Opinion

The communist vs. the center fielder

The Lower East Side has a block named for a congressman who was a paid agent of Stalin’s secret police. Meanwhile, the city is considering naming a street after one of New York’s greatest ballplayers.

Guess which is attracting controversy.

It’s not the section of Pitt Street named for Sam Dickstein, the creator of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. From that perch, Dickstein pursued those he considered Nazi sympathizers (not all were), as well as anti-Stalin communists. Secret files that came to light after the collapse of the Soviet Union show that while in Congress, Dickstein was in the pay of the NKVD, forerunner of the KGB.

But while Dickstein’s street elicits only yawns, there’s a real dispute over the effort to name one for Willie Mays. One councilman proposes a Willie Mays Drive near the long-demolished Polo Grounds, where the Say Hey Kid once roamed center field. But another, backed by Mays’ son, wants a Willie Mays Place closer to where the Giant (and later Met) actually lived.

There’s a simple solution. Keep Samuel Dickstein Plaza — but add a nice hammer and sickle so passers-by know what he stood for. And give Willie Mays both streets. If a congressman on Stalin’s payroll can have one, surely a Hall of Famer who played for two New York teams deserves two.