Fifty-two years ago this month, May 25 to be exact, Willie Mays charged into major league baseball with the New York Giants. Earlier in the 1951 season, Mays went on a rampage for the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association, batting an amazing .477 in 35 games. "No minor league player in a generation has created so great a stir as has Mays at Minneapolis," the Giants raved in a press release.
The anniversary of Mays' arrival in the majors is particularly noteworthy for a wiry, former Negro League all-star shortstop, Artie Wilson, now 82 and living in Portland, Oregon.
Artie is inextricably tied to the early years of Mays' Hall of Fame career. He was the player the Giants sent to the minors to make room on their roster for Willie. He played sandlot ball against Willie's father, Cat Mays, and in 1948, played alongside Willie on the Black Barons. And after breaking into Organized Baseball in 1949 with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League, Artie tried to persuade the Oaks to sign Willie.
Relaxing in the living room of a neat, wood-frame house on a pleasant, tree-lined street near downtown Portland, Artie recalled his efforts on Willie's behalf. "I was the instigator in the Black Barons getting Mays. I tried to get Oakland to buy Willie in 1949. Oakland couldn't sign him because he was in high school. But I could've signed him to come play on the same team with me in the Coat League."
Arriving in Oakland 31 games late into the 1949 season, Artie pitched his idea to Oaks Manager Charlie Dressen and the team's owner, C.L. (Brick) Laws. Artie told Dressen: "The kid's got it. He can play."
A teammate of Artie's on the Oaks was Jackie Jensen, a strong-armed outfielder who would go on to star with the Boston Red Sox. Billy Martin was another teammate. "You know how Jackie can throw the ball from the outfield," Artie said to Dressen. "Willie can out-throw Jackie. He can out-throw every player on the team. He's a better player. You keep him one year and you'll sell him for more money than anybody who ever played in the Coast League."
The Oaks didn't sign Willie in 1949. The following spring, Willie and Cat Mays huddled with Artie the night before he left his home in Birmingham, Alabama, for training camp. They wanted Artie to sign Willie so he could become his legal guardian and take him to Oakland. "I said, 'When I get to camp, I'll tell them.' I got to camp and told Dressen and Mr. Laws. They said, 'Okay, we're looking into it now.'"
Soon after the 1950 season started, Artie was walking into the clubhouse at Oakland's old Emeryville Stadium when he heard Laws holler: "I see where the Giants got our boy!"
"Who?" Artie asked.
"Mays!" Laws said.
Replaying the clubhouse scene, Artie chuckled. "Every time I'd see Mr. Laws after that, he would have a fit. 'I just let a million dollars slip through my hands,' he'd moan. 'You sure did!' I'd say."
What if Oakland had signed Willie? How would baseball history be different?
"He probably would have gone to the Yankees," Artie said without hesitation. "They had the money - more money than any of the other clubs."
The mere thought of Mays and Mickey Mantle in the same outfield is exciting. As it was, Mays joining the Giants was a significant event and helped set up baseball's most historic moment later in the 1951 season - Bobby Thomson's three-run homer ("The shot heard 'round the world," in baseball lore) that beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the deciding game of the playoffs to give the Giants the National League pennant.
When Mays became a Giant on May 25, the team had a 17-19 record and was in fifth place, 4 ½ games behind the league-leading Dodgers. After going hitless in his first 12 at bats, Willie went on to post numbers good enough to win rookie-of-the-year honors: 20 home runs, 68 runs batted in, and a .274 batting average. Perhaps Willie's greatest contribution, however, was his electrifying play in center field where he often made up for the defensive shortcomings of Thomson in left and Monte Irvin in right.
There was little doubt that Mays was ready for the majors when the Giants beckoned. The debate was over whom to send to the minors so Willie could be promoted. Clint Hartung, a weak-hitting outfielder with a glove made of steel? Allen Gettel or Jack Kramer, seldom-used pitchers? Rafael Noble, a back-up catcher? Bill Rigney, a good-field, no-hit infielder? Artie?
Organized baseball had only recently been integrated and few major-league teams had black players. The Giants had four blacks - Irvin, third baseman Hank Thompson, Noble and Wilson. This hardly went unnoticed by the Giants' white players.
During a lull in action of one spring training game, a white player, shortstop Alvin Dark, asked Thompson, "See who this infield is made up of?" Thompson was playing third, Dark was at shortstop, Wilson at second and Irvin at first. As Thompson surveyed the infield, a puzzled look crossed his face. "There's a bunch of us 'darks' out here," Alvin wisecracked.
Unfortunately, the comment was a sign of the times. The color of a player's skin was a topic of discussion on and off the field and was at the heart of a heated argument between Giants Manager Leo Durocher and Owner Horace Stoneham over who Mays would replace on the Giants' roster.
With the addition of Mays, the Giants could field a lineup with more blacks than whites. The potential controversy excited the fiery Durocher. Stoneham wanted to maintain the status quo by getting rid of Artie.
In the book, "The Miracle at Coogan's Bluff," author Thomas Kiernan gives the following account of the argument:
"Then you agree to drop Wilson?" Stoneham prodded Durocher.
"Like hell I agree," Leo snapped. "We keep Wilson to spell Stanky (second-baseman Eddie Stanky) and get rid of Hartung. Or Gettel. Or Kramer. They ain't doin' me no good."
"Rigney can spell Stanky."
"Wilson'll hit rings around Rigney."
