Willie Mays To avoid housing discrimination in San Francisco, they purchased a 15-room house in a New York City suburb, and remained anonymous due to rumors about their deteriorating marriage.
According to James Hirsch’s biography of Mays, when the New York Giants moved to the Bay Area in 1957, the buyers were reluctant to sell to him, despite Mays’ superstar fame, because “the owners would lose a lot of money if black people moved in,” Mays said in an interview.
“Below in Alabama According to Hirsch, Mays said in an interview, “Where we come from, you know your place. But over here, it’s a lot more disguised. They smile in your face and deceive you.”
The racist housing controversy made national headlines, which he wanted to avoid. He bought a castle-like home 3,000 miles away in New Rochelle, New York, for $75,000 from Samuel and Pauline Zaretsky in 1960, according to a document obtained by Fox News Digital.
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Hall of Famer Willie Mays takes off his hat during introductions for Game 1 of the World Series between the Giants and Detroit Tigers on Oct. 24, 2012, in San Francisco. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)
New Rochelle, also known as the “Queen City of the Sound”, is located approximately 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan and is New York State’s seventh most populous city.
Mays and his first wife, Marguerite, were among the first black families to settle in the affluent, secluded area of the city’s North End.
The headline in the New York Times on May 28, 1960 was, “Willie Mays Buys Home in Westchester; Neighbors in New Rochelle Welcome Negro Family to $75,000 Stone House.”
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He mostly lived alone and spent very little time in the city, city historian Barbara Davis told Fox News Digital.
Mays traveled from coast to coast between his rental home san francisco and his New Rochelle mansion, which is estimated to be worth about $2 million today.
Willie Mays purchased this home in New Rochelle in 1960 after he encountered racist housing practices in San Francisco following the Giants’ relocation from the Big Apple to the Bay Area. (New Rochelle Public Library)
In May 1960, the New York Times ran a headline that Willie Mays had bought a home in a New York City suburb. (New York Times Archives)
Mays is honored on the city’s famous walkway outside the public library along with other baseball players such as Mariano Rivera and Lou Gehrig, and cultural icon Ruby Dee.
His plaque read, “New Rochelle can be proud to claim an association with a part of this baseball history, as Willie Mays, the ‘Say Hey Kid,’ lived in the 15-room Normandy-style building at 90 Croft Terrace in the early 1960s.”
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The plaque includes a brief description of his childhood spent in Alabama, statistics about one of the greatest players of all time, and of course a reference to “The Catch,” the iconic image of Mays running toward center field to catch a ball flying directly over his head in the 1954 World Series.
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Willie Mays of the New York Giants steps back to catch a ball hit by Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians during the World Series at the Polo Grounds in New York on September 29, 1954. (Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)
READ: Documents obtained by Fox News Digital
Like Mays’ alleged remarks about “hidden” racism in San Francisco, the grand home also hid the turbulent times of Mays’ first marriage, according to Hirsch’s biography.
About a year or two before the Mays family moved to New Rochelle, Marguerite downplayed rumors of a crumbling marriage.
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They had a very public separation, which included allegations of Mays’ ex-wife’s extravagant habits. Their seven-year marriage, which lasted from 1956 to 1963, ended in divorce.
Their animosity toward one another is detailed in the reporter’s biography – titled “Willie Mays. The Life. The Legend”, which also included instances where the Mayses slept at opposite ends of the house.
Walk of Honor plaque for Willie Mays in New Rochelle, New York, Walk of Fame. (City of New Rochelle)
Willie Mays visits PS 46 in Harlem on January 21, 2011 in New York City, which is next to the former Polo Grounds where the New York Giants played before moving to San Francisco in 1958. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)
Mays remarried to Mae Louise Allen. They remained together until his death in April 2013 at age 74, and Marguerite died in July 2010 at age 84 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
As far as his playing days go, Mays’ career statistics include 3,283 hits, 660 home runs, a career .301 batting average, 1,909 RBIs, and 339 stolen bases.
He still holds the MLB record for most putouts by an outfielder with 7,095. In fact, he is the only outfielder to record more than 7,000 career putouts.
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He played in the Negro Leagues for the Birmingham Black Barons from 1948-1950, for the New York Giants from 1951-1957 (with a two-year hiatus in ’52 and ’53 when he served in the U.S. Army), for the San Francisco Giants from 1958-1972, and for the New York Mets from 1972-1973.
He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, and was inducted into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2014. President Barack Obama awarded Mays the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.
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