Willie Mays Personal Collection To Highlight September Auction

Forbes

3 days ago

Willie Mays, who played stickball on the street with New York kids between games with the Giants, ... More will help them even more with the posthumous auction of his personal memorabilia.
Just days before the Baseball Hall of Fame inducts its Class of 2025, Hunt Auctions has announced that the personal collection of Willie Mays will be unveiled for the first time at the National Sports Collectors Convention.
Mays, whom many historians rate as the greatest player of the postwar period, asked in his will that proceeds from the auction provide funding for education, training, and health services for youth via the Say Hey! Foundation he founded in 2000.
The late superstar, who spent most of his career with the Giants in New York and San Francisco, hit 660 lifetime home runs, winning two MVP awards, a World Series ring, and 24 trips to the All-Star game.
The auction of his memorabilia will take place Sept. 27 at the King Street Warehouse adjacent to Oracle Park, home of the Giants.
A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame since 1979, Mays was memorialized in the song Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, which also saluted fellow centerfielders Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider. At one time, all three played for New York teams.
Fans will now be able to see and bid on Mays items and artifacts and receive free appraisals of other sports memorabilia they own from Hunt Auctions experts.
This catch made by Willie Mays during the 1954 World Series was one of the best defensive plays in ... More baseball history.
Up for auction are the 1954 Mays World Series ring that he won with the New York Giants, who upset the favored Cleveland Indians, and his 1954 and 1965 Most Valuable Player Awards. Projected revenue from the auction of the ring is $500,000-$1,000,000 while each of the MVPs is expected to draw $500,000, according to Hunt Auctions organizers.
His 1954 National League Silver Bat, presented after he led the National League is hitting, is valued at $200,000-$400,000 while his Presidential Medal of Freedom could sell for $50,000-$100,000.
Also on sale are the outfielder's 1955 Willie Mays model glove, his 1963 All-Star Game MVP award, and many of the multiple Gold Gloves he won for defensive excellence. His Hall of Fame Induction ring is also included in the upcoming Hunt Auction.
A San Francisco Giants warmup jacket and rare 1962 Sultan of Swat award are also going to the auction block.
According to David Hunt, president of the Pennsylvania auction house, 'We are deeply humbled and grateful to Willie Mays for having been selected to represent this important offering of his personal collection.
'Willie embodies the American success story from his humble beginnings in Fairfield, Alabama through his ascension to become the greatest all-around player in the history of the game of baseball.
'Perhaps more impressively, Willie lived a life of service matched by very few. Whether sharing his knowledge of the game with young players or helping underserved communities to better their lives he was fervently committed to help those whose shoes he once occupied so many years ago. Willie has ensured his generosity will continue long into the future with the wonderful work that his Say Hey! Foundation has accomplished with the proceeds of this auction going to help further that good work.'
A five-tools player, Willie Mays had two 30/30 seasons — the first in National League history.
Mays began his baseball career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1948, then signed with the New York Giants two years later. He was National League Rookie of the Year in 1951, when he helped the Giants win the pennant in a dramatic pennant race with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Three years later, he led the team to a world championship over the Cleveland Indians. The Giants also won a pennant in 1962 but lost a seven-game World Series to the New York Yankees.
Among other accomplishments, Mays won two batting titles, hit four home runs in a game, and the first two 30/30 seasons in National League history. He had a .301 batting average and 3,283 hits over a career that lasted 23 seasons.
He also made a hit with the kids of New York when he joined them on the street for impromptu stickball games during his East Coast career with the Giants.
Known as 'the Say Hey Kid' because he used the greet writers and teammates with the word 'hey,' Mays not only made the Hall of Fame but also the All-Century Team picked during the 1969 Baseball Centennial.
'His one instruction to Dave Hunt at Hunt Auctions was to make this the best auction ever to help those kids,' said Jeff Bleich, a Mays friend who chairs the Say Hey! Foundation.
"For all of his extraordinary achievements as a baseball player, Willie Mays wanted his enduring legacy to be helping children. He preserved his most treasured awards so that one day he could pay it forward. He wanted to share these items with his fans so that together they could raise as much as possible to support other kids starting out in life the way he had.'
Mays grew up in poverty and attended a segregated school in Birmingham but parlayed his baseball ability into a career that will live in memory.
His top salary was $165,000, the amount he earned while concluded his career with the New York Mets in 1963 – years before free agency greatly increased the salary scales for players.
Commercial endorsements helped him earn considerably more.
The first public display of the Willie Mays collection will occur at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago, IL between July 30th and August 3rd, 2025.