-man-of-the-hour-as-giants-return-to-new-york

NEW YORK — About 75 men, all old enough to remember John F. Kennedy’s assassination or even Sputnik, gathered on Saturday in the ballroom of a midtown Manhattan hotel and lined up in two parallel rows to form a path between them. They stared expectantly at the ballroom’s double doors as if they awaited a bride’s entry.
All they really wanted to see was the best man.
Willie Mays slowly entered the room, walking between the columns of admirers. They and others greeted Mays with noisy yet respectful applause, sounding like both houses of Congress at a presidential State of the Union address.
“This is the greatest ballplayer of all time,” a man seated at a table told a grade-school-aged boy.
Mays’ appearance highlighted one of several events that the Giants scheduled last week to share the glory of the 2014 World Series triumph with fans in the franchise’s original home. Mays, who began advancing toward legendary status as a rookie center fielder with the New York Giants in 1951, joined current San Francisco Giants second baseman Joe Panik at this event for a question-and-answer session. Members of the New York Giants Preservation Society and the New York Giants’ Baseball Nostalgia Society formed the lucky crowd, which also received an opportunity to pose with the World Series trophy.
Most of the audience remembered seeing Mays perform at New York’s Polo Grounds between 1951-57, when he blossomed into baseball’s most exciting player — a distinction he maintained after the Giants moved to San Francisco in 1958.
“A few guys said their lives are complete now that they shook hands with the great Willie Mays,” said Michael Weinberg, who grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of New York. “How many players can say they make people feel that way 42 years after they stopped playing?” Continue reading →

-Andy Baumgarten

Just as after their 2010 and 2012 World Series victories, the San Francisco Giants honored their New York supporters by bringing the 2014 championship trophy to New York and among the events was a great breakfast at the Palace Hotel.

I was fortunate to attend, circumventing the early day foul weather and transportation issues and thank The New York Giants Preservation Society and its dedicated, accomplished president Gary Mintz profusely for this event and all that he and the organization does to enrich and remember the great New York Giants baseball history.

Kudos as well to the San Francisco Giants organization which recognizes the New York days and people, proudly adding the 5 New York Giant’s titles to the incredible 3 “S.F.” titles in the past 5 seasons, giving the Giants 8.
That ties them with the somewhat historically similar, Boston Red Sox for fourth place, trailing only the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia/Oakland Athletics in World Series triumphs.

Special praise to Staci Slaughter, Shana Daum and Albert Jaimes within the San Francisco organization. The man at the top, CEO Larry Baer, is beyond gracious and was in attendance.

Continue reading →