Willie Mays is getting a new kind of tribute in 2027, and this one will be small enough to fit on a letter.
The United States Postal Service announced Monday that Mays will be honored with a commemorative stamp, making him the 50th figure selected for its Black Heritage series. The design, according to the Postal Service, uses two photos arranged in a style that recalls a vintage baseball card.
One image shows Mays in his New York Giants uniform. The other captures the play that may define him more than any other: Game 1 of the 1954 World Series against Cleveland, when he sprinted to the deep center field wall at the Polo Grounds and made the famous over-the-shoulder catch on Vic Wertz’s drive.
Mays then threw the ball back toward the infield, keeping the runners from moving beyond second and third. New York went on to win in 10 innings and later swept Cleveland for the title.
The stamp’s orange background is meant to reflect the color tied to Mays during his years with the New York and San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets. USPS art director Antonio Alcala created the design using photographs supplied by Getty Images.
Mays’ baseball résumé still reads like a giant’s: 3,293 hits, 660 home runs, 1,909 RBIs and a .301 batting average over 22 major league seasons. He won two National League Most Valuable Player Awards and 12 Gold Gloves, piling up the kind of all-around excellence that made him one of the game’s defining players.
His impact reached well beyond the box score. Mays became a lasting symbol of excellence during a time when Black athletes were still pushing back against racial discrimination, and his career helped reshape what people thought was possible in professional sports.
The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him in 1979, but his place in American sports history had already been secured long before that. The Postal Service has not announced when the stamp will be released, and the design is still subject to change. Still, the honor speaks for itself.
For Giants fans, No. 24 has always meant more than numbers. Soon, it will be traveling across the country on envelopes, carrying Willie Mays’ legacy to another generation.
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