SAN FRANCISCO, CA – San Francisco Mayor London Breed will officially proclaim this Sunday, February 4, 2024 as “Willie Mays Day,” in honor of baseball legend #24 Willie Mays. A once-in-a-century date, 2.4.24 has never and will never again be experienced during Mays’ lifetime. 

On 2.4.24, iconic San Francisco landmarks will be decorated in celebration of the “Say Hey Kid.” City Hall, the Ferry Building and Salesforce Tower will be dawned in orange and black lights, and Willie Mays Plaza – featuring the Willie Mays statue – and Oracle Park will also be illuminated in celebration of Mays. A special banner will hang from the 24 palm trees outside Oracle Park and the scoreboard will commemorate 2.4.24 throughout the day. Mayor Breed will be joined by Mays’ Godson Barry Bonds and Giants President and CEO Larry Baer in making the proclamation at San Francisco City Hall on the first day of Black History Month. The official proclamation will be shared publicly on 2.4.24.

As one of the best players in MLB history, Mays fostered unity, pride, identity and leadership. “Willie Mays Day” will celebrate the Hall of Famer’s impact as well as the grace, dignity and joy that he exudes. 2.4.24 will honor the example Mays sets as a hero and mentor, inspiring youth at the Hunters Point Boys and Girls Club that bears his name, through the Willie Mays Scholars program, the Say Hey Foundation and beyond. 

Willie Mays said, “I am honored by Mayor Breed’s proclamation, and would like to thank the City of San Francisco and the Giants for this day. The game of baseball has been great to me, and not only was I given the opportunity to play, but I was also given the opportunity to help kids all around the world. To me, this day means I am loved. This is as much my day as it is for everyone who loves the Game.”

Commissioner of Baseball Robert D. Manfred, Jr. said, “Our National Pastime always welcomes the opportunity to celebrate the game’s greatest living player, Willie Mays. Major League Baseball  applauds the San Francisco Giants and the City of San Francisco for honoring the best number 24 of all in grand fashion. To this day, Willie remains an inspiration to sports fans and baseball players everywhere. We look forward to highlighting Willie’s legacy at the MLB at Rickwood Field Game in his hometown of Birmingham this June 20th.” 

“To sports fans around the globe, Willie’s accomplishments and persona as the “Say Hey Kid” resonate every day,” said Larry Baer, President and CEO of the San Francisco Giants. “2.4.24 is one more opportunity to call attention to a man who, in our minds, is the greatest player ever. We are blessed to play our games at 24 Willie Mays Plaza with his image at our front door.” 

In a symbolic celebration of the Negro Leagues, and its greatest living player – Willie Mays – the San Francisco Giants will face off against the St. Louis Cardinals on June 20, 2024 at Rickwood Field. Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the U.S., is the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons – the Negro League team Mays played for until the Giants signed him upon his graduation from high school in 1950. 

Named in honor of the Hall-of-Famer, the Giants Community Fund launched the Willie Mays Scholars program in 2021 to make college aspirations come true for Black youth in San Francisco. Five scholars are inducted annually and receive a scholarship of up to $20,000. To celebrate “Willie Mays Day,” the Willie Mays Scholars application is officially open for the 2024 season. Fans may join Willie Mays and the Giants in giving the gift of education via: giantscommunityfund.org/wms. 

Fans everywhere are encouraged to join the Giants in celebrating Willie Mays on 2.4.24. For more information, visit sfgiants.com/2424, and follow along with @SFGiants on Instagram, X , TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. 

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE-JOHN SHEA

Thanks to a mathematical marvel in the calendar, we get a chance to further celebrate Willie Mays. On Feb. 4, the stars — or superstars, in Mays’ case — will align for a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon. Unless you’re 100 years old, that is. It will be Feb. 4, 2024, otherwise known as 2/4/24. Willie Mays Day, for all of those who will observe while realizing Mays’ number 24 is the most revered in the franchise history of the San Francisco Giants and one of the most revered in all of sports. Hoist a glass. High-five a buddy. Hug your kid. Honor baseball’s greatest overall player. Including at 2:24 p.m. Or if you dare, 2:24 a.m.

