St. Louisans were lucky enough to see the great Willie Mays play and many remember going to games. And watching him in person.
One person who won’t forget seeing Mays hit several homers is St. Louis native Steve Lindemann, who now lives in California. He had his Nikon with him while at a game and snapped the shots in this article.
“Seeing these photos today and seeing that I got some nice photos of Willie May and McCovey is pretty amazing,” said Lindemann. “I feel incredibly fortunate to not only have been at those games to see them, but to still have the photos, and in some cases feeling quite lucky to have such nice photos of them is a huge and unexpected surprise.
“I have been hauling all of these boxes of slides and film negatives with me over so many house moves over the years – it must be at least ten moves. And to think that I never lost these old boxes, and that so few of them got seriously damaged. And then to have digital technology advance such as it has, enabling me to pull high quality scans of them, I feel like all of the planets really came into alignment for me.”
One of the highlights of Lindeman’s game photos was of a gameAugust 7, 1965 at Sportsman’s Park (later called Busch Stadium I) when Mays hit two home runs and drove in five runs to propel the San Francisco Giants to a 10-5 win over the Cardinals. That homer is shown in the photo at the top of the page.
Mays led all major-league hitters with 52 homers that year and won his second MVP Award, and ninth consecutive Gold Glove Award in 1965.
1965 was the final full season of the old Busch Stadium before the team moved to the new Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966. That year was also considered Mays’ bets season so those at St. Louis who got to see him play that day were in for a treat.
Willie Mays played 22 seasons from 1951 to 1973 in the with majors with a gap in 1953 for military service. Most of his time was spent with the New York/San Francisco Giants.
He had a great day that August 1965 day, but it was not his best. On April 30, 1961, he went 4-for-5 with four home runs and eight RBIs against the Milwaukee Braves. That performance made him one of the few players in MLB history to hit four home runs in a single game. Stan Musial had two three-homer games in his career.
Willie Mays’ best-known game is widely considered Game 1 of the 1954 World Series at the Polo Grounds where he made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch.
“It is such a treat to see these photos now,” said Steve Lindmann, the photographer, “And to be able to share them with so many Cardinals fans, who love looking back on that era in history.”
He was at another exciting game later at Busch Stadium II, when fans were treated to another of May’s home runs in 1971. By this time it was widely known the the “Say Hey Kid” was one of the greatest to ever wear the uniform, and Cardinals fans knew what they were witnessing.
As you can see in the photo, Ted Simmons was the catcher for the Cardinals, and the homer was off Cardinals pitcher Jerry Reuss.
Mays played a significant role regarding race in America, though just not as noticeable as Jackie Robinson. He broke his own barriers through his excellence on the field, resilience against racism, and by serving as a role model.
Despite the greatness of Willie Mays, he faced racial slights during segregation, so when the Giants came to St. Louis (or any of the other towns they played in) he and his Black teammates had to stay in separate living quarters than their white teammates.
One St. Louis area resident remembers this time well as his family owned the boarding house he stayed in, Virgal Tyrone Woolfolk of Innsbrook remembers being a child and helping with the chores at the house and also reaping the benefits—playing stickball with the Great Willie Mays.
He recently published a book about those experiences called “Back When We Were Colored; Helping Black Baseball Players During Segregation, And Being Helped by Some ‘Decent White Men’ Along the Way.”
For information on the book: CLICK HERE.
Photos: By Steve Lindemann, used with permission.
