[First Person] Memory of a lifetime, playing catch with Willie Mays

Editor’s Note: Mark Tolbert serves as the Evangelism and Revitalization Strategist with the Evangelism and Church Health Team of the ABSC. Tolbert has spent the last 15 years on faculty as a professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. These words were originally posted on Facebook on June 19, the day after the death of Willy Mays at the age of 93. 

The year was 1967. I had a dream job for a teenage baseball fan: I was a Major League batboy. I worked for the Atlanta Braves as the visiting team batboy. Every team that visited Atlanta had me as their batboy during the game and as a clubhouse attendant, a Clubbie, before and after the game. Every team. All summer. It was a dream come true.  I still have so many memories that I carry from that summer job so many years ago.  But some stand out. 

The San Fransisco Giants were in Atlanta to play the Braves early in the summer. It was a Sunday afternoon game, and it was almost time to “Play Ball!”  I had shagged balls in the outfield during batting practice, infield practice was completed, the grounds crew had smoothed out the grounds and laid down the chalk for foul lines and the batter’s box. Players were in the dugouts waiting to take the field.   

I was there in the third base dugout in my Giants uniform along with the visiting team. All-star center fielder and future Hall of Famer Willie Mays approached me. We made eye contact and he smiled and said, “Hey, Clubbie, want to play some catch?” Wait, what? Was this happening? Willie Mays was talking to me? Willie Mays wanted to play catch with me?!?  “Um, sure!” I managed somehow to stammer. “Do you have a glove?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered.  I picked up my glove, bounded up the dugout steps and waited for him at the top of the steps. Willie Mays followed me up, walked about 30 feet away and alerted me, “I throw pretty hard!” Indeed, he did. 

Just the two of us, me and Willie. Everyone else, all the players in the dugout, thousands of fans in the stands, looking on, and me and Willie playing catch. 

Fifty-seven years later, my heart races a little, as I think back. What a moment! 

Since his death yesterday, Willie Mays will be remembered, as one of the greatest players ever. Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-time lists, including those of The Sporting News and ESPN.  

I remember the day he singled me out, invited me into his world, and gave me a memory for a lifetime.