Many forces are collaborating to celebrate 2/4/24, in particular the mayor’s office and the Giants. City Hall will be lit up in orange and black, and 24 Willie Mays Plaza and the Oracle Park scoreboard will be dressed up accordingly. A proclamation by the city will be made to recognize 2/4/24 as Willie Mays Day, and the day will tie in with the Giants’ plans for Black History Month, including an announcement on the Willie Mays Scholars program. It will serve as their launch campaign for the Giants-Cardinals game on June 20 at historic Rickwood Field, where a teenaged Mays played in the Negro leagues as the center fielder of the legendary Birmingham Black Barons in Alabama.

Honoring the Say Hey Kid on 2/4/24 was the brainchild of Adam Swig, a friend of Mays who was struck by the calendar coincidence and began passing word that the momentous date was coming. Swig, founder and executive director of the California nonprofit Value Culture, contacted Giants CEO Larry Baer, who reached out to Mayor London Breed. Both showed immediate interest.

“Willie Mays made 24 cool,” said Swig, who rode with Mays through two of the Giants’ three World Series parades and solicited many local eateries that plan menu specials on Feb. 4 to acknowledge Mays. “He’s the greatest baseball player of all time, an American icon and American hero. And one of the greatest guys I ever met, a great friend. It’s pretty simple to me. It’s his day. He deserves it. San Francisco loves Willie Mays. I hope everyone puts on their 24 jerseys on 2/4/24.”

The Giants’ marketing and communications departments have gotten involved, as has the New York Giants Preservation Society, a group of longtime Giants fans whose mission is to “remember, treasure and preserve the storied history of the New York Baseball Giants.”From Jan. 31, through Feb. 5, the society will rename itself the Willie Mays Preservation Society. “This is the least we could do to show our support for Willie. We love him,” said society President Gary Mintz of Long Island, N.Y. “We want to stand with the Giants. It’s appropriate. They were nice to us when the (World Series) trophy tours came here. It’s a great way to honor someone who means so much to so many. Ninety-seven percent of our group are Giants fans. Why? Because of 24.”

Mays followers get the relevance of 24 and might include the number in their passwords, personal ID numbers or phone numbers. They insist Mays is the greatest ever, arguing that Babe Ruth, who played during segregation, didn’t have the five tools to the degree Mays did, and that two-way star Shohei Ohtani hasn’t done it long enough.

Mays began wearing No. 24 his rookie year in 1951, though it wasn’t his first number in the big leagues. That was 14, which he wore briefly after getting called up from Triple-A Minneapolis. He eventually wound up with 24, which had belonged to outfielder Jack Maguire before he was claimed by the Pirates. Maguire’s other footnote in history: He was credited with giving Lawrence Peter Berra the nickname Yogi.

Mays wore 24 longer than any other big-leaguer, 22 years. No. 2 on the list, at 20 years, are Tony Perez and Miguel Cabrera, who retired after last season. Dwight Evans wore it for 19 years, and both Rickey Henderson and Manny Ramirez wore it 17 years.

Rickey, who was raised in Oakland, wore 24 because of Willie. Ken Griffey Jr. wore 24 because of Rickey. Mays is the reason Golden State Warriors legend Rick Barry, who grew up rooting for him at the Polo Grounds, wore 24. When later playing in Houston, because Moses Malone already was wearing 24, Barry wore 2 in home games and 4 on the road.

While 24 is iconic from coast to coast — in 2022, five decades after Mays’ final game with the New York Mets, the team also retired his No. 24 — the number is especially relevant in San Francisco. Surrounding Mays’ 9-foot bronzed statue at 24 Willie Mays Plaza are 24 palm trees. The right-field brick wall is approximately 24 feet high. When Mays turned 85, he was honored when Muni cable car No. 24 was dedicated to him.

