Baseball great Willie Mays, better known as the “Say Hey” kid, has agreed to cooperate with author Jim Hirsch on a biography that snagged an estimated advance of $1.5 million from publishing house Scribner.
Though specific terms of the deal were not disclosed, Scribner beat out Random House’s Ballantine imprint and Penguin Press, which published Alan Greenspan’s memoir “The Age of Turbulence.”
For his cooperation with Hirsch’s book, Mays’ Say Hey Foundation will get an undisclosed contribution.
Hirsch insisted the payment will not taint the writing process.
“Willie has agreed to cooperate to give me access, but the conclusions are all my own,” he said. “My books don’t pull punches. If I were just to write a valentine, nobody would believe it.”
Mays was in the on-deck circle when New York Giants teammate Bobby Thompson hit the “shot heard around the world” that sent the Brooklyn Dodgers down to defeat in a three-game playoff.
He went with the Giants to San Francisco, but finished out his final two years back in New York with the Mets.
He was instrumental in calming angry fans who went after Cincinnati Reds outfielder Pete Rose in the 1973 National League Championship Series after the brawl with Mets shortstop Bud Harrelson.
He slammed 660 career home runs and won 12 Gold Gloves during his career.