More of the Say-Hey! Kid

I remember reading that early in a game Willie Mays would swing badly at a certain pitch, making himself look bad so that later in the game when it mattered most the pitcher would remember this and then deliver the ball right where Willie was waiting for it. And over at MLB.com, via Tim McCarver we read this:

...getting ready to play the Giants in a regular-season series, Keane would tell his outfielders that unless it was the ninth inning of a close game, not to try to throw out Mays if he was on the bases and trying to score.“Johnny would say, ‘You’re not going to throw out the magic man,’” McCarver said, laughing. 

“Johnny would talk about how Willie would fool you into thinking you could get him at the plate, how he wanted you to try. But you wouldn’t. And all that would happen was that the guy who hit the ball would move up a base. Johnny was convinced that Willie would always run just hard enough to make it close.”

Due was a freaking genius.