Van Doren Rubber Company

Said design has since been replaced. Later that year, he was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. One of the shoe patterns resembeled that of a leaf from a cannibus sativa plant. In 1999, he ranked number 2 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, making him then the highest-ranking living player, the highest-ranking player to have spent the majority of his career in the National League, and the highest-ranking center fielder. There was some controversy when, in 2005, they offered a "design your own shoe" portion of their webstore. They share a close bond, and when Bonds tied Mays at third on the all time home run list, Mays greeted him warmly and presented him with a diamond-studded Olympic torch given to Mays for his part in carrying the Olympic Torch on its tour through the US. The tour is named Vans Warped Tour. Mays is the godfather of baseball star Barry Bonds.

Vans also sponsors the Warped Tour, a punk/ska music and extreme sports festival since 1995. Their home ballpark, SBC Park, is located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza with a larger-than-life statue of Mays in front of the main entrance, surrounded by 24 palm trees, and the right-field wall is 24-feet high, all in honor of Mays. In 2004 the company was acquired by VF Corporation, manufacturers of Lee and Wrangler Jeans for $396 million. Mays' number 24 is retired by the San Francisco Giants. Since approximately 2001 Vans has opened retail stores containing large indoor skate parks at The Block at Orange, Ontario Mills, the Moorestown Mall, Potomac Mills, the Plaza at King of Prussia, and other locations. Having returned to Atherton, Mays is presently employed as Special Assistant to the Giants and appears often at baseball memorabilia shows. Four years after emerging from bankruptcy protection, investment bankers McCown DeLeeuw Company bought Vans and went public in 1991. Despite public outcry, the suspension would not be lifted till 1985 by Kuhn's successor, Peter Ueberroth.

The corporation was forced into bankruptcy in 1984. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn immediately suspended Mays from involvement in organised baseball. In the 1980s, Vans lost much of its core customer base when the company started producing baseball and football shoes. Shortly after, he took a job as a greeter in a casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In more recent years, Vans has marketed additional items such as clothing and skateboarding accessories. On January 23, 1979, he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, appearing on 409 of the 432 ballots cast (roughly 95 percent). They market heavily in the surfing and skateboarding areas. He also served as a guest host of The Dick Cavett Show.

The Van Doren Rubber Company, better known as "Vans", has been since 1966 a Southern California based manufacturer of sneakers and other shoe types catering primarily to the active youth market. Mays was a coach for the New York Mets and also acted in a PR role for the club until 1979. Mays is the only MLB player to have a 4-home run game and a 3-triple game in a career. The Mets made the World Series in Mays' final year, only to lose in seven games to the A's. He played with the Mets until his retirement after the 1973 season.

This was quite important to Mays as he had made some unwise investments and was not as wealthy as commonly believed. The Giants were losing money and owner Horace Stoneham could not guarantee him an income after retirement, where the Mets offered him the option to be hired as a coach after his playing days were over. The primary motivation for Mays' trade to the Mets was financial. He continued to play with that franchise until partway through the 1972 season, when he joined the New York Mets.

Willie also put himself at the center of the year's greatest controversy, acting as a peacemaker during Giant pitcher Juan Marichal's notorious attack on John Roseboro and helping the bleeding Dodger catcher from the field, an act that gained him considerable respect from the Los Angeles fans. "Same pitch, too.". "It was exactly the same feeling," Mays replied. "Was it anything like the same feeling?" asked Spahn.

Warren Spahn, who had given up the very first, was then with San Francisco and greeted Mays as he returned to the dugout. One of those home runs, hit on September 13, off Don Nottebart, was the 500th of his career. Mays won his second of two MVP awards in 1965, hitting a career high 52 long balls. In the '63 and '64 seasons he again scored and drove in over 100 runs, and hit a total of 85 homers, but the Giants finished 2nd and 3rd in the league, even with the young Willie McCovey playing almost as well as Willie in 1963.

As he aged, Mays continued to play brilliantly. It was his last Series appearance as a Giant. Mays hit .286, with only one extra base hit. In the Series, the Giants again lost to the Yankees, this time in seven games.

Playing in 162 games, he hit .304, and led the Giants in runs scored (130), RBI (141), doubles, triples, homers (with 49), stolen bases, on base percentage and slugging percentage as his play down the stretch enabled the Giants to catch the Dodgers. Over the season, Mays was clearly the star. In the deciding third game, as in 1951, the Giants again scored four times in the ninth inning, to take the win and the series. In the first game Mays hit two home runs.

