Willie Mays, baseball legend, dies at 93
(NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Willie Mays, one of baseball's greatest and most beloved players of all time, has died.
The San Francisco Giants released a statement saying, "It is with great sadness that we announce that San Francisco Giants legend and Hall of Famer Willie Mays passed away peacefully [Tuesday] afternoon at the age of 93."
Nicknamed the "Say Hey Kid," Mays, a native of Alabama, played for 22 big-league seasons, breaking in with the New York Giants in 1951 and then becoming a fixture in San Francisco when the franchise moved west.
He ended his career back in New York with the Mets in 1973.
During his legendary baseball career, Mays hit more than 600 home runs and banged out more than 3,000 hits, won two MVP awards, 12 gold gloves, and participated in 24 All-Star games, and in 1979, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Mays was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, the nation's highest civilian award, by then-President Barack Obama.
On Tuesday, Major League Baseball (MLB) issued a statement calling Mays "one of the most exciting all-around players in the history of our sport."
Mays was 93-years-old. He had been baseball's oldest living Hall of Famer.
