Willie Mays and Ruben Gomez
were not only teammates on the New York Giants from 1954-58, but were
teammates on arguably the greatest winter team ever assembled, the
1954-55 Santurce Crabbers. Both were integral players on a team that
would run away with the 1955 Carribbean Series championship. Mays
anchored an outfield which included Roberto Clemente and Bob Thurman.
Gomez chiefed a staff which included "Sad" Sam Jones, Luis Arroyo and
Bill Greason. With their infield including George Crowe, Ron Samford,
Don Zimmer and Bus Clarkson, many experts have said that this team could
hang with any of the great teams in baseball history.
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Willie Mays and Ruben Gomez in Santurce |
As wonderful as the team played, things were not harmonious between two
of it's biggest stars, Gomez and Mays. Before a January exhibition
game. Gomez and Mays engaged in a scuffle over a turn in batting
practice. According to an
Associated Press report,
Santurce club president Pedrin Zorilla described the events as followed.
"Gomez started kidding Roberto Clemente, his teammates who was having his
swings," Zorillia recalled. "Gomez said he wanted to get in a couple of swings but batting
practice pitcher Milton Ralat said Clemente wasn't through yet. Gomez
still kidding, sat on home plate. Mays was behind the cage, watching the
horseplay, and stepped out to ask Ralat to pitch to him while the other
two decided their argument. ... Finally, Ralat threw some slow ones to
Mays. He hit one directly at Ralat, knocking off his glove. Ralat got
mad and said something like, 'What are you trying to do, kill me?'
"That led to arguing between Ralat and Mays and finally got to blows.
Gomez tried to intervene to halt it. Mays apparently mistook Gomez'
intentions and gave him a shove. Gomez, unexpecting it, went down."
Many other reports have Gomez going down as a result of one of Mays
punches. Damage control quickly ensued and the two squashed their beef. The
Associated Press reported that Gomez said, "There's nothing to it. We both consider the case closed and are good friends."
Mays went on to
deny the fight.
"We want to make clear there was no fight and you can say
without reservation that there is no difficulty between Gomez and
myself."
Days after the incident, the
Victoria Advocate reported that Mays left the Santurce team as a result of the fight. Mays told the
International News Service
that he was leaving Puerto Rico because, "it was just too much." He
cited the 154 games he played with the Giants and the additional 62
games with Santurce as, "taking too much" and "not being fair to the
Giants."
Mays left Puerto Rico and returned two weeks later for the playoffs.
Mays went hitless in his first 13 at-bats in the series, until he hit a
two-out, two-run walk-off homer in the 11th inning of Game Six. He then
went 11-for-13 in the next three games to finish with a .462 average
(12-for-26) and leading the series in RBIs.