Willie Mays was born on May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama. In 1948, he joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues before signing with the New York Giants in 1950 for $4,000. Mays made his major league debut on May 25, 1951, and got his first major league hit just three days later with a home run off Milwaukee’s Warren Spahn. He was in the on-deck circle when Bobby Thomson hit the famous “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” on October 3, 1951, during the Giants’ pennant-winning season.
Mays had many notable moments in his career, including his famed over-the-shoulder catch in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series and hitting his 500th home run on September 13,