Artie had made a big impression on Durocher in spring training. At one point, Durocher called Artie's play "terrific" and declared, "I don't see how I'm going to keep him out of the lineup. He can play second, shortstop, or third. He can play the outfield. And don't be surprised if one of these days you see him on first base. A fellow who can field and hit the way he can is going to take somebody's job, make no mistake about that."
A week into the regular season, Durocher predicted that Artie would eventually succeed Stanky as the Giants' regular second baseman.
In the Negro Leagues, Artie was called the Octopus because, as Irvin once explained, "It seemed as though he had eight arms." Said Piper Davis, player-manager of the Black Barons: "Artie was right at the top - him and Jackie Robinson. He was at the top all the way in hitting."
A left-handed batter with great speed, Artie had a knack for dunking the ball into left field despite defenses that bunched all three outfielders in shallow left, one of them usually positioned just inside the foul line. Artie's "dunk shots" inspired one Coast League team to nickname his Houdini after the famed escape artist.
In 1948, Artie led the Negro Leagues in hitting with a .402 average. In 1949 with Oakland, his first season in organized baseball, he batted .348 to lead all Coast League hitters. He hit .312 with a whopping 264 hits in 1950 with Oakland, prompting the Giants to give him a shot in the majors.
Artie hit well over .400 in spring training. Even though he only had four hits in 22 at bats for a paltry .182 average during the first five weeks of the season, he had been a valuable handyman, filling in for Stanky at second, Dark at shortstop and even playing fist base. Durocher argued vehemently with Stoneham. He wanted both Willie and Artie.
A few months shy of age 30, Artie was wise to the ways of major league teams. He knew that if Mays was coming, either he or Noble was going.
"Let me go," Artie pleaded with Durocher. "I'm a singles hitter and I've got to play every day to keep my timing."
Artie asked to return to Oakland in the Coast League where he made more money than he was earning with the Giants.
Reluctantly, Durocher agreed. "But I'll recall you," he assured Artie.
As it turned out, Artie never played in the major leagues again. He played two games for Ottawa in the International League before heading to Minneapolis where the fans were still smarting from the loss of Mays.
To soothe the fans, Stoneham placed an ad in the Minneapolis Tribune. It read:
"We feel that the Minneapolis fans, who have so enthusiastically supported the Minneapolis club, are entitled to an explanation for the player deal that on Friday transferred outfielder Willie Mays from the Millers to the New York Giants. We appreciate his worth to the Millers, but in all fairness, Mays himself must be a factor in these considerations. On the record of his performance since the American Association season started, Mays is entitled to his promotion and the chance to prove he can play major league baseball."
In 17 games at Minneapolis, Artie batted. 390. In his last game before returning to Oakland, he had four hits, including a triple and rare home run, stole a base, scored three times, and batted in four runs. One Minneapolis columnist wrote: "In one way of looking at it the withdrawal of Artie Wilson from the Millers was a rougher deal than the withdrawal of Willie Mays."
While Mays captivated the nation's baseball fans with his spectacular all-round play, Wilson dazzled fans in the Coast League with his slap-hitting and fancy fielding.
"Willie Mays - he played for the fans," said Piper Davis, Mays' manager with the Black Barons who also was a slick-fielding second baseman. "Artie played for the fans. When we'd go out to the field early before a game, the fans called out to us, 'Okay, Piper and Artie, put it on now. Let's have some fun.' We'd catch short-hops between our legs - stuff like that."
Artie finished the 1951 season in Oakland, dropping below the .300 mark (.255) for the first time in his career. He remained in the Coast League, playing for the Seattle Rainiers (1952-54 and most of 1956), the Portland Beavers (1955 and early 1956) and the Sacramento Solons (1957). Four times during that period he batted over .300.
In 1962, at the age of 41, Artie took a leave of absence from his job as a car salesman in Portland to help the injury-depleted Beavers. He played 25 games at second base and third base, batting .164.
"If Artie had been given the opportunity to play every day with the Giants or any other major-league team, there's no doubt in my mind that he would've been among the top ten hitters," said Chuck Stevens, a former St. Louis Brown who played against Artie in the Coast League.
Of course, Artie didn't get another chance. When Mays' major-league career began, Artie's came to an abrupt end.
Years later, Artie, a deeply religious man, was standing at the altar of the Allen Temple Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Portland. His slender body swayed gently as he sang along in a soft tenor voice with the rest of the all-black congregation:
Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry;
While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by.
To one white visitor, the words of the hymn seemed to hang in the air. In the context of Wilson's baseball career, the words are poignant. During the 1940's, major league teams passed him by because he is black. In the 1950's, he was passed by because of his age.
"I have no qualms over the way I was treated," Artie says today. "I was able to cope with the situation, able to get along with every player. I never had any problems with the opposing team. I respected people. And they respected me."
Perhaps that respect is best captured in this statement by Stevens: "Artie carried the banner well when it was important. The only guys who get credit [for integrating baseball] are the guys with big-league careers. But the Artie Wilsons were as important as the Jackie Robinsons. They handled themselves in a difficult time with great dignity."
Integration came too late for us to see Artie and many other Negro League stars at their best. Thank God, we saw the "Say Hey Kid" play!
» Gaylon H. White is a former sportswriter for the Denver Post, Arizona Republic and Oklahoma Journal. He now lives in Kingsport, TN.
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Copyright © 2003 by Gaylon H. White. Posted May 27, 2003.
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