"HE BROUGHT TO THE PLAYING OF BASEBALL A MYSTERIOUS, ALMOST MAGICAL QUALITY… WILLIE MAYS BROUGHT US JOY"

MAYS, Willie. Born to Play Ball. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, (1955). Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition of Born to Play Ball by Hall-of-Fame legend Willie Mays—"one of the greatest players in baseball history"—published shortly after his brilliant over-the-shoulder "Catch" helped the New York Giants win the 1954 World Series, a handsome copy in the original dust jacket.

"Mays' infectious smile, his casually electric playmaking, his pell-mell base-running style, his rocket arm (Joe DiMaggio called it the best he ever saw) and his home runs that blasted holes in outfield fences still define… what baseball, in a perfect world, should look like… he brought to the playing of baseball a mysterious, almost magical quality… Willie Mays brought us joy" (New York Times). "One of the greatest players in baseball history," Mays began his Major League career in 1951 with the New York Giants. After serving in the Army, in 1954 he returned and helped steer them to a World Series victory with his famed over-the-shoulder running catch, considered one of baseball's most legendary plays. Mays' "penchant for welcoming people with 'Say hey' led to a lasting nickname—the 'Say Hey Kid.' Yet his popularity and rise to baseball immortality did not make him immune to racism" (Encyclopedia of African American Popular Culture). Named to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, Mays is "an American icon whose athletic brilliance and stylistic bravado contributed to the assimilation of Blacks during the turbulent civil rights era, a distinctive figure of ambition, sacrifice and triumph who became a lasting cultural touchstone for a nation in search of heroes" (Hirsch, Willie Mays). First edition of Born to Play Ball, "as told to" sports journalist Charles Epstein: published on the heels of Mays' and the Giants' 1954 World Series victory. First printing with no statement of edition or printings on copyright page. Dust jacket rear panel with 21 "Putnam Sports Series" titles. Containing an introduction by Epstein titled, "Why Willie?": with eight pages of illustrations. Dust jacket rear flap with small inkstamped owner initial.

Book fine; lightest rubbing, small closed edge-tear to rear panel of about-fine price-clipped dust jacket.