title: 2020 United States census

text: During these trials, documents released in May 2019 showed that the late Thomas B. Hofeller, an architect of Republican gerrymandering, had found that adding the census question could help to gerrymander maps that "would be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites". Hofeller later wrote the DOJ letter which justified the policy by claiming it was needed to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Following this discovery, the United States House Committee on Oversight and Reform issued subpoenas for the Department of Justice to provide materials related to the census question and to question both Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross and United States Attorney General William Barr, seeking action to judge if they are in contempt. The Trump administration on June 12, 2019, asserted executive privilege over portions of the requested documents. As a result, the House committee subsequently voted along party lines to hold both Ross and Barr in contempt that day. The full House voted to hold Ross and Barr in contempt on July 17, 2019, in a 230–198 vote along party lines. Despite this passage, the measure will likely not have any effect on Ross and Barr unless the Justice Department takes legal actions against Ross or Barr.


title: 2020 United States census

text: A lawsuit, led by New York state's attorney general Barbara Underwood and joined by seventeen other states, fifteen cities and other civil rights groups, was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. During the discovery phase of the trial, new information came to light that Ross had had previous discussions with Steve Bannon before March 2018 with the intent to add the citizenship question, contradicting statements he had made to Congress in March. This led district judge Jesse M. Furman in September 2018 to ask that Ross clear a day in his schedule to give a deposition to the court related to the addition of the census question prior to the planned start of the trial in November.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The Trump administration filed a writ of "mandamus" to the United States Supreme Court, requesting that they postpone the trial, and also to defer any involvement with Ross until the start of the trial. The Supreme Court issued an order that allowed the trial "United States Census Bureau v. State of New York" to go forward, but agreed to postpone Ross's deposition until after the start of the trial. The Supreme Court also agreed to treat the writ of "mandamus" as a writ of petition, and granted "certiorari" to review the question raised by the government of whether a district court can request deposition of a high-ranking executive branch official on a matter related to a trial before evidence has been presented.


title: 2020 United States census

text: Judge Furman ruled in January 2019 that the addition of the citizenship question to the census was unlawful, saying "the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 censuseven if it did not violate the Constitution itselfwas unlawful for a multitude of independent reasons and must be set aside." The Justice Department filed a petition for writ of certiorari before judgment to have the case directly heard by the Supreme Court and bypass the normal appeal which would have been heard by the Second Circuit, given the pending deadline of June 2019 to publish the census forms. The Supreme Court accepted the petition related to Furman's ruling on February 15, 2019, a separate matter from the question of Ross's deposition, and the case's oral arguments were heard on April 23, 2019.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The Supreme Court issued its decision on June 27, 2019, rejecting the Trump administration's stated rationale for including the question. While the Court majority agreed that the question was allowable under the Enumeration Act, they also agreed with the ability of the District Court to ask Commerce for further explanation for the question under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). They also agreed that the answers Commerce had provided at the time appeared to be "contrived" and pretextual, leaving open the possibility that Commerce could offer a better rationale. The case was remanded back to the District Court, to allow Commerce to provide a better explanation for the rationale of the question to the District Court, who would deem if that was sufficient before allowing the question on the census. The question would be allowed on the census only if these steps can be completed before the self-imposed form printing deadline. On July 7, the DOJ announced that it was replacing its entire legal team dealing with that question, but on July 9, Furman rejected the DOJ action, saying reasons must be given for the withdrawal of each attorney and that the administration had been insisting for months the question needed to be settled by July 1.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has taken steps to introduce the Hofeller evidence into the New York case but it will not be heard until late 2019 after the census forms are to be published.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The second suit over the census question came in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California under Judge Richard Seeborg, raised by the state of California and several cities within it. In March 2019, Seeborg similarly found as Furman had in New York that the addition of the census question was unconstitutional and issued an injunction to block its use. The government appealed to the Ninth Circuit before the Supreme Court remanded the case.


