Willie Mays: For the Love of the Game_In Memoriam

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 21 June 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We invite you to honor and celebrate the great Willie Mays, who died this week at the age of 93, by taking a listen to the stories he told about his life on this episode. It was one of the first episodes of "What It Takes," and it remains one of our all-time favorites: Baseball fans may argue to this day about which was the best of Willie Mays’ many spectacular catches, but nearly all agree — he was one of the most versatile, virtuosic players of all time. In this episode, featuring an intimate interview with Mays recorded in 1996, the Hall-of-Famer talks about growing up in segregated Alabama, and winning over racist baseball fans soon after he became the first African-American player on his team. He recalls the day he got the call to move up to the majors, and describes in delightful terms how he never had to actually work at being a great athlete. He also talks about the catch he swears was better than “The Catch.” Hearing his voice, you’re reminded why Willie Mays was one of America’s most beloved baseball players, as well as one of its greatest. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2015-2024

Transcript

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0:00.0	Madame, this child is gifted.
0:05.0	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:08.6	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity,
0:12.3	and you don't take it, you may never have another job.
0:15.0	It all was so clear. It was just like the picture started to form itself.
0:19.6	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
0:27.0	Every day I wake up and decide. Today I'm going to love my life.
0:34.0	Decide.
0:39.0	My advice is if they don't break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there. And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for,
0:46.3	but boy you better not miss them. This is what it Takes, a podcast about Passion, Vision, and Perseverance from the Academy of
0:58.4	Achievement's Recorded Collection.
1:01.1	I'm Alice Winkler. On every episode of what it takes you'll hear a revealing conversation
1:06.9	with someone who has changed the world. Rosa Parks, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Linus Pauling, to name just a few.
1:14.0	Their personal stories may be vastly different, but all of them are inspiring.
1:20.0	And it's the Academy of Achievement's mission, after all all to show you don't have to be a superhero to make a difference.
1:27.0	Now, some might argue that Willie Mays, the subject of today's episode, actually comes as close to being a superhero as any human.
1:37.1	But in this 1996 interview, Mays said no.
1:41.8	Go ahead and look up to him if you like, but a hero he is not.
1:46.0	When you're talking about heroes, I think the heroes should come from your mother and your
1:52.0	fathers because they are the ones got to teach you
1:55.3	for right and for wrong. Now you can admire whoever you want to admire but that
2:01.6	particular person is not going to teach you. You're going to go out and
	...

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