During his 21 seasons with the San Francisco Giants, Willie Mays (born 1931) hit more than 600 home runs. Besides being a solid hitter, Mays also has been called the game's finest defensive outfielder and perhaps its best baserunner as well.

Willie Mays has often been described as the finest all-around baseball player ever to pick up a bat. During his 22-year-long professional ballplaying career, most of it with the Giants of New York and San Francisco, Mays displayed superlative skill in every aspect of the game. He hit for average, hit for power, stole bases, played center field with almost magical grace, and set several records for durability. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the name "Willie Mays" was a synonym for baseball excellence, and he remains the standard against which young players measure their versatility on the ballfield.

From the time he could first walk, Mays was either throwing, catching...