SAN FRANCISCO — Long after ''The Catch'' and his 660 home runs, and the daring sprints around the bases with his hat falling off, Willie Mays could still command a room like no other.
Mays was a frequent visitor to the downtown ballpark in San Francisco at 24 Willie Mays Plaza with his statue outside the stadium. He would often hold court with his contemporaries and the younger generation of players who hung on every word said by a player they were too young to have ever watched play.
His commanding voice and high-pitched laugh were recognizable anywhere. He was simply the ''Say Hey Kid'' from his days patrolling center field at the Polo Grounds in the 1950s, when baseball ruled New York City, to his death at age 93 on Tuesday afternoon.
As Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. said: ''He'll always be the godfather of all center fielders.''
There may be players who hit more home runs, won more Gold Gloves, had more hits and captured more World Series titles than Mays. But there never was — and probably never will be — a player as dazzling and entertaining as he was for more than two decades on both coasts.
With a hat too small so it flew off his head as he raced around the field and his signature basket catches, Mays was a showman who could do it all as the consummate ''five-tool player.'' Perhaps no one combined the ability to hit for both average and power, to run the bases, field and throw like Mays did during his career spent mostly with the Giants in New York and San Francisco.
''Willie could do everything from the day he joined the Giants," Hall of Fame manager Leo Durocher said. "Mays could do all the things you look for in a player better than anybody I ever saw.''
While Joe DiMaggio famously insisted on being introduced as the ''Greatest Living Ballplayer'' until he died in 1999, that title had really been held by Mays for more than a half-century.
