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SALT LAKE CITY — Willie Mays died last week at 93, setting off tributes and memories across the baseball world for one of the game's best players — if not the best — to ever do it.
The latest came on Monday from the organization he was most associated with, as every member of the San Francisco Giants took the field in Mays' No. 24 during the team's first home game after his death. The response over the past week just goes to show the level of impact the 24-time All-Star and two-time National League MVP had on baseball.
Mays also has a lesser-known tie to Utah, which resurfaced over the past week.
That's because Mays was the premiere star in some of the first Major League Baseball exhibition games ever played in Utah. He'd also go on to play multiple exhibition games in the state, including one of the most memorable.
It all played out nearly seven decades ago. Mays and the then-New York Giants — less than three years removed from the team's latest World Series title at the time and Mays' first MVP season — played the then-Cleveland Indians in a pair of exhibition games at Derks Field in Salt Lake City weeks before the 1957 season began.
The two clubs were barnstorming the West in April that year, which was a fairly common practice for MLB teams during the 1950s and 1960s. They were scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City from Las Vegas on April 3 and then depart for Denver for a game on April 4.
Newspaper archives from the era captured the excitement of the big exhibition game, largely because of Mays' star power. Even though Utah has a long and rich baseball history, Mays was — and likely remains — the best player to ever take the field in the Beehive State.
"We've seen an array of all-star clubs in this area — usually after the season has ended. But this is something different. You don't see the likes of (Cleveland pitcher) Herb Score and Willie Mays very often in our side of the mountains," Deseret News sportswriter Hack Miller wrote in a column days before the game.
That excitement carried over to game day, as a record crowd of 9,362 fans packed Derks Field on April 3, 1957. The Deseret News reported that fans "voraciously gobbled up" the major league experience. Some fans reportedly started showing up at the gates at 6:30 a.m. even though the first pitch wasn't until the early afternoon. It published a photo showing fans clamoring to get Mays' autograph.
Mays ultimately had what reports called a "disappointing day" in a 13-6 loss to Cleveland. He walked twice and hit into three double plays in his five trips to the plate.
Utah fans were then quickly treated to an unexpected encore thanks to weather that worked in Utah's favor. With a large blizzard forecast for the Denver area that week, the two clubs opted to play a second time at Derks Field the following day.
It wasn't as packed the second time around because tickets didn't even go on sale until a few hours before the game, the Salt Lake Tribune reported at the time. Still, nearly 6,000 fans packed the park to watch Mays collect a pair of hits in the Giants' 9-6 victory to split the series.
While two hits and two walks in 10 plate appearances is solid for any player during a preseason exhibition campaign, perhaps Mays' greatness also sparked lofty expectations.
"He's been sensational until he hit our thin mountain air," the Deseret News wrote about the series after it wrapped up.
The "Say Hey Kid" went on to play in more games at Derks Field, where he'd go on display the skills that made him a revered baseball player.
One exhibition between the same two clubs held in April 1959 — after the Giants relocated to San Francisco — remains a part of Utah baseball folklore. Mays mashed three homers and a double as the Giants defeated Cleveland 17-4, Utah newspapers reported. This included a first-inning missile estimated to have traveled 475 feet to dead center that became the talk of the town.
"Mays' first blast in the opening frame was one of the longest ever hit here," the Ogden Standard-Examiner wrote, adding it cleared both the outfield fence and batter's eye wall beyond that.
It was a moment where fans got to see one of baseball's greatest players pull off the extraordinary — well, almost everyone at least. One fan wasn't so lucky. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that one of Mays' biggest fans happened to be in lines for hot dogs, beer and peanuts during all three home runs.
These stories ultimately reflect the impact Mays had during his big league career, even in a state without a big league team. Baseball fans were drawn to him and often left in awe after seeing him in person. Bleacher Report once rated him as one of the most beloved players of all time, noting that his talent and likability off the field made him universally popular.
The many tributes over the past week exemplify that famous line from a baseball movie shot in Utah: "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die."
