Dr. Kremchek Recalls His Two Day Visit with Late Baseball Great Willie Mays
June 19, 2024
When Beacon co-founder Dr. Tim Kremchek was growing up in Boston, his two favorite big league baseball players were Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox and New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays.
“Yaz”, as Yastrzemski was known, was the hometown favorite. But why Mays, who played in a different city and on another team?
“To me,” recalled Dr. Kremchek, a Cincinnati Reds team physician who has cared for Major League Baseball players for most of his career, “Willie Mays was the greatest player who ever lived. I hung out with a lot of great professional players over the years. But Willie Mays was the best, and I always wanted to meet him.”
Dr. Kremchek’s dream came true when, in 2009, he spent two days with Mays, a Hall of Famer who passed away June 18 at the age of 93.
It was actually Dr. Kremchek’s wife, Hilary, who arranged for the two to meet. She contacted former Reds manager Dusty Baker. Baker had played for and managed the San Francisco Giants and got to know Mays through his long affiliation with the team.
“Hilary knew how much I wanted to meet Willie Mays and spend some time with him,” Dr. Kremchek said. “Dusty connected Willie Mays and Hilary, so over a period of three months, she kept calling Willie’s cell phone to make it happen.”
Dr. Kremchek and Hilary spent two days with Mays in San Francisco during the ’09 season. On the first day, they spent about 90 minutes together in the parking lot of the Giants ballpark.
“We just hung out before the game. It was like we were tailgating,” Dr. Kremchek said.
The next day, Mays invited the Kremchek’s to watch the Giants from his private box.
“A biographer was with him that day, so he was telling many stories,” Dr. Kremchek said. “It was amazing. Spending two days with one of the game’s true greats, a player I idolized while growing up and always respected, was one of the great highlights of my entire career.”
Kremchek remembers stories Mays told about members of the Reds.
During part of the 1960s, African American players were segregated from white players while in Cincinnati to play the Reds and had to stay in different hotels.
Pete Rose and Willy Mays exchange lineup cards before the last game at Crosley Field.
“Willie said the Pete Rose would come to the black players’ hotel and just hang out with them,” Dr. Kremchek said. “Pete would play stickball with Willie, go out to dinner and discuss baseball. Willie said he never forgot that about Pete.”
Mays was a fierce base runner who was known to hook slide catchers when coming into home plate.
Pete Rose and Willy Mays exchange lineup cards before the last game at Crosley Field.
“Willie would come in and try to hook the catcher’s legs so he couldn’t catch the ball,” Dr. Kremchek said. “But he said that didn’t work with two Reds’ catchers, Johnny Edwards and Johnny Bench. Willie said both had legs like tree trunks that he could not spin around.”
During the 1968 All-Star game, Mays also told a young Bench that he would eventually become the best catcher in baseball.
And Mays once helped Reds second baseman Joe Morgan, who at the time was with the Astros, out of a slump by sitting in centerfield during a game and picking up signs from the catcher. He then signaled to Morgan what pitch was coming next.
“Joe Morgan got three hits that day, and the slump was over,” Dr. Kremchek said. “That’s the kind of guy he was; whenever young players came to him for advice, no matter what team they played on, he tried to help.”