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NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture 11.1 (2002) 25-33



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The Say Hey Kid and the Crabbers

Frank Otto


Following his stellar 1954 season, when he captured the National League batting title, led the New York Giants to the World Series, and was the league's Most Valuable Player, Willie Mays traveled south to play winter ball for the Santurce Cangrejeros (Crabbers) of the Puerto Rican Professional Baseball League. The winter league season began in early October, running through February and culminating with the Caribbean Series in Caracas, Venezuela. I was eleven years old at the time, playing Little League for the Rotary Club in San Juan, and Willie was playing for my hometown team.

A childhood image indelibly imprinted in my mind is walking into Sixto Escobar Stadium behind home plate into the splendor of sunlight and green grass and seeing Willie Mays at bat, wearing number 24. The cheers and groans of the crowd seemed deafening as the ball hit the catcher's mitt, Willie striking out on a high fastball for the last out of the inning. I recall little else of Willie's winter league season, other than a vague recollection of how he led the Santurce squad to the league and San Juan city championships (Santurce and San Juan were the two clubs that played in the capital city) and then on to victory at the Caribbean Series.

So this image has swirled around in my mind for all these years, even prompting me several years ago to check out a card show in upstate New York where Willie was signing. I was further driven to validate this childhood image by doing research on that 1954-55 winter league season. For this, I turned to the Library of Congress for perusal on microfiche of San Juan's Spanish-language dailies El Mundo(The World) and El Imparcial(The Impartial). And what a revelation this was! I came to learn about the controversies surrounding bringing Willie to the island, the ensuing rivalry between Willie and his Santurce teammate and rising star Roberto Clemente, and the shoving match involving Willie and his Giant teammate Ruben Gomez. [End Page 25]

Winter Ball

The news that Willie would play winter ball raised concerns in the States and on the island. Columnist Jimmy Powers of the New York Daily Newsasked why Mr.Horace Stoneham would risk a million dollars by allowing Willie to go to the

land of the daiquiri, coconut palms, rumba and pretty women. He doesn't need the exercise and because of his aggressive play and little respect for the fences, he'd be exposing himself to possible injury since center field fences in Puerto Rico are a lot shorter than the Polo Grounds. Furthermore, he'd only make about $4,500 dollars, or perhaps up to $7,000 with promotions. He could make that in one month of exhibitions in the U.S. and could then devote the rest of the winter relaxing and fixing up his store. 1

Mr.Stoneham felt that Willie would have fewer chances of getting into trouble in the Caribbean than if he hung around cities in the States.

Puerto Rican sports columnists, while sympathetic to the American press's concerns about Willie's physical well-being, felt that the American press was overreacting and attempted to assuage those concerns by assuring them that his tenure here would be comparable to his accustomed standard of living in the States. They stated, furthermore, that it was a privilege and an honor that Willie had chosen Puerto Rico over the other members of the Caribbean Baseball Confederation (Cuba, Panama, and Venezuela) to show off his talents. 2 Willie himself was quoted as saying that he'd only be playing three to four times a week, which would leave plenty of time for fishing. This may have been a rationalization on his part or a tactic for generating support for his decision to play winter ball.

Following a six-and-a-half-hour flight from New York...

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