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To this day, when I think San Francisco Giants, the names Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal, Jim Ray Hart…..and for some odd reason, Ron Hrbel, spring forth.
Truly amazing that none of those Giants teams from that era won a world series. The aforementioned Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal, plus the likes of Vida Blue, the Perry Brothers(Gaylord & Jim), an outfield all occupied by blood brothers(Felipe, Jesus……and I forgot the 3rd), and then Ron Hrbel trotting in from the pen to extinguish any and all fires. They just don’t construct teams these days like they used to…….and it’s a bit of a crying shame.
Expansion, free agency, and greed on all sides pretty much precludes teams being loaded up like that – at least not for much more than the blink of an eye.
As a kid, even growing up in Wyoming far from any major league team, I could name most of the starting lineups for each team. Course it helped collecting cards and then playing APBA. But those Giants teams were loaded.
Willie Mays was the first guy you thought of, and getting a Mays card was always a thrill. Those teams had Tom Haller as the primary catcher, either McCovey or Orlando Cepeda at first – one would DH in the modern era. Chuck Hiller and later Hal Lanier at second, Jose Pagan and later Tito Fuentes at short. Jimmy Davenport at third, with Jim Ray Hart also see time there.
Mays of course anchored the outfield, with the Alou’s, Felipe, Matty and Jesus in there, later Bobby Bonds, earlier Harvey Kuenn.
Marichal, Perry, fastball firing Bobby “BeeBee” Bolin, Mike McCormick, and of course our own Ray Sadecki later on after we dealt him for Cepeda.
Mays was scheduled to be at the game we play against the Giants at Rickwood Field, but had to cancel and now he has passed. Jack Buck on a broadcast one time said Mays was the greatest he ever saw.
That was such a great era of professional sports.
It was a sad moment indeed when I awakened this morning and learned that Willie Mays is gone. He took a part of my youth with him.
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