Willie Mays’s son Michael is trying to block the sale of a handful of his father’s possessions in an auction scheduled for next month.
The items are being sold by the Say Hey Foundation, a charity Willie Mays started in 2000, in an auction run by Hunt Auctions. Willie Mays died last summer at the age of 93.
“His wishes to us were always relayed that he intended these things to go to his foundation and some of them were donated to his foundation years ago,” David Hunt, the president of Hunt Auctions, said to Front Office Sports. “But most importantly he just wanted these pieces to go back to his fans but also in turn do some great work to help young people have a better start than maybe he experienced.”
Michael Mays disputes that his father wanted certain items sold after he died.
“I know my father’s wishes,” he told AL.com.
The auction is set to take place on Sept. 27 in San Francisco and will feature collectibles such as Mays’ World Series rings, Gold Glove awards, and game-worn jerseys among other items.
“I don’t care what they do with bats and balls and Gold Gloves, that car and houses—have at it,” Mays said. It’s a handful of other unique items that Mays objects to the sale of.
Among them are the Presidential Medal of Freedom his father received from President Obama in 2015, honorary degrees from multiple universities such as Dartmouth and Yale, and a “Babe Ruth Sultan of Swat” crown from 1962. The now-defunct award honored the player with the most “slugging average,” which combined home runs and runs batted in.
Michael Mays believes those awards should either stay in the family or be donated to a museum or proper home. He told AL.com he would like to loan the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the Smithsonian in perpetuity and donate other items to the Giants, where his father played for more than 20 years.
“These specific items, I’ve respectfully asked: Can these items be kept in a trust so that they don’t wind up on a plastic surgeon’s desk in LA?” Mays said. “Can we do that? Or in a garage in Dubai? Can we do that?”
Hunt said not every item will be sold in September, including a replica of Mays’s Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Michael Mays does not sit on the foundation’s board and told the outlet that he tried to contact the Giants and Hunt about stopping the sale, to no avail. The Giants have no role in the auction as the Say Hey Foundation is separate from the organization.
When the auction was first announced in July, foundation chairman Jeffrey Bleich said the Hall of Famer had one comment to Hunt about the auction.
“Make this the best auction ever to help those kids,” Bleich told MLB.com
Bleich and Michael Mays did not respond to requests for comment.
This story has been updated with comment from Hunt Auctions.