title: 2020 United States census

text: A similar question related to the intent of the question was raised by several immigrants-rights groups in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The case was overseen by Judge George J. Hazel in the District of Maryland. Hazel had found for the pro-immigration groups in April 2019, ruling that the addition of an immigration question to the census was unconstitutional. The government issued its appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The new Hofeller evidence was presented to Hazel as the case was being heard on appeal during June 2019 at the Fourth Circuit. Hazel said the new evidence "raises a substantial issue". On June 25, 2019, the Fourth Circuit remanded the case back to Hazel's District Court with the newly provided evidence, and to review if the additional evidence showed discriminatory intent. Should Hazel find such intent, it would be possible for him to place an injunction on the addition of the census question during a new discovery phase, regardless of the Supreme Court decision in "Department of Commerce v. New York". This action would effectively render the question moot since the census forms would need to be published at this point without the citizenship question to meet the mailing deadlines.


title: 2020 United States census

text: President Trump, after the Supreme Court decision in "Department of Commerce" was announced, stated his intent to find a way to delay the census as long as possible so the judicial matter could be resolved. On July 2, 2019, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that the citizenship question would not be included in the census, and the Commerce Department began printing census forms without a citizenship question. However, the next day, Trump insisted his administration was "absolutely moving forward" with the citizenship question, and the Justice Department confirmed in court that it had been instructed to find a legal way to include it in the census.


title: 2020 United States census

text: In response to an order from Judge Hazel, the Justice Department affirmed on July 5, 2019, that it will be seeking a route to add the citizenship question to the census, though at the time did not know which route it would take. Hazel had ordered this response as, if the department was intending to add the question, he could begin determining a schedule in coordination with Judge Furman in the New York court for further proceedings and discovery in both the New York and the Maryland lawsuits. On July 7, the DOJ announced its intention to replace its entire legal team on the case, but Furman allowed the DOJ to dismiss only two of its eleven attorneys, writing in the July9 rejection that the DOJ had "provide[d] no reasons, let alone 'satisfactory reasons', for the substitution of counsel". Furman pointed out that the case had already run past the DOJ's own previously requested deadline of July1 and replacing counsel would cause further delays.


title: 2020 United States census

text: Separate from the events in the courts, Trump has said he also considered using an executive order to place the citizenship question on the census. However, on July 11 he issued Executive Order 13880 directing the Department of Commerce to obtain citizenship data from other federal agencies rather than via the census. He added that "we are not backing down in our effort to determine the citizenship status of the United States population" and that data from other federal agencies would be "far more accurate" than a census question. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said that although the DOJ had agreed with Ross's plan to include the question, "Today's executive order represents an alternative path to collecting the best citizenship data now available, which is vital for informed policymaking and numerous other reasons. Accordingly, the department will promptly inform the courts that the government will not include a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census." Besides federal agencies, the Department of Commerce is obtaining citizenship data from state records.


title: 2020 United States census

text: Joe Biden, on his first day of his presidency on January 20, 2021, issued an executive order that revoked both Trump's July 11 executive order and Trump's July 21 memo, as to have the census follow the standard practice of including the counts of undocumented immigrants within the final numbers. Other actions ordered by the Trump administration on the census, including a directive for the Census Bureau to use government records to produce block-level citizenship data, a March 2018 order by Ross for the Bureau to start compiling government records on citizenship, and a July 2019 regulatory filing regarding producing citizen voting age population data "that states may use in redistricting" have yet to be addressed.


title: 2020 United States census

text: While the census question was in litigation, the state of Alabama and one of its congressional representatives, Mo Brooks, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau in May 2018 in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, asserting that the framers of the Constitution never intended for illegal immigrants to be included in the census count or apportionment base. The state believed it would lose a congressional seat to other states that have had increased numbers of immigrants in the last decade. The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund sought to intervene on behalf of Latino voters, as well as the city of San Jose, California, and Santa Clara County, California, and King County, Washington, arguing that eliminating of illegal immigrants would affect federal funding for their cities and counties. The motion was granted by the end of 2018.


