The Giants were regaining their dominance in New York: In 1962, Mays hit 49 home runs and the Giants won a three-game playoff series against the Dodgers but lost to the Yankees in seven games in the World Series.
Mays hit 52 home runs in 1965, joining Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ralph Kiner and Mantle as the only players at that time to hit 50 or more home runs in a season more than twice. On May 4, 1966, Mays surpassed the National League home run record of 511 set by former Giants outfielder and manager Mel Ott.
Approaching 40, Mays was still playing well, but he had changed.
“As Willie grew older, he became more withdrawn, more suspicious, more cautious, more vulnerable, and for good reason,” Leonard Koppett wrote in The Thinking Person’s Guide to Baseball (1967). “His life, both personal and professional, became more complicated, and he experienced more sorrow.” After marrying and adopting a child, Mays “went through a bitter divorce,” Koppett wrote.
On May 11, 1972, with Giants attendance declining, the team’s longtime owner, Horace Stoneham, wanted to give Mays long-term financial security and traded him to the Mets for minor league pitcher Charlie Williams.
Mays was in the final year of a two-year contract that paid him $165,000 per season (approximately $1.25 million in today’s dollars). When the deal was finalized, Mets president John Payson, a New York Giants stockholder and Mays fan, guaranteed him $50,000 per year for 10 years, in addition to his baseball salary. Mays planned to become a goodwill ambassador and part-time lecturer after his retirement.
