Willie Mays, a legendary star in major-league baseball who died Tuesday at age 93, once did something only 18 men have done in MLB history: Hit four homers in one game. He did it at Milwaukee County Stadium.
He hit another home run at the same venue, by then the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, in 1975, two years after he retired. That was in the Old Timers Game, when a 44-year-old Mays went deep as part of the festivities in Milwaukee.
Mays was just a few days shy of his 30th birthday April 30, 1961, and he hadn’t started the season on fire with just two homers and six RBI in the season’s first 15 games for the San Francisco Giants. But on that day, Mays tagged the Milwaukee Braves for four homers and eight RBI in a 14-4 shellacking. Mays went on to hit 40 homers that season.
All told, San Francisco hit eight home runs in the game, tying the major-League record, and Hank Aaron hit two for the Braves, bringing the overall total of long balls to 10. Jose Pagan of San Francisco also hit two – the first two of his career. He entered the game with an .056 batting average.
Mays hit the first two against Braves standout Lew Burdette, then socked No. 3 against reliever Seth Morehead. In the eighth inning against Don McMahon, he clobbered his fourth, and he was left on deck to end the game, leaving him just short of a chance at a fifth home run. He was retired only once on a line drive to center.
Mays endured a bout of food poisoning the night before and initially asked manager Alvin Dark to be taken out of the lineup but decided to play after a round of batting practice. He’d needed the trainer to visit his room at 3 a.m. because the pain was so bad. Photographers captured Mays eating spare ribs in the clubhouse after the game, the first solid food he’d had since the stomach ache began.
At the time, he was the ninth player in MLB history to hit four home runs in a game and the first since Milwaukee’s Joe Adcock, who took the host Brooklyn Dodgers deep four times in 1954. That list is up to 18 players now, including Shawn Green of the Dodgers in 2002 at then-Miller Park against the Brewers and ex-Brewers infielder Scooter Gennett playing for the Reds in 2017.
In 1975, Mays had another uplifting moment at County Stadium. Playing as part of all-star weekend in the Old Timers game, Mays hit a three-run home run in the first inning, singled and made a great running catch. The moment found National League manager Leo Durocher musing afterward about another all-star game in Milwaukee.
“When they talk about that 1955 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, they always talk about the home run (Stan) Musial hit in the 12th inning to win it,” Durocher said. “But as far as I’m concerned, Mays should get just as much credit. Mays saved the game. Ted Williams hit a ball – well, it had home run written all over it, and Mays made this running, leaping catch. The kind only Willie Mays could make. He’s just the best baseball player I’ve ever seen.”
The 1975 All-Star Game was perhaps better known for the final appearance of Hank Aaron, in his first year back with the Brewers and in his 24th and final all-star game, tying Mays and Musial for most appearances.