“To sports fans around the globe,” Baer said, “Willie’s accomplishments and persona as the Say Hey Kid resonates every day; 2/4/24 is one more opportunity to call attention to a man who, in our minds, is the greatest player ever. We are blessed to play our games at 24 Willie Mays Plaza with his image at our front door.”

The last 2/4/24 was Feb. 4, 1924, which was seven years before Mays was born and seven months before the birth of Bill Greason, Mays’ teammate on the 1948 Black Barons. Greason, 99, and Mays, 92, are the only living ballplayers who appeared in both MLB and the Negro leagues as far back as 1948, the year of the final Negro League World Series, which featured the Black Barons and Homestead Grays.

An American hero and inspiration three times over, Greason was the St. Louis Cardinals’ first African American pitcher, fought at the Battle of Iwo Jima and has served as a minister in Birmingham for more than a half century, still preaching. Mays and Greason remain good friends and in steady contact.

Speaking of the Black Barons, the Giants will give out 20,000 Mays bobbleheads depicting him as a Black Baron on May 31, which is African American Heritage Day. It’s a Friday night game against the New York Yankees, coming a few weeks after Mays’ 93rd birthday, May 6.

Mays is dealing with health issues including with his mobility following hip surgery in spring 2022. He still keeps up with Giants baseball, engages in lively conversation when visitors drop by and greets them with his patented firm handshake.

After Feb. 4, the next 2/4/24 isn’t until Feb. 4, 2124, so the upcoming 2/4/24 might as well be embraced to the fullest.

Reach John Shea: jshea@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @JohnSheaHey

The Mets did more than retire a famous baseball number Saturday afternoon, stunning a nostalgia-nourished crowd at Citi Field when it was revealed that Willie Mays’ No. 24 would formally be retired. The team honored its recent vow to recognize its rich franchise history on the day it celebrated the return of Old Timers’ Day. And did so note-perfectly.

Yes, 24 was Willie Mays’ number, and no athlete in American sports history is more closely identified with that digit than the “Say Hey Kid.” But it was also an essential piece of the heart of a woman named Joan Whitney Payson, a New York Giants fan to her core and a member of the team’s board, the lone “no” vote when the time came to decide on whether the team should move to San Francisco.

A few years later, Payson became the Mets’ charter owner, a fixture in her field box, the first woman to ever own a ballclub. And though she lived and died with her Mets, Willie Mays remained her favorite. It was her dream that Willie finish his career in New York. And in May 1972, when it became clear the Giants would make Mays available, she pounced.

Mays himself, comfortable in San Francisco, was unsure about moving East, knowing he was no longer the breathtaking force of nature who’d once roamed center field at Coogan’s Bluff. But Joan Payson made him a promise.

“Willie,” she said, according to team lore, “you’ll be the last Met to ever wear No. 24.”

That was good enough for him. Famously, he hit a home run in his very first game as a Met — against the Giants, of all teams, on May 14, 1972. He was 41 by then, no longer a kid, but it didn’t matter. Mets fans were delighted to have him back home. He hit the final 14 of his 660 lifetime homers as a Met.

But Payson died not long after Mays retired in 1973. Twenty-four disappeared for a while, but Payson’s wish was never granted. Someone named Kelvin Torve was somehow issued the number in 1990. The backlash was immediate, and Torve was soon wearing 39. Rickey Henderson and Robinson Cano were given special dispensations when they became Mets.

The number was in repose, but not retired. Not until Saturday.

History has often been cruel to Mays’ final days as a Met. Any aging ballplayer, any sport, the simile is always the same: Willie-Mays-falling-down-in-the-outfield. It is also a grossly unfair stigma. Yes, Mays lost a ball in the sun in Game 2 of the 1973 World Series. But so did Oakland’s Joe Rudi (who was 27) and Reggie Jackson (also 27).

