Opinion | So long to Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid -

Regarding George F. Will’s June 20 op-ed, “The Unnatural”:

A piece of me died when I learned Willie Mays had passed. Yes, he was gifted with the ability to hit, slug, field, run and throw.

But this combination of physical assets was not Mays’s most valuable or endearing asset. Rather, he rarely complained about anything and took time to play stickball with and sign autographs for his adoring fans. Most importantly, he almost always had a broad smile on his face. He was such a joyful presence that one imagines he would have played baseball without receiving a salary. That is what made this athlete into a role model for people like me who grew up in the 1950s and ’60s.

But hope is not lost. Other great athletes with physical assets have become role models doing exactly as Mays. For years, I have referred to Earvin “Magic” Johnson as the Willie Mays of basketball. For once, there was joy in Mudville, because although Mays occasionally struck out at the plate, he always hit grand slams in the game of life.

Bruce N. Shulman, Silver Spring

Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Mays inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our national pastime.

Just after his career had started ascending, Mays served his country in the U.S. Army from 1952 to 1953. As the 1954 National League most valuable player, he led the Giants to victory in the World Series, in which he made one of the most memorable plays ever with “The Catch” in deep center field of the Polo Grounds. In addition to the awards Mays collected during his playing career, Major League Baseball selected him as one of the greatest living players in 2015, and he was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom later that year.

And yet his incredible achievements and statistics do not begin to describe the awe that came with watching Mays dominate the game in every way imaginable. We will never forget this true Giant on and off the field. I extend my deepest condolences to Mays’s family, his friends across the game of baseball, Giants fans everywhere and his countless admirers across the world.

Paul Bacon, Hallandale Beach, Fla.

George F. Will was quite right to cite Mickey Mantle of the Yankees as a worthy rival to the late Willie Mays of the Giants. But he neglected to mention the third great who patrolled center field in New York in those days: Duke Snider of the Dodgers. We who grew up around Ebbets Field knew that the Duke was right up there with the two M’s.

C. Fred Bergsten, Norfolk

Scapegoat or scapegrace?

Regarding Sally Jenkins’s June 18 Sports column, “DeChambeau is a big phony. And nothing like Stewart.”:

Sally Jenkins’s column about the latest winner of the U.S. Open was certainly a good read. But to me, her decision to single out Bryson DeChambeau as a “phony” in her scathing repudiation of Saudi sportswashing did little more than serve to deepen a societal divide that has already swallowed golf and most other sports. Though lessons of fair play and sportsmanship are still taught in the schoolyard, the guiding light of professional sports has become money, not morality.

To attempt to shame a professional athlete for taking money from the highest payer, as long as the rules of the game are followed, is misdirected at best. It’s like ineffectually swatting at the tail of a hound while his fangs are gnawing deep into your already-shredded leg.

Mr. DeChambeau has been deservedly rewarded and celebrated for winning a second U.S. Open. He triumphed over more than 150 other top golfers, all playing on the same course, for the same prize, under the same rules. Of course he idolizes his fellow Southern Methodist University alumnus, Payne Stewart, who brightened up the course with his clothing. Mr. DeChambeau has loved golf since he was young and pursues it with a passion. That Mr. DeChambeau enthusiastically engages the excitement of the fans feels refreshing, and a lot less narcissistic than legendary tennis player John McEnroe’s tendency to yell at umpires about line calls.

Now under a media microscope, it’s evident his maturity is not a match for his moxie. At 30, he’s an admirable player — one who has finished in the top six in all three majors tournaments in which he has played this year — but still a work in progress as an admirable person.

But that is separate from the fact that a tyrannical monarch has never been held to account for the brutal and inhumane murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, who was one of Ms. Jenkins’s colleagues at The Post. This ugly fact should continue to make headlines.

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Saudi Arabia’s attempt to launder its reputation through huge investments in sports is just one part of today’s sporting world that’s hard to make sense of, be it Rory McIlroy’s tendency to come up agonizingly short; the rude bros hollering “U.S.A., U.S.A.” after the Northern Irish golfer’s 3-putt; or the sight of golf commentators nudging fans into placing bets on FanDuel. Sadly, calling Bryson DeChambeau a world-class phony doesn’t make any of this better, or more comprehensible.

Bob Ruprecht, Roswell, Ga.

I applaud Sally Jenkins for her thorough deconstruction of Bryson DeChambeau’s character. It is obvious that Mr. DeChambeau values riches over basic moral principles. While watching the final round of the U.S. Open on TV, it was disturbing to hear the crowd cheer on this unethical money-grabber by chanting “U.S.A., U.S.A.” Mr. DeChambeau needed only to indulge the audience with a display of showmanship, and apparently any misgivings regarding his defense of a government that financed terrorism and violates basic human rights were forgotten. The behavior of those dupes sullied the reputation of the U.S. Open, a venerable tournament that next year will be played for the 125th time.

Jerry Bradley, Springfield, Va.

The best medicine

Regarding Jerry Brewer’s June 9 Sports column, “The fiercest fight in sports,” and The Post’s June 13 Letters to the Editor:

As a father, physician and athlete myself, I tremendously appreciated Mr. Brewer’s article. Besides the respectful and nuanced discussion, the article centered the experience of the trans athlete and told Sadie Schreiner’s story. Too often, public figures use people who are different as talking points, erasing their uniqueness and struggles in the process.

The current avalanche of about 600 pieces of anti-transgender legislation in our country is the intentional capstone of a decades-long, coordinated effort to oppress and exclude. It was wrong when it was done to gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans, and it’s still wrong now.

The most common conditions I treat as a primary-care doctor are all related to being sedentary, lacking a good social support network or both. Sports and exercise are some of the best treatments I can prescribe. Being active and having a supportive environment of belonging are literally medicine for human beings. Intentionally attacking and excluding a very small group of people who already face extremely disproportionate health and safety challenges is obviously unhealthy for them, but such cruelty is also poisonous to the soul of our nation.

Besides these concerns, local communities that actually know the children involved should be making these decisions, not state government officials with overtly stated agendas of exclusion. Common-sense policies to ensure no unearned hormonal advantage already exist in many places, informed by medical and policy experts as well as the parents who see their children every single day. What child (or even adult) would change their body and submit themselves to scrutiny, and even outright hate, to win a sports trophy? This is about liberty and authenticity much more than it will ever be about sports.

I don’t want to spend the rest of my career writing more and more prescriptions for insulin, Ozempic, blood-pressure medications and antidepressants; I would always rather prescribe sports if given the choice. Whether on the sports field, in the medical office or in the civic spaces we share with our fellow Americans, everyone is diminished when suspicion and anger win.

Alex Dworak, Ralston, Neb.

Sally Jenkins’s June 16 Sports column, “Athletes, you don’t want to be college employees,” made thoughtful and convincing argument for the National Labor Relations Board to stay out of the athletes-as-employees imbroglio.

But Ms. Jenkins omitted perhaps the most problematic legal issue: The NLRB has no jurisdiction to rule on labor matters involving public universities. Its jurisdiction is limited to the private sector. So Arch Manning and the University of Texas are beyond the reach of the NLRB, while the quarterback at Amherst College is subject to the overreach of the myopic agency. Longhorns, Buckeyes, Badgers and Nittany Lions are safe. Not so for the programs at Duke University, Northwestern University and the Ivies, which could be dragged into the collective-bargaining morass for a “workforce” that may turn over substantially every year. How is that discrepancy in jurisdiction and experience likely to work out for college athletics, and for college athletes?

Edward Levin, Washington

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