title: 2020 United States census

text: As the census question case continued, the Census Bureau spoke of other means to obtain immigration data, and Barr, referencing the Alabama suit, said that "for example, there is a current dispute over whether illegal aliens can be included for apportionment purposes. Depending on the resolution of that dispute, this data may be relevant to those considerations. We will be studying this issue." Spurred by Barr's comments that the government would not defend itself in the case, a coalition of fifteen states and other groups also moved to intervene, which was granted by September 2019.


title: 2020 United States census

text: On July 21, 2020, President Trump signed a memo to the Department of Commerce, "Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens from the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census" with instructions not to include illegal immigrants in the census totals for purposes of apportionment. The memo said the Constitution does not define which "persons" must be included in the apportionment base, and past censuses have excluded some legal immigrants in the country temporarily, justifying the change. Law and census experts said this was an invalid interpretation as past case law has supported inclusion of "whole persons" including illegal immigrants, and the ACLU immediately said they planned to file a lawsuit against the administration over the memo. Common Cause, the city of Atlanta, and other groups and individuals filed the first suit seeking an injunction to prevent the government from executing on the memo a week after it was signed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.


title: 2020 United States census

text: On September 10, 2020, a three-judge panel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York unanimously rejected the order, ruling that it was so obviously illegal a lawsuit challenging it was unnecessary. Eight days later, the Trump administration filed notice that it would appeal the decision directly to the Supreme Court, bypassing the circuit court appeals process. The Supreme Court accepted the petition on October 16, 2020, and scheduled expedited oral arguments in the case on November 30, 2020. The Court ruled in a "per curiam" decision on December 18, 2020, that the case was premature due to lack of standing and ripeness but did not rule on any of the constitutional challenges at the time. The decision vacated the District Court's ruling and remanded the case to the District Court to be dismissed.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The Trump administration sought to complete the census count earlier than originally scheduled. In September 2020, federal district court judge Lucy Koh issued a preliminary injunction against the plan to end counting on September 30 rather than the scheduled October 31, saying the Commerce Department "never articulated a satisfactory explanation". She also blocked a plan to deliver the count results to the White House by December 31, rather than the original April 2021 delivery date when Trump might be out of office. On the next business day, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the count would end October 5, as the administration appealed Koh's decision to the 9th circuit. Koh ordered the government to produce documents to show the Commerce Department's reasoning. The appeals court upheld Koh's ruling, and the Census Bureau announced on October2 that the count would continue until October 31. Also on October 2, Koh threatened to hold Ross in contempt for repeated violations of her order.


title: 2020 United States census

text: The 9th circuit decision was appealed to the Supreme Court. On October 13, in a 7–1 ruling, the court issued an unsigned order granting the request to end the count early. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the lone dissenter, saying that "meeting the deadline at the expense of the accuracy of the census is not a cost worth paying, especially when the Government has failed to show why it could not bear the lesser cost of expending more resources to meet the deadline or continuing its prior efforts to seek an extension from Congress." The count ultimately ended at 5:59a.m. Eastern Time on October 16, 2020.


title: 2020 United States census

text: As one of his first acts in office, President Joe Biden signed Executive Order 13986 on January 20, 2021, to discontinue citizenship tabulations at the city-block level using 2020 census data with administrative records. He also revoked a Trump directive that would have excluded those in the country illegally from the figures used for apportioning congressional seats among the states.


title: 2020 United States census

text: Researchers widely criticized the Census Bureau for intentionally making block-level data inaccurate by using differential privacy. In order to purportedly prevent identification of individuals' age, gender, race, household relationships, or homeownership, "disclosure avoidance noise" was added to the data, shifting individuals between blocks, towns, or other units. This can result in substantial discrepancies in minority populations and the sizes of small places. For example, Monowi, Nebraska, known for being the country's smallest incorporated municipality, was incorrectly reported to have two residents instead of one. Redistricting data would also be corrupted, making equal-size districts and majority-minority districts more difficult.


