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Willie Mays didn’t like to throw away stuff. Yes, he gave away an awful lot. Gloves, bats, and countless autographs. But he kept more stuff than anyone could have imagined.
The Say Hey Kid’s house on the Peninsula was like a museum, with MVP awards and Gold Glove awards on display along with other honors, pictures, documents, and an extensive amount of memorabilia presented to him through his time as a player and in retirement.
Now, 15 months after Mays’ June 18, 2024, death, it’s for sale. Bidding for 979 artifacts from his personal collection is underway online, and a live auction is set for Saturday that will include the first 451 items. Items 452 through 979 will be auctioned online only through Sunday.
Viewing of the collection began Monday and will continue daily through Saturday morning at 128 King St.
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All of the proceeds – not just a token amount – will benefit Mays’ beloved Say Hey Foundation, which he wanted all along, said Jeff Bleich, Mays’ longtime friend and attorney, who said the foundation will significantly grow and further benefit kids, and it all starts with the auction.
“The Say Hey Foundation until now was a vehicle for Willie to make donations to groups that he believed in,” Bleich said. “But now it’s going to be a much broader ambition.”
The foundation, designated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit and initiated in 2000, will branch out with the auction revenue. One of its planned projects is helping to fund new fields at San Francisco’s Crocker Amazon Playground. The city’s Recreation and Parks Department and the Giants Community Fund had already committed to sharing much of the cost of the $45 million project.
Other anticipated beneficiaries for the foundation include the Boys and Girls Club, various programs around the Birmingham, Ala., area (Willie’s roots) and partnerships with the Giants, including with the Willie Mays Scholars program.
“He said he wanted to make sure to sell this off with all the money going to the kids, and he said that probably a thousand times,” said Bleich, Mays’ executor and one of four foundation board members who were handpicked years ago by Mays, all earning his highest trust.
The other three – friend/attorney Malcolm Heinicke, Mays’ godson Phil Saddler (who knew Willie since he was a child) and Rene Anderson, his longtime friend and assistant and original board member – said in separate conversations with The Standard that Mays had told them that his wishes were to sell his belongings to benefit the foundation and kids.
In recent days, the foundation named a new executive director and fifth board member, Jeff Idelson, a former president of baseball’s Hall of Fame and longtime Mays ally. He’s familiar with Mays’ upbringing in the segregated South, the guidance he received from his father, aunts, teachers, and coaches, and how he spent most of his life inspiring others.
“Willie’s career achievements are legendary, but his mission of empowering children will end up being his greatest legacy years from now,” Idelson told The Standard. “To have the opportunity now to help the foundation carry on the mission that was so near and dear to Willie’s heart, I do so with gratitude, respect, and excitement. I’m proud to have this honor.”
Hunt Auctions, which is overseeing the bidding, previously conducted auctions featuring the collections of legendary athletes such as Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente, and Bill Russell, whose collection netted the most, a reported $7.4 million.
“What makes Willie’s different, beyond being such a special player and person, is this has the possibility by value to be the largest player collection to be sold with the entire proceeds going to a charity,” said David Hunt, president of the auction house who said he had known Mays for two decades and did some appraising and pricing for him.
“It’s extra special that Willie wanted this to give kids a better start than he had.”
Among the big-money items are Mays’ 1954 World Series ring, 1954 and 1965 MVP awards, 1954 National League batting championship award, Gold Glove awards, Hall of Fame induction ring, 1962 signed game-worn uniform, 1962 Babe Ruth Sultan of Swat crown, and 1977 Stutz Blackhawk VI, a turquoise automobile that was custom made for Mays and will be on display at Willie Mays Plaza on Wednesday.
Plus, his Presidential Medal of Freedom, presented to Mays by President Barack Obama in 2015. This particular artifact, the nation’s highest civilian award, led to a contentious reaction from Mays’ son, Michael Mays, who was hoping the medal (and certain other items) could be held back from the auction and perhaps placed in a museum.
“Personally it’s heartbreaking,” Michael Mays said. “I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve reached out to people of means to historically salvage a few things. That’s a big ask, an awkward ask, for me. I’ve also reached out to the Giants about it.
“I don’t understand it. Is this a break-a-record thing? I’m on the Willie-lives-forever train. There are things on the auction block that make sense, but we don’t need to put more important things where a kid can’t see it or touch it.”
Michael Mays questions whether his dad’s wishes were to have a sell-off to this extent, a stark contrast to others who were told by his father that this was the plan. He has little say with the auction because he wasn’t included on the foundation board.
The younger Mays oversees an outreach program called Youth Rescue Project that is, according to the website, “providing underserved youth accessible safe spaces to play and equipment to play with.” He represented his father at the Hall of Fame induction weekend in Cooperstown and recently led a restoration effort, along with the New York Giants Preservation Society, to refurbish a plaque at the location of home plate at the site of the old Polo Grounds, his dad’s former baseball home.
Asked to comment on Mays’ son’s sentiments, Bleich said, “Willie took very good care of his son, Michael, and was also very clear about what he wanted to do with his memorabilia and the honors and awards he received. So he put it in his will, and he also set up this foundation, appointed the directors, and told us precisely how he wanted things to be done.
“So it’s a real privilege to be able to honor his legacy, honor his wishes. It’s also our responsibility as members of this board.”
Bleich said Mays transferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the foundation and made a replica of the medal (shortly after receiving it) and other artifacts to keep on display. In fact, there are plenty of items remaining from Mays’ collection excluded from the auction, and in a perfect world, a Mays museum would have been up and running long ago, preferably run by the Giants, to showcase it all.
The next best thing is for the foundation to step up – Bleich said there’s a plan for the foundation to eventually display Mays memorabilia at a site to be determined, as well as the Hall of Fame, Negro Leagues Museum, and with the Giants.
The Giants are helping to promote the auction and aren’t ruling out bidding on items, said Shana Daum, the team’s VP of communications and community relations, who said the team has acquired memorabilia in other auctions for its archives. Daum expressed her appreciation for the Say Hey Foundation helping with the Crocker Amazon project.
“The Giants and the Giants Community Fund are grateful to the Say Hey Foundation for being a major partner of ours as we raise the necessary funds to transform the baseball and softball fields at Crocker Amazon Playground,” Daum said. “This is exactly what Willie wanted, expanding opportunities for youth to play baseball and softball in the city he so loved.”