Mets retire Willie Mays' No. 24 during Old Timers' Day

 For 50 years, the promise hung hollow, unfulfilled, leading many to believe the situation would never change. As the story goes, when original Mets owner Joan Payson traded for Willie Mays in the twilight of his career in 1972, she promised him he would be the last Mets player to wear No. 24. Acquiring Mays was important to Payson, who had built the Mets into the hollow space vacated by the Giants -- the team for which Mays would always be best-known. Bringing him back to New York meant bringing him home.

Three years later, Payson died. Mays had already retired following two unspectacular seasons with the Mets, and the franchise was entering a decades-long period of either ignoring its history or, in some cases, outright spurning it. Payson’s promise went largely forgotten. Three other Mets players wore No. 24, including Robinson Canó as recently as this season. A new generation of Mets fans began populating Shea Stadium and Citi Field, never having seen Mays play and feeling ambivalent about the idea of his number retirement.

For all those reasons, it seemed a dead issue until Saturday, when the Mets made a surprise announcement during Old-Timers’ Day that they were retiring Mays’ number. Because the 91-year-old Mays was recovering from a hip replacement, his son Michael traveled to Queens to represent him. A sold-out crowd received the news with an ovation. In a statement, Mays wrote: “I want to thank Steve and Alex Cohen for making this day possible and embracing Mets history.”

“Ms. Payson and my dad had such an amazing relationship,” Michael Mays added. “Her promises to him were important. So to come to fruition like this, something undone is done.”

In his two seasons with the Mets, Mays played a small role, but an impactful one. He hit his 660th and final home run with the franchise and delivered multiple RBI singles during the 1973 postseason, including one in National League Championship Series Game 5 and another in World Series Game 2. The Mets won both.

Cleon Jones, a teammate during Mays’ two years in Flushing, described the more intangible inspiration the Hall of Famer provided -- frequently taking the field despite badly swollen knees, for instance, or sprinting in from center field to back up even the most routine of plays.

“No disrespect to Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, Hank Aaron, Clemente -- no disrespect,” Jones said, "but nobody could do all the things that Willie could do to win a game.”

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