{"id":2203,"date":"2015-11-25T17:41:14","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T22:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/?p=2203"},"modified":"2015-11-25T17:41:14","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T22:41:14","slug":"willie-mays-receives-presidential-medal-of-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/?p=2203","title":{"rendered":"WILLIE MAYS RECEIVES PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OBAMA<\/a><\/p>\n

November 24, 2015 by Andrew Baggarly
\nThe Giants don\u2019t have to win a World Series for Willie Mays to drop by the White House and say hello to President Obama. The Say Hey Kid had an especially memorable visit on Tuesday.
\nMays was among 17 individuals on Tuesday who were awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation\u2019s highest civilian honor, in a ceremony in the East Room. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was a posthumous honoree. The honor has been bestowed on 11 baseball players; Ernie Banks was the last recipient, in 2013.
\nMays, 84, rose from his chair and took off his Giants cap with the script G logo, and President Obama smiled as he clasped the ribbon around his neck.
\nThe honor is presented \u201cto individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors,\u201d according to the White House.
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\n\u201cWe don\u2019t have time to list all of Willie Mays\u2019s statistics \u2014 660 home runs, .302 lifetime batting average,\u201d President Obama said. \u201cThe list goes on and on. I won\u2019t describe that miracle grab at the Polo Grounds, either \u2014 because Willie says that wasn\u2019t even his best catch. I will say this: We have never seen an all-around, five-tool player quite like Willie before \u2014 and we haven\u2019t seen one since. He could throw and he could field, hit for contact and for power. And, of course, he was so fast, he could barely keep a hat on his head.
\n\u201cOn top of that, Willie also served our country, and his quiet example while excelling on one of America\u2019s biggest stages helped carry forward the banner of civil rights.
\n\u201cA few years ago, Willie rode with me on Air Force One. I told him then what I\u2019ll tell all of you now \u2014 it\u2019s because of giants like Willie that someone like me could even think about running for President.\u201d
\nOther honorees included Steven Spielberg, Barbra Streisand, James Taylor, Stephen Sondheim, violinist Itzhak Perlman and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson.
\n\u201cThis is an extraordinary group,\u201d President Obama said. \u201cEven by the standards of Medal of Freedom winners, this is a class act. What an incredible tapestry this country is and what a great blessing to be in a nation where individuals as diverse, (from) wildly different backgrounds, can help to shape our dreams, how we live together, help define justice and freedom and love. They represent what\u2019s best in us and we are very, very proud to welcome them today.\u201d
\nThe theme from E.T. played as the President went through and greeted each winner one more time.
\nMays stood and applauded when Streisand was announced. Who knew he was a fan of \u201cFunny Girl?\u201d
\nGiants CEO Larry Baer congratulated Mays on the honor after it was announced Nov. 16.
\n\u201cAs everyone knows, Willie is a national treasure and one of the greatest players in the history of baseball,\u201d Baer said in a statement. \u201cI cannot think of a more fitting tribute to recognize Willie for his endless contributions to our national pastime.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 24, 2015 by Andrew Baggarly The Giants don\u2019t have to win a World Series for Willie Mays to drop by the White House and say hello to President Obama. The Say Hey Kid had an especially memorable visit on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2203"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2205,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2203\/revisions\/2205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}