WASHINGTON - Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays, sporting running shoes with his suit and tie, rose slowly from his chair and waved his baseball cap as President Barack Obama decorated him on Tuesday with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mays, 84, one of the first black players in Major League Baseball and considered among the game's all-time greats in a career spent mostly with the New York and San Francisco Giants, was among 17 people given the highest U.S. civilian honor.
"It's because of giants like Willie that someone like me could even think about running for president," Obama said during the White House ceremony.