Nevertheless, under Dark, the Giants made the World Series in 1962, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three game play off series. After one such incident, Mays managed to defuse a potential strike among the black and Puerto Rican players, but did not speak to Dark again outside the dugout. Dark was a Southern Baptist from Alabama, and given to making statements in the press about the unsuitability of black players for leadership roles. The relationship was not a happy one, however.

His replacement for 1961 was Alvin Dark, formerly Mays's team-mate, who immediately made Mays captain. The Giants were a little better in '58, '59 and '60, winning 242 games and losing 220, and Rigney was fired half way throughout the 1960 season. He was better loved in the rest of the country; fans turned out just to see him play as the uncompetitive Giants led the league in road attendance every year Mays was with them. Seemingly symbolic of the Giants New York past, he was initially frostily received by the San Francisco fans.

When Mays moved along with the Giants to San Francisco for the 1958 season, and bought a palatial home in nearby Atherton. After 1955's third place finish, Durocher was replaced by Bill Rigney, under whom they finished in sixth place in '56 and '57. Over the next three seasons Willie continued to play brilliantly, but was frequently the only good player on a poor Giants team. After the Giants' victory, Mays was announced as winner of the National League Most Valuable Player Award and the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year.

The play, now known simply as "The Catch", which kept the scores tied. In Game 1 of the series Mays made one of the greatest defensive plays of all time, a brilliant over-the-shoulder catch of a long drive by Vic Wertz, deep in centre field of the spacious Polo Grounds. He returned in 1954, hit .354 with 41 home runs, and helped carry the Giants to a 97-57 record, the National League pennant and a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians in the World Series. He missed part of the 1952 season and all of the 1953 season, as the Giants finished 2nd and 5th in the National League.

Army during the Korean War, but did not see action overseas. Mays served in the U.S. Playing a bit part for the Yankees was DiMaggio's heir apparent, and the player most comparable to Mays over their long careers, the 19 year old Mickey Mantle. Mays performed poorly in the 1951 World Series, as the Giants were beaten 4-2 by the New York Yankees, but the series marked the only time that Mays and the aging Joe DiMaggio would play on the same field.

Nevertheless, he won the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award, and ended the regular season as a somewhat nervous on-deck batter when Bobby Thomson's famous three run homer won the pennant for the Giants. From then on, his hitting steadily improved, although his .274 average, 68 RBI and 20 homers (in 121 games) would be among the worst of his career. The next day, Mays got his major league first hit, a home run off Warren Spahn of the Boston Braves. Durocher, who would be one of Mays's greatest admirers and defenders throughout his career, refused, telling Mays he was the Giants center fielder as long as Durocher was manager.

Worried, he asked manager Leo Durocher to send him back to the Millers. With the Giants, Mays immediately entered a slump, starting his career by getting no hits in his first 13 at bats. Hitting .477 after 35 games, he was called up to the major leagues in May, 1951, after Giants owner Horace Stoneham took out a full page advertisement in several Minneapolis newspapers, apologising for taking him away from the Millers. With the Millers, Mays was immediately a fan favorite with his stellar offense and defensive play.

After hitting .353 in Trenton, he began 1951 playing for the AAA Minneapolis Millers of the minor league American Association. He was scouted by a number of major league teams, but in 1950 the New York Giants signed him, and sent him to their Class-B affiliate Trenton, New Jersey. Wisely, he eschewed signing a contract with the Barons. Rejecting both, he began to play professionally as soon as he left school, playing briefly with the Chattanooga Choo-choos before returning to his home town to join the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1947.

At high school he played quarterback on the football team, and was offered college scholarships in both football and basketball. Mays' athleticism was evident from an early age. In 21 seasons (excluding one lost partially to military service), he played 150 or more games, and more than 100 an additional five times. Mays was averse to drinking or smoking, which probably contributed to his great longevity as a player.

. The epitome of the five-tool player, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 1979. He is regarded as one of the finest players ever to have played the game and is often mentioned as the greatest living baseball player. Mays, nicknamed The Say Hey Kid, played center field throughout nearly all his career.

Willie Howard Mays, Jr. (born May 6, 1931 in Westfield, Alabama) is a former star of Major League Baseball.