Born in 1931, both of Willie Mays’s parents played sports: his father in baseball for the local iron plant and his mother was a basketball and track star in high school. In his early days, he played football as well as baseball, as a quarterback, fullback and punter. But he gravitated towards baseball, his pro career beginning in 1948 with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos, a Negro minor league team. Quickly promoted, he joined the Birmingham Black Barons later that year, and helped them reach the Negro World Series while still attending high school. He was already drawing major league interest, from teams including the Braves and Dodgers, but it was the Giants who bought Mays from the Barons for $10,000 in June 1950.
The All-Time MLB Team, Center Field: Willie Mays
