Best All-Time Center Fielders #1: Willie Mays
“They throw the ball, I hit it. They hit the ball, I catch it.”—Willie Mays
Willie Mays is in the conversation when there’s talk about the greatest players to ever play the game. He didn’t have the home runs of Babe Ruth or for the batting average of Ty Cobb or the on-base percentage of Ted Williams, but he excelled at all three hitting categories and was a better fielder than the aforementioned trio. For that reason, he is often mentioned as the greatest all-around player to play the game.
When he was just 16 years old, Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. This was the same year Jackie Robinson broke the modern color barrier in the major leagues, which gave Mays hope that he could get to the big leagues in the future. That hope came to fruition when he was signed by the New York Giants. In 1951, at the age of 20, he was the NL Rookie of the Year.
Two months into the 1952 season, Mays was drafted into the Army. He missed the rest of that season and all of the 1953 season, but came back with a vengeance in 1954. That year, he began a string of 19 straight seasons with all-star selections. He was the NL MVP twice and finished in the top 10 ten other times. He also won 12 Gold Glove Awards.
He could do it all on the diamond. If you needed to scratch out a run, Mays could get a hit, steal second, and score on a single. He led the league in stolen bases four times. If you needed the long ball, Mays could provide one. He led the league in homers three times and is fifth on the all-time list.
One of the iconic moments of Mays’ career is simply known as “The Catch.” On a ball hit by Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, Mays sprinted to deep center field at the Polo Grounds and made an incredible over-the-shoulder catch. Some say it was the greatest catch they ever saw. Mays said he had better catches that weren’t as famous because they didn’t happen to be televised.
Statistically, Mays tops all center fielders in both versions of WAR, Jay Jaffe’s JAWS and Wins Above Average. He’s behind Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle in offensive value, but better than both on defense. In fact, the only center fielder on this top 20 list who had more defensive value is Andruw Jones.
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Beyond the statistics was how Mays enthralled the people who got to see him play. Giants president Peter Magowan summed him up when he said, “He would routinely do things you never saw anyone else do. He’d score from first on a single. He’d take two bases on a pop-up. He’d throw somebody out at the plate on one bounce.”
His manager, Leo Durocher once said, “If he could cook, I’d marry him.”
Ted Williams added, “They invented the All-Star game for Willie Mays.”
Somehow, when Mays was up for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, he earned just 94.7 percent of the vote. That meant 23 writers chose not to vote for him. Inconceivable! Joe Posnanski examined the BBWAA’s reluctance to vote any player into the Hall of Fame unanimously in this article, but it’s still mind-boggling that someone could not vote for Mays.
That’s our list of the best all-time center fielders. Who is too high? Who is too low? Comment below!