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Product Details
Scribner, February 2010
Hardcover, 640 pages
ISBN-10: 1416547908
ISBN-13: 9781416547907
Description
Willie Mays is arguably the greatest player in baseball history, still revered for the passion he brought to the game. He began as a teenager in the Negro Leagues, became a cult hero in New York, and was the headliner in Major League Baseball’s bold expansion to California. He was a blend of power, speed, and stylistic bravado that enraptured fans for more than two decades. Now James Hirsch reveals the man behind the player. Mays was a transcendent figure who received standing ovations in enemy stadiums and who, during the turbulent civil rights era, urged understanding and reconciliation. More than his records, his legacy is defined by the pure joy that he brought to fans and the loving memories that have been passed to future generations so they might know the magic and beauty of the game. With meticulous research and drawing on interviews with Mays himself as well as with close friends, family, and teammates, Hirsch presents a brilliant portrait of one of America’s most significant cultural icons.
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1. James Hirsch: Off The Shelf16:21102122935001
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1. An Interview with Baseball Legend Willie Mays09:1267390155001 -
2. An Interview With Willie Mays Part 212:5366345103001 -
3. An Interview With Willie Mays Part 108:5666389390001
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How did you come to write this book?
In 2000, after I wrote a book on Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, someone suggested I should write a book on Willie Mays. While I never saw him play, his name is magic to any baseball fan, and his career -- from 1951 to 1973 -- exquisitely overlapped the modern civil rights movement. Mays was one of the most prominent blacks in America at that time, so any authoritative biography of him would be about more than baseball. I was able to track down one of Willie's few trusted friends, and he asked Willie if he was interested in cooperating on a biography. Willie said no. I returned to Willie's friend two years later with the same request, and Willie again said no. I tried a third time, and had the same result. I then tried a fourth time -- seven years after I made the initial effort -- and this time Willie agreed to meet me. It was worth the wait.
"Willie Mays had everything--except a first-rate biography. That omission has now been addressed by James S. Hirsch, who has produced a piece of artistry worhty of Mays in center field."
-- Bloomberg.com
"James Hirsch has written an enormously entertaining and wide-ranging biography--a fitting tribute to Mays . . . and a thoughtful account of the complex and often misunderstood man. . . . True baseball fans will delight in the author's edge-of-seat game reports and picture-perfect descriptions of Mays' superlative talents. . . This is a superb baseball book, but it's also a riveting narrative of Mays' life and times."
-- Seattle Times
"A terrific new biography . . . [an] always engaging and enlightening book . . . A wonderful introduction to the magical life of one of the finest athletes ever."
-- San Francisco Chronicle
"Hirsch has produced a masterful biography that has the same freshness and excitement that Mays generated as a player. All the highlights are there in shining, solid detail. It's a must-read for any baseball fan."
-- Tampa Bay Online
"James S. Hirsch compellingly recounts Mays' career . . . giving even Mays' iconic moments, such as 'The Catch' in the 1954 World Series, a sense of tension as if they were unfolding anew. . . . Great baseball reading, by an accomplished writer . . . about a wondrous ballplayer and man with gifts beyond the diamond."
-- Associated Press
"The book, documenting Mays’ rise from Negro leagues star to major league icon, also serves as a history lesson."
-- USA Today
"Tautly written . . . Mr. Hirsch captures Willie’s greatness on the field.”
-- Wall Street Journal
“Does a better job than any book before of getting at what it means to be Willie Mays.”
-- Sports Illustrated
Southeast-Brewster Patch, March 3, 2011
...Mets fan, so his current favorite is Faith and Fear in Flushing by Greg Prince. He also enjoyed James Hirsch’s new biography, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend . The best science fiction he’s seen recently is Alden Bell’s The Reapers ...
Brockton Enterprise, April 1, 2010
...for the three-part workshop is $20 for members or $25 non-members. Call 508-947-6744 to register. BOOK SIGNING: Author James Hirsch will talk about his newest book, “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend,” on April 11 at Messiah Church, 80 ...
KansasCity.com, March 29, 2010
...host of “Up to Date” from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays on KCUR, 89.3 FM. Today: James Hirsch talks about one of baseball’s greats, the subject of his new book, “Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend ...
NPR, March 19, 2010
...100 miles and sometimes lasting two days. Hardcover, 304pp, $24.95, Knopf, Pub Date: May. 5, 2009 9. Willie Mays The Life, The Legend By James S Hirsch Weeks on list: 5 • Willie is perhaps best known for 'The Catch' -- his breathtaking ...
NPR, March 5, 2010
...for her -- and what didn't. Hardcover, 320pp, $25.99, Harper, Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2009 7. Willie Mays The Life, The Legend By James S Hirsch Weeks on list: 3 • Willie is perhaps best known for 'The Catch' -- his breathtaking ...
Globe and Mail, March 5, 2010
...Woody Allen’s character says at the end of Manhattan, are “Groucho Marx, to name one thing. And Willie Mays. And the second movement of the Jupiter Symphony.” See, that was the thing about Willie Mays. As James Hirsch’s wonderfully ...
Huffington Post, February 11, 2010
...Willie Mays, the legendary baseball player, was on the Daily Show last night because of the new biography James Hirsch has written about him. Jon Stewart was clearly delighted to have ...
Seattle Times, February 8, 2010
...'Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend' by James S. Hirsch Scribner, 624 pp., $39.99 For two decades, during baseball's golden era in America in the 1950s and '60s ...
New York Post, February 7, 2010
...Imagine Willie Mays and Hank Aaron in the same lineup. It might have been, had a Boston Braves scout not watched Mays go 1-for-8 in a 1950 Negro League doubleheader and decided ...
Wicked Local Middleborough, February 7, 2010
...library is on Route 27 at Walnut and Park streets. Call 781-344-2711 for more information. THE SAY-HEY KID James Hirsch will discuss and sign copies of his book “Willie Mays” at Borders, 255 Grossman Drive in Braintree, at 7 p.m. Friday. ...
Seattle Times, February 6, 2010
...'Willie Mays: The Life, the Legend' by James S. Hirsch Scribner, 624 pp., $39.99 For two decades, during baseball's golden era in America in the 1950s and '60s ...