title: 2020 United States census

text: On March 10, 2022, the Census Bureau released estimates of total overcount and undercount by demographic characteristic. The results found that the total Hispanic population had likely been undercounted by 4.99%, the Black population by 3.3% and "Some other race" by 4.34%. Asians were estimated to have been overcounted by 2.62%, Non-Hispanic Whites by 1.64%, and Pacific Islanders by 1.28%. Native Americans were estimated to have been undercounted by 0.91%; however, those living on reservations were undercounted by 5.64%, while those living elsewhere were overcounted by 3.06%. Additional data released on May 19, 2022, found that six states (Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas) had significant undercounts and eight states (Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Utah) had significant overcounts of their populations.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: Pankaj Kapur (born 29 May 1954) is an Indian actor who has worked in Hindi theatre, television and films. He has appeared in several television serials and films. He is the recipient of several awards, including a Filmfare Award and three National Film Awards. His most acclaimed film roles to date have been that of Inspector P.K. in "Raakh" (1989), Dr. Dipankar Roy in "Ek Doctor Ki Maut" (1991) and Abba ji, (based on Shakespeare's King Duncan) in Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of "Macbeth"; "Maqbool" (2004).


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: In the 1980s, he became a household name through the TV series "Karamchand", a comedy television series in the detective genre. And in the millennium, "Office Office", a comic satire on prevalent corruption in India.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: Pankaj Kapur was born on 29 May 1954 in a Khatri family Ludhiana, Punjab. He completed his education in Punjab and developed a keen interest in theatre and acting while growing up. He then enrolled in the National School of Drama to pursue his interest.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: He married actress and dancer Neelima Azeem in 1979. They were settled in New Delhi where they had their only child Shahid Kapoor in 1981. The couple divorced in 1984.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: Pankaj Kapur went on to marry actress Supriya Pathak in 1988. They have one daughter Sanah Kapur and a son Ruhaan Kapur.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: After graduating from National School of Drama, he did theatre for the next four years, until he was offered a role in "Gandhi" by Richard Attenborough. Over the years, as a director, he has done over 74 plays and serials, including "Mohandas B.A.L.L.B.", "Wah Bhai Wah", "Sahabji Biwiji Ghulamji" and "Drishtanth", "Kanak Di Balli", "Albert's Bridge" and "Panchvan Savaar".


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: He made his film debut with Shyam Benegal's film "Arohan" (1982). Following that he played Mahatma Gandhi's second secretary, Pyarelal Nayyar, in the Richard Attenborough film "Gandhi" in 1982. Later he dubbed for Ben Kingsley in the Hindi version of the film.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: Thereafter he appeared in a string of art films that came under the parallel cinema category, with leading art films directors, starting with Shyam Benegal's "Mandi" (1983), Kundan Shah's comedy "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" again in 1983. This was followed by Saeed Akhtar Mirza satirical "Mohan Joshi Hazir Ho!" (1984), Mrinal Sen's "Khandhar" (1984), and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's suspense thriller "Khamosh" in 1985. He appeared in a number of art films, many of which went on to win National Film Awards.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: In 1986, he switched to television, with the role of Karamchand "jasoos"(detective) in the detective-comedy, "Karamchand", also starring Sushmita Mukherjee. Over the years he has been seen in numerous TV serials, including, "Kab Tak Pukaroon" (Doordarshan) "Zabaan Sambhaal Ke" (a remake of the English TV series, "Mind Your Language"), "Lifeline" with Vijaya Mehta, "Neem ka Ped" and finally comic interludes in "Philips Top 10".


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: Meanwhile, his tryst with art cinema continued, as he starred in films like "Chameli Ki Shaadi" (1986), "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla" (1986), and "Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin" (1987). In 1987, his comic side was visible again in the commercial action film "Jalwa", also starring Naseeruddin Shah.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: He starred in the classic Punjabi film "Marhi Da Diva" (1989). He featured in the 1992 Mani Ratnam film "Roja" directed. ("Roja" was made in Tamil and later dubbed in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Malayalam.)


