Upon yesterday’s news of Willie Mays passing, three thoughts leapt to mind. The first was local Bay Area baseball talk with a bartender and a mention of the Montague family, which prompted him to hand me this photocopy.

The second thought was a memory of Mays, excerpted here from a  blog item I wrote nearly 20 years ago.

“The weekend before Barry Bonds received his seventh Most Valuable Player Award, his Godfather, some would say The Godfather, was signing autographs at the Long’s Drug Store at a strip mall in San Bruno. 

“Now, a few weeks later, Bonds is disgraced, his records in question due to his testimony in the BALCO steroid scandal. And Willie Mays, The Say Hey Kid, star of the All-Time, All-American Sports Highlight – The Catch in the 1954 World Series – was signing autographs at the Long’s Drug Store at a strip mall in San Bruno.

“To his credit, Mays packed them in at the drug store. The previous crowd record for that particular Long’s location was Free Bone-Density Testing Day. The line for Mays autographs formed at 4 a.m., eight hours before the signing session started. By noon, generations of Giants fans, the older ones wearing Number 24 jerseys and the younger wearing Number 25, wrapped around the outside of the store.

“They clutched memories and time-worn photos and smudged baseballs and at least one treasured 1970 Topps card, from which Mays gazed, equal parts competitive intensity and unbridled joy. Just posing for his baseball card photo, he was the picture of everything we wanted an athletic hero to be.

“Even as a singular star, the Michael Jordan of his day, who captivated the nation with skill unrivaled at the plate, on the bases and in the field, Willie Mays played stickball with neighborhood kids in the streets of New York. He was a man of the people, and he remains so, at least inasmuch as he did not charge fans for his signature.”

And the third thought, perhaps everyone’s always-and-forever thought of Mays, shared below.