| ![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/themes/time2014/img/newsletter/spacer.gif) | OZZIE SWEET | ![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/themes/time2014/img/newsletter/spacer.gif) | The July 26, 1954, cover of TIME | ![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/themes/time2014/img/newsletter/spacer.gif) | ![](https://api.time.com/wp-content/themes/time2014/img/newsletter/spacer.gif) | |
“Willie Mays is only 23, and he is playing only his third season (and first full one) in the major leagues. There are other major leaguers, even centerfielders, who stand above him in the statistics (e.g., Brooklyn's Duke Snider, who is fielding as flawlessly as Mays and is batting .359 to Willie's .331). But with his showman's manner and his in-the-clutch timing, Willie Mays is baseball's sensation of the season. To the scandal of some sentimentalists, he is already being talked of as the equal or even the better of the great Tris Speaker and Joe DiMaggio. He has hit 33 home runs in 89 games—a pace which puts him six games ahead of Babe Ruth's majestic record of 60 homers, and there are some impetuous enough to suggest that Willie is the one to climb that Everest of baseball some day.”
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