Remembering legendary baseball player Willie Mays

It was fun to watch Willie Mays play baseball. So much talent, remarkable skill and joy. He had power, he could hit home runs, but he also had amazing speed. He was like an antelope. And could he ever catch here? Famously over the shoulder at a full Sprint. People talk about the catch, and I don't understand why because I did many things other than just, you know, catch a ball. Mays was from Alabama, where he played as a teenager in the Negro League. Four years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, Mays joined the Major League Giants in 1951. Years later, Mays moved W to San Francisco with the Giants, racking up astounding statistics. 660 home runs, 12 Golden Gloves, 24 All Star games. He was a one hell of an athlete, a great ball player, great human being. Fergie Jenkins, the first Canadian inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame, New maze as a competitor and an All Star team mate. He was always a guy that had a lot of 1 liners, smiled all the time talking about the different team mates he played with and against. But he was, he was kind of the life of the party in the clubhouse. Still, being a black player in the 50s and 60s was not easy. The abuse was so heavy, so venomous, and it was time that he had to decide. And he looked at me and said I didn't know if I wanted to keep doing it. Never overtly political, May's example of excellence, of humanity, became a catalyst for change. It's because of giants like Willie that someone like me could even think about running for president. A life of inspiration on the baseball field and so far beyond. Lindsay Duncombe, CBC News, Vancouver.