Willie Mays

CTL-E-6166 · Person · other · 1931–2024; playing career 1948–1973

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07368 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6166.

Willie Howard Mays Jr., known as the Say Hey Kid, was an American center fielder born May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama, and widely regarded as baseball's greatest all-around player. He played semiprofessional baseball at sixteen and joined the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, playing only on Sundays during the school year. The New York Giants purchased his contract in 1950, and after minor-league seasons he reached the Giants in 1951 and was named Rookie of the Year. After Army service in 1952 to 1954, he returned to lead the league in hitting in 1954, help the Giants win the World Series, and make his celebrated over-the-shoulder catch in its opening game. He remained with the Giants through their move to San Francisco in 1958, was traded to the New York Mets in mid-1972, and retired after 1973. His career totals include a .301 batting average, 660 home runs, and 3,293 hits in Britannica's account, twelve consecutive Gold Gloves from 1957 to 1968, and two Most Valuable Player awards. Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 and died June 18, 2024, in Palo Alto, California.

The record

• Also known as: Willie Howard Mays Jr., The Say Hey Kid, Say Hey Kid

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 5 — 747 Program, Wave 12; fifth Scan Tail packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Willie Mays entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,843 entities); mentions inside other records (Birmingham Black Barons CTL-E-5776, Barry Bonds, Rickwood Field CTL-E-6119) are not a Mays home. ID CTL-E-6166 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — NAMED GAP FIX (not a scan string), banked by Scan Tail Wave 4 for Scan Tail Wave 5, Batch A. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Black American baseball player whose professional career began in the Negro leagues with the Birmingham Black Barons; named gap fix — the graph held the Black Barons and Rickwood Field but no Mays record. Vital status: DECEASED — died June 18, 2024, Palo Alto, California, aged 93 (Britannica; Baseball Hall of Fame, both accessed 2026-10-16). STATISTICS — Career totals, Britannica (accessed 2026-10-16): .301 batting average, 660 home runs, 3,293 hits, 1,909 RBIs; 12 consecutive Gold Gloves (1957–1968). CONFLICT SHOWN, NOT BLENDED: the Hall of Fame page (accessed 2026-10-16) gives a career .302 mark and 3,283 hits, differing from Britannica's .301 and 3,293; both figures are retained as sourced. All-Star count also framed differently: Britannica's main text says named an All-Star in 20 of 22 seasons, while the Hall of Fame counts 24 All-Star selections. MEDIA: photo HELD (HELD — candidate: a 1948 Birmingham Black Barons-era portrait of Mays, or his 1955 New York Giants portrait as carried on reference pages; no file page was read at file level and NO license is claimed — PHOTO-001 verification deferred. — named candidate only; file-level rights verification per CTL-PHOTO-001 still required; no license claimed); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6166-willie-mays.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short or verified-rights archival video staged); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A (person record). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map (shorts-link-map-2026-10-15.json, 233 rows, checked by nam) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• Birmingham Black Barons — played for
  Britannica and the Hall of Fame both record that Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 before the Giants purchased his contract.
• New York Mets — played for
  Mays returned to New York in a May 1972 trade, spent his final two seasons with the Mets, helped them reach the 1973 World Series, and retired in 1973. Closes the blocked edge documented in Scan Tail Wave 5.

Sources

• National Baseball Hall of Fame, Mays, Willie (accessed 2026-10-16) — joined Birmingham at 16; Giants purchased contract 1950; Rookie of the Year 1951; 1954 season and World Series catch; 21 seasons with Giants, Mets 1972–1973; two MVPs, 24 All-Star selections, 12 Gold Gloves; elected 1979; passed away June 18, 2024 — https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/mays-willie (primary source · build store)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, Willie Mays (accessed 2026-10-16) — born May 6, 1931, Westfield, Alabama, died June 18, 2024, Palo Alto, California; joined Birmingham Black Barons 1948; Giants 1951 and Rookie of the Year; career .301, 660 home runs, 3,293 hits; 12 consecutive Gold Gloves 1957–1968; Presidential Medal of Freedom 2015 — http://www.britannica.com/biography/Willie-Mays (build store)
• SABR BioProject, 'Willie Mays' biography, accessed 2026-11-03 (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6166 · Combined Graph record U-07368 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 3 sources · 2 mapped relationships.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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