{"id":2517,"date":"2017-09-30T07:36:08","date_gmt":"2017-09-30T11:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/?p=2517"},"modified":"2017-09-30T07:36:08","modified_gmt":"2017-09-30T11:36:08","slug":"willie-mays-world-series-mvp-mlb-renames-award-honors-say-hey-kid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/?p=2517","title":{"rendered":"\u2018WILLIE MAYS WORLD SERIES MVP\u2019: MLB RENAMES AWARD, HONORS SAY HEY KID"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

By John Shea<\/p>\n

In 1954, the year Willie Mays made his epic Game 1 catch at the Polo Grounds in New York, the most replayed highlight in World Series history, there was no World Series most valuable player award.
\nThe first World Series MVP was awarded in 1955 to the Dodgers\u2019 Johnny Podres.
\nNow, the award will be named after the great Mays, starting this season \u2014 the Willie Mays World Series most valuable player award.
\n\u201cI think that\u2019s a great honor,\u201d Mays said in a phone interview. \u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing thing. You never know who\u2019s going to win the World Series or the World Series MVP. Every year, it\u2019s somebody different. This is a wonderful honor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commissioner Rob Manfred made the announcement Friday on the 63rd anniversary of Mays\u2019 over-the-shoulder catch (and magnificent whirling throw to the infield) that robbed Vic Wertz and created momentum for a four-game sweep of the favored Cleveland Indians.
\n\u201cMajor League Baseball is thrilled to honor Willie Mays on our game\u2019s biggest stage and in a manner that befits his many contributions to the sport … This annual recognition will forever celebrate the life and career of a legend of the national pastime,\u201d Manfred said.
\nMays issued a statement thanking Manfred and MLB and added, \u201cBaseball has always taken care of me, and for that I am grateful. I think it’s just a wonderful thing to know that at 86 years of age, I can still give something back to the game. I am proud to lend my name to this important award. What a day this has been.\u201d
\nAlso Friday, Mays had a street named after him near the Polo Grounds site in New York. The northeast corner of 155th Street and Harlem River Drive now is Willie Mays Drive.
\nThe Giants have had three World Series MVPs: Edgar Renteria in 2010, Pablo Sandoval in 2012 and Madison Bumgarner in 2014. Last year\u2019s MVP was the Cubs\u2019 Ben Zobrist.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s a really cool honor for him and for all of us to see the MVP named after him,\u201d manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to remind people who Willie is and how great a player he was. I\u2019m sure the player who receives the award, it\u2019s going to mean a lot to him, having an award named after Willie Mays.\u201d
\nMays, 86, played in three World Series with the Giants (1951, 1954, 1962) and one with the Mets (1973). He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979, voted by fans as one of the four greatest living players in a 2015 promotion and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama.
\nJohn Shea is The San Francisco Chronicle\u2019s national baseball writer. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Shea In 1954, the year Willie Mays made his epic Game 1 catch at the Polo Grounds in New York, the most replayed highlight in World Series history, there was no World Series most valuable player award. The … 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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2517","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\/2517","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=2517"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2519,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2517\/revisions\/2519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newyorkgiantspreservationsociety.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}