Boomer & Gio remember Willie Mays, who was Boomer's dad's favorite player

The great Willie Mays passed away Tuesday at age 93, and as the Mets opened up their broadcast in Texas, Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez discussed it, with Keith getting emotional about what the ‘Say Hey Kid’ meant to him and baseball as ‘the greatest player I ever saw.’

Boomer Esiason was a young kid when Mays was in the twilight of his career, so he never saw Willie in his prime, per se, and Gio wasn’t born until 10 years after Mays retired – but you don’t need to have seen him first-hand to know the legend.

“There is a baseball fan of a certain age that Willie Mays was God to them, sort of like the Yankees fan of a certain age and Mickey Mantle,” Gio said. “Willie Mays was just one of those guys, and back then, as athletic as he was, the defense, the home runs, he did everything. He’s one of those guys that the second that you start playing baseball and learn about baseball, he's one of the first three people that you learn about.”

One of those former fans? Boomer’s dad.

“Willie was my dad’s favorite player; I was old enough to remember when he came back to the Mets and he was like a shell of himself, but nonetheless, my dad spoke unbelievably high of him,” Boomer said. “I got a chance to meet him twice, and he couldn't have been nicer, more gentlemanly. He signed couple baseballs for me, and was as sweet as they came.”

And even though Boomer only saw late Mays, yeah, he knows – and recognized game from an early age.

“When you go back and you look at his records, you’re like, ‘my God, this guy was a 24-time All-Star!’” he said. “This is the type of player that it's too bad this generation didn't get a chance to see him play. I remember the catch in the World Series against the Indians…but I actually had a model of that catch. Remember the old models you'd put together with the model glue and all that stuff? They made models out of that catch, and I had one of those in my bedroom for the longest time.”