The Mets were only in the World Series because Mays drove in a key run in decisive Game 5 of the NLCS. And in that wild Game 2 in Oakland? Mays’ two-out single in the 12th inning broke a 6-6 tie in a game the Mets would win 10-7.

But 24, in truth, isn’t being taken out of circulation for Mays’ 491 plate appearances with the Mets. It will hang forever next to 14, 17, 31, 36, 37, 41 and 42 because of what he meant to baseball New York, especially when he was young and he’d play stickball with the neighborhood kids in Harlem in his civvies after grinding nine innings in his uniform. It’s why Joan Whitney Payson fell in baseball love with him. And she wasn’t alone.

It will honor the .312/.387/.593 slash line he had a New York Giant; toast the .345/41 HR/110 RBIs he accumulated when he won his first MVP, at 23, in 1954; exalt the greatest defensive play of them all, the one he made that fall, in the World Series against Cleveland, running down Vic Wertz’s fly ball in the deepest pocket of the Polo Grounds.

Mostly, it will be a permanent reminder that the Mets were, indeed, descended from two baseball fathers. Past ownership was unabashed about the team’s ties to the Dodgers, but the Mets’ colors are orange in addition to blue. Perhaps Mays’ best days came in a uniform other than the Mets, but so did Jackie Robinson’s. And now 24 and 42 will be tied to New York’s National League team forever. As they should be.

Forty-nine years ago next month, a tired Mays walked to a microphone at old Shea Stadium and told a weepy crowd, “Willie, say goodbye to America.” But a part of New York’s baseball soul never truly said goodbye to him. And now it never will. -Mike Puma

Jaime Rupert has created this brand-new website as she attempts to get her grandfather Horace Stoneham inducted into the Hall of Fame. Stoneham is a polarizing figure to many of our members.  Many feel he has been overlooked while others feel he doesn’t deserve the honor. When brought up in the past, it caused many mixed emotions with some of you. The website is very well done (a few errors will be updated) with many wonderful things on the site which might sway you or it won’t. The Willie Mays and Hall of Fame Giants (McCovey, Perry, & Cepeda) (Juan Marichal wasn’t available at the time), video comments are hard to ignore as are the testimonials written by Cepeda, Monte Irvin’s daughter, and Felipe Alou. She reminds us that the link (website) can only be viewed on your computer and not your phone.

www.horaceinthehall.com

Brand new book about the longest winning streak in MLB history, held by the 1916 New York Giants:

In September, 1916, the New York Giants caught fire and made baseball history. It’s a tale complete with Hall of Famers, has-beens, and never-weres. It includes players who are remembered for something completely different or are now forgotten because baseball has re-written them out of the record books. The forces that would help tear baseball apart and then bring it back together after the Black Sox Scandal are all here, bubbling under the surface as the Giants continue to win game after game. The streak has never been fully looked at or understood until now.

A new book by Jeff Wagner. Here is the Amazon synopsis: Honus Wagner, Duke Snider, Warren Spahn, Johnnie Mize, Frank Frisch, Willie Keeler, Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson. Some of the greatest players to ever play major league baseball. All Hall-of-Famers. But did you know they each have one other thing in common? They all played baseball for the New York/San Francisco Giants franchise at some point in their career! Whether at the beginning, end, or somewhere in between, they all wore the black and orange at some point, and will always be considered members of the Giants family.

They Played Baseball for the Giants? Explores these and over 25 other players that you may have forgotten or didn’t know donned a Giants uniform, including 15 MLB Hall-of-Famers, two NFL Hall-of-Famers, an Olympic champion, and a character from the movie Field of Dreams. So, whether their tenure lasted several years or several months, explore the fascinating stories surrounding how these players became a New York or San Francisco Giant, and what they did while they were one.

The Giants player development coach, who played with the team in the 1950s and 1960s, is retiring days before his 87th birthday.

By Brady Klopfer

On Saturday it was revealed that Joey Amalfitano, who held a player development role with the San Francisco Giants, was retiring.

