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If I may, I'd like to reminisce a little bit about the 1954 Giant Ball Club, which everyone has asked me,
Leo, what has been your greatest thrill in the game today? And they all point, and they can with great pride, I do,
to the home run that Bobby Thompson hit in 51 in the playoff game that won the National League pennant for us.
That wasn't my greatest thrill, gentlemen. That was a shock. I didn't breathe for five minutes, I'm sure.
That was a shock. It happened so sudden, I didn't know what happened, really.
I think the greatest thrill I've ever had in the game was the 1954 season.
And if I may, I'd like to reminisce a little bit about it and tell you something about the players
and something about myself. Now, you've read hundreds of times in the newspapers,
I read it until I got sick of looking at it, that DeRosha is a genius.
He's the greatest manager in the game today. Oh, DeRosha's this. They've had it all over, all over the country,
how great DeRosha is. Let me tell you something, gentlemen. 16 managers, put them all together.
You can't separate them by a millionth of an inch. They all know the game just as well as the other fellow does.
One may play it a little different. One may hit and run when the other fellow would play by the book and bunt.
You may operate your club a little differently, but they all know the game.
And I've always said this, and I always will say it. If you don't have the players, gentlemen, you may just as well go home.
The players make the manager. Now, let me prove that point to you.
Robin Roberts, the finest pitcher we have in the game today. Throw aspirin tablets, gentlemen.
When he gets in trouble, just reaches down and pulls up his pants. And I want to tell you something.
He can fire. That ball just comes up there and it looks like it's going straight and it just gets up there and it just jumps.
He can fire and thread the eye of a needle. Oh, man, how he can pitch.
He's just the greatest pitcher you ever looked at. And I've sent Rhodes up to hit against Roberts.
And Roberts just wind up right, oh man, just wind up in a tough spot and fire that ball and Rhodes at swing and just miss it that far.
One, two, three, and he's out. And come back on the bench and he'll just put the bat down and I'm waiting for him to explode.
I know it's impossible for this fellow to sit down without saying something.
So he just mumbled to himself, I must be losing my sight. Must be going blind. Let that busher get you out.
This is just the greatest pitcher in the game now he's talking about.
Finally, he can't stand it any longer. He gets up right in front of the dugout and he hollers real loud.
He's done it. I've heard him do it a dozen times. Go warm up you busher. How do you ever get anybody out?
Roberts, you know, just looks at him and he's nuts. He looks like a thug, wears his hat on the side.
But believe me, gentlemen, you need one of them just like Rhodes on your ball club. You need a buffoon.
You need a fellow like that to take the tension off.
Now I'd like to say just a couple of words about Willie Mays, the center fielder.
Everybody said, gee, was, you know, DeRosha made Willie Mays. DeRosha did this.
Gentlemen, I have yet to tell Willie Mays one thing from the day he joined me and the day I left.
I have yet to tell him or show him one thing about baseball.
The man upstairs, the good Lord gave Willie Mays all the things that are necessary to become,
in my opinion, he's got a chance to become one of the finest players we've ever seen.
There's only five things you can do, gentlemen, to be great.
And that's hit and hit with power, run, field and throw. That's all you can do in baseball.
DiMaggio does all five of them. He did it like Walter off a duck's back and he was great.
Mr. Mays can do all five. Instinctively, he has something about him.
He does the right thing at the right time.
And in the first game of the World Series, when he made that catch,
when the ball was hit by words, I said immediately when the ball was hit,
if it stays in the park, you'll catch it.
I just saw Willie turn and when he turned and took the second look at it
and then just took right out. Now how he does it, I'll never know, gentlemen.
Why don't he run when the ball is coming down here? Why isn't Mays over here or over here?
He is never in the wrong place.
It's the hardest thing to do, to turn your back, completely turn your back on the ball
and take out and run for maybe 30 yards.
And then all of a sudden, like a ballet dancer, just bend back and catch the ball
coming down over your head.
Most players have to look, get a peek at it over their shoulder.
Mays doesn't. He runs back and like a ballet dancer, stops, catches the ball.
And when he made this catch in the first ball game,
there must have been a hundred or more newspaper men from all over the world in the clubhouse
and they said, Leo, wasn't that a great catch?
And I looked at him and I said, routine.
And they give me the big dog eye, you know, and I said, I'm on, I'm serious about it.
I've seen them make 20 catches better than that.
I said, he's right over there. Why don't you go ask him? Don't ask me.
So they troops over and they said, Willie, how do you compare that catch with others you made?
He just looked at him and said, I don't compare them. I catch them.