Willie Mays

Willie Mays died yesterday at age 93, another boyhood hero gone.  He's the reason I've been a Giants fan since the 1960's.  Such a great player and seemed to be a really nice person.
My dad wasn't really a baseball fan so I didn't really follow closely.  One day Mike and Tom's dad was pitching to them a probably a couple other kids.  They all wanted to be Musial, Mantle and such.  I didn't know any players so I asked him who's good and he said Willie Mays so that's who I pretended to be.  The rest is history as they say and I thank my lucky stars he didn't say Ernie Banks. 
Anyway I've been a Giants fan ever since that day almost 60 years ago.  I've made it through the numerous bad times and the great times as a Giant fan.  The worst time was the 94 player strike that turned me off on baseball for quite some time but I still followed the Giants, just not as closely.  Luckily St Louis got ride of that monstrosity of a stadium and built new Busch and I really wanted to see it and that got me back into baseball just in time to see the best time for me being a Giants fan.  The 3 in 5 championships were the highlight.
Anyway I knew it was going to happen soon but it still hurts to lose another part of you childhood.  Say Hey Willie.