According to current 3b Coach Ron Wotus:

The greatest 3B coach of all time just retired yesterday. Joe Amalfitano, a treasure in baseball. Wow, what a tremendous career you have had. The Giants will miss you!! I will miss you! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and for your tutelage! It will always be with me.

Amalfitano, who will turn 87 later this month, had one hell of a journey in baseball. It included three stints as a player with the Giants, including one while the team was still in New York. According to John Shea, Amalfitano was in a Giants jersey at the Polo Grounds when Willie Mays made perhaps the most iconic catch in baseball history.

He managed the Chicago Cubs, and worked as a coach for five different teams, including four seasons in the 1970s with the Giants. And in the latter stages of his career, he turned to consulting and developing.

What an impressive career. 67 years in the big leagues … enjoy retirement!

Due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, The New York Giants Preservation Society has been having virtual meetings for the past few months. Generally we have in the past, had guest speakers 3-4 times a year, first at The Bergino Baseball Clubhouse, then at Finnerty’s. Since this for the time being is impossible, we have done the next best thing. Here is our illustrious group of speakers to date, with more to come!!

Noel Hynd-7/22/2020

Jaime Rupert-8/19/2020

Dan Taylor-9/2/2020

Ed Logan Jr.-9/9/2020

Chris Haft-9/23/20

Steve Treder-10/1/2020

Jon Miller-10/8/2020

Rob Garratt-10/15/2020

John Shea-10/22/2020

Bruce Jenkins-10/29/2020

Stew Thornley-11/5/2020

John Rosengren-11/12/2020

George Gregor-11/19/2020

If you would like to get in on our sessions, just contact me here!

THE 2ND NYGPS MEETING OF 2020 WITH STEW THORNLEY

The 2nd NYGPS Meeting of 2020 will take place on Thursday, January 23rd, at 5:30PM, at Finnerty’s. Famed Polo Grounds historian and author Stew Thornley will be our guest speaker. Stew will be talking about his lasts book on the PG’s, The Polo Grounds: Essays and Memories of New York City’s Historic Ballpark, 1880-1963. He previously authored Land of the Giants: New York’s Polo Grounds. This looks to be a great event. Here are the synopsis’ on both books.

Please bring copies of the books and Stew will gladly autograph them for you if you wish.

Please RSVP me ASAP if you plan on attending. The meeting is only 2 weeks away! Be well, Gary

In addition, Finnerty’s gives us the use of its backroom for the event. For your enjoyment, libations will be available at the Happy Hour rate until 8PM. Drinks specials are:
$5 draft beers
$6 mixed well cocktails
$7 glasses of wine
Please RSVP ASAP to me. All the best, Gary

The New York Giants Preservation Society’s first meeting in quite some time will take place at Finnerty’s on Tuesday, November 19th, at 6PM. Our guest speaker will be the renaissance man himself, Morris (Moe) Resner. Resner, an original NYGPS member, will be discussing a new film produced and directed by Janko Radosavljevic, entitled: Moe Resner 1957 Baseball. The movie will show Resner’s passion for the fabled Polo Grounds. Mo will be discussing his times at the Polo Grounds including the last game the NY Giants ever played at the famed ball park on September 29, 1957. Resner recently took the same subway to the PG location, and climbed down the Brush Stairway accompanied by Radosavljevic, as if the clock had been turned back over 60 years ago. The banter between them could only be imagined as Resner has the gift of gab!! The short film will soon be available on Amazon. Resner will also speak about The End of an Era, which depicts the final game the NY Giants played in NYC. Resner, a very young man was able to film the game, basically on the field. The video resides in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown NY. Resner will be making both videos available for purchase.The night will be one to remember for sure!!

In addition, Finnerty’s gives us the use of its backroom for the event. For your enjoyment, libations will be available at the Happy Hour rate until 8PM. Drinks specials are:
$5 draft beers
$6 mixed well cocktails
$7 glasses of wine

Please RSVP ASAP to me. All the best, Gary