Sport: Willie’s Farewell

Mays is now in the chips

“Willie, say goodbye to America.” With those words, Willie Mays ended his active baseball career six years ago. For 20 seasons with the Giants and two with the Mets, he had played the game with consummate skill and boundless joy. Under a $50,000-a-year contract with the Mets, Mays remained a goodwill ambassador for baseball, making publicity appearances and occasionally tutoring young hitters in the Mets’ farm system. This summer he was inducted into the Hall of Fame after receiving more votes for baseball’s highest honor than any other player in history.

Last week, however, Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn told Mays to say goodbye to baseball. Kuhn’s edict came after Mays decided to sign a ten-year contract worth more than $1 million with Bally Manufacturing Corp. to make public appearances on behalf of the firm’s new Atlantic City casino. Such a close tie with a gambling organization, Kuhn ruled, “is not in the best interests of baseball,” and he told Mays that if he works for Bally, he must give up his job with the Mets.

Mays has performed similar duties during the past five years for a corporation that operates race tracks—indeed many prominent baseball figures have long held horse-racing interests—but Kuhn balked at casino gambling. Said he: “I felt the line needed to be drawn. Willie wasn’t singled out.”

Kuhn sent a letter outlining his position to Mays’ new employer one month ago, but neither Mays nor his lawyer was shown the letter. Mays learned of the matter only when Kuhn gave him a week to choose between baseball and casinos. He was shocked by the ultimatum. Says Mays: “I don’t have anything to do with gambling. I just play golf with the customers, and after that, they take pictures and the customers put them on their office walls. That’s all there is to it.”