Willie Mays could have been a Yankee. In the 13 months leading to his acquisition by the New York Giants on June 20, 1950, the Yankees received numerous tips about Mays, then a teenager who was considered the best player in the Negro leagues.

The story of how he got away is a window into a time when the Yankees resisted baseball integration with discriminatory policies that cost them the best talent available in the years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.

Although Mays is best remembered in New York for playing center field for the Giants, he actually played at the Polo Grounds first as a member of his hometown Birmingham Black Barons. He made his debut there in a doubleheader on May 29, 1949. Mays, 18, had just finished his junior year of high school. The Black Barons played the New York Cubans, who rented the Polo Grounds when the Giants were out of town.

That was the first time Giants officials saw Mays. Their scouts were astonished at his advanced skills. That was also the first time Yankees scouts chose to ignore Mays.