The golden era of baseball departs with Willie Mays

It’s really hard to imagine baseball without Willie Howard Mays Jr. While he hadn’t roamed the outfield for over fifty years, the greatest five-tool player MLB will ever showcase left an indelible mark on anyone who ever watched him play an inning, all the while doing it with style and grace throughout a storied career and up until congestive heart failure took him from fans all over the globe on June 18 at the age of 93. Unless you’re a baseball junkie or even a fossil like me who realizes the game was invented long before MLB and its television partners shamelessly placed microphones on players and managers during games, you’re probably reliant on YouTube and books in terms of understanding just how phenomenal Mays was. While 3,293 hits with 660 home runs and 1909 runs batted in speaks volumes, it was his defensive prowess that really set him apart from his contemporaries and placed him in a baseball world that very few players ever reside in. Mays left this world with a mind-boggling 7,095 put outs, which remains the most ever for an outfielder, despite losing two years of his career to military service. Roaming center field in some...