September 22, 1969: San Francisco’s Willie Mays becomes only the second player in major league history—behind Babe Ruth—to hit 600 career home runs. Interestingly enough, Mays came up as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning at San Diego, and as he so often did, came through with the game on the line, clubbing a two-run homer that broke a 2-2 tie—and prompting another “bye bye baby” from Giants play-by-play legend Russ Hodges. San Francisco would beat the Padres, who were in their first season, 4-2.
It was a very Willie Mays thing. The Giants were in the middle of a pennant race with the Atlanta Braves during the first season the National League had been divided into divisions, with a spot in the inaugural NL Championship Series the prize. May had hit countless clutch home runs for the Giants in his career, and this was another. (The Braves would eventually win the West Division and advance to the NLCS, where they lost to New York’s “Miracle Mets”.)
At the age of 38, Mays was definitely in his twilight. Injuries limited him to only 117 games in 1969, the fewest of his career, and he hit only 13 homers. In fact, Giants manager Clyde King toyed with the idea of batting him in the leadoff spot, but Mays said something to the effect of, Uh, no.” Mays had one more vintage year in him, though, as he rebounded in 1970 with 28 homers and 83 runs batted in. He collected his 3,000th career hit that summer, becoming the first big leaguer with 3,000 hits and 600 homers.
Mays helped San Francisco win the NL West in 1971, hitting 18 home runs. But early in the 1972 season, the Giants made the painful decision to trade him to the Mets, marking a return to the city where it all began in 1972. He’d play the rest of that season and all of 1973 with the Mets, and he only had 14 home runs left in him. I was fortunate enough to see one of them when Mays came back to Candlestick Park for the first time as a Met in July of 1972. He hit a two-run homer to beat his former teammates 3-1. The flair for the dramatic never left.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
