Willie Mays turns 75 today, which is difficult to believe given that I’m still 11 myself.
Willie doesn’t know it, but he and I go way back. Probably the way he goes way back with a lot of people he doesn’t know.
We go back to the elementary school years (mine, not his), to a time when I was old enough to appreciate the sheer concept of such a man but too young to articulate what I was appreciating. I called him “Millie Mays.” You know — the guy who played outfield alongside “Faleep Faloo.”
You couldn’t have cut your teeth on a more powerful combination of man, myth, place and time.