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: His strongest performance in the early part of his career came from his lead role of struggling scientist in the film "Ek Doctor Ki Maut" (1991), for which he was awarded the 1991 National Film Award – Special Jury Award.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: In 2000 he returned to television with the serial "Office Office" a satirical take on the prevalent corruption in India.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: In 2003 he appeared in "Maqbool", Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Shakespeare's "Macbeth". His antagonistic performance as the short-statured, potbellied, shuffle-footed Abbaji in "Maqbool" got him the 2004 National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. Meanwhile, he released films like "The Blue Umbrella" (2005), "Dus" (2005) and "Halla Bol" (2007). In 2006, he started to be seen again on TV. In the TV series, "Naya Office Office", a sequel to his previous series "Office Office".


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: On 11 January 2013, the Vishal Bharadwaj-directed film "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola", starring Kapur was released.


title: Pankaj Kapur

text: In November 2019, Kapur made his literature debut with his novella "'Dopehri'," which he had written in 1992. Presently he appears in the television series named ‘Naya Office Office’ which itself is a sequel to the previous hit TV series ‘Office Office’.


title: Jack Nicholson filmography

text: Jack Nicholson is an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter who made his film debut in "The Cry Baby Killer" (1958). Nicholson is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation. He is also one of the most critically acclaimed: his 12 Academy Award nominations make him the most nominated male actor in the Academy's history. He is also a Kennedy Center Honoree and a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.


title: Jack Nicholson filmography

text: In the first decade of his acting career, Nicholson had several minor roles in film and television, only having significant parts in independent films. Nicholson's breakout role was in the countercultural "Easy Rider" (1969). Nicholson next appeared in "Five Easy Pieces" (1970). He then starred in the comedy-drama "Carnal Knowledge" (1971). His performance in "The Last Detail" (1973) garnered him the Cannes Best Actor Award. For his performance in the Roman Polanski-directed "Chinatown" (1974), he was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. He then portrayed Randle McMurphy in the Miloš Forman-directed "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975), which won Best Picture and garnered him the Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. In 1976, he starred in the film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon" (1941). Also that year, Nicholson costarred with Marlon Brando in western "The Missouri Breaks". In 1978, Nicholson directed and starred in another western, "Goin' South".


title: Jack Nicholson filmography

text: In 1980, Nicholson played Jack Torrance in Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining". For his portrayal of playwright Eugene O'Neill in "Reds" (1981), Nicholson was awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for his acting in "Terms of Endearment" (1983). He later returned in the 1996 sequel "The Evening Star". He collaborated with director John Huston in "Prizzi's Honor" (1985), for which Nicholson earned another Best Actor nomination from the Academy. His role as Francis Phelan in "Ironweed" (1987) garnered him yet another Oscar nomination for Best Actor. He then portrayed the Joker in the Tim Burton-directed "Batman" (1989). Nicholson subsequently directed and acted in "The Two Jakes" (1990), a sequel to "Chinatown". In 1992, he portrayed Jimmy Hoffa in the Danny DeVito-directed "Hoffa". That year Nicholson also appeared in the Rob Reiner-directed "A Few Good Men". He collaborated with Burton again on "Mars Attacks!" (1996). His next role in "As Good as It Gets" (1997) garnered him the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 2006, he starred alongside Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio in the Martin Scorsese-directed "The Departed". He starred opposite Morgan Freeman in the 2007 comedy "The Bucket List". His final film appearance was in "How Do You Know" (2010), after which he reportedly retired due to memory loss.


title: Willie Mays

text: Willie Howard Mays Jr. (born May 6, 1931), nicknamed "the Say Hey Kid" and "Buck", is a former center fielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Regarded as one of the greatest players ever, Mays ranks second behind only Babe Ruth on most all-time lists, including those of "The Sporting News" and ESPN. Mays played in the National League (NL) between 1951 and 1973 for the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. Mays is the oldest living member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League in 1948, playing with them until the Giants signed him once he graduated from high school in 1950, then won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1951 after hitting 20 home runs to help the Giants win their first pennant in 14 years. After spending most of the next two years in the United States Army during the Korean War, he was named the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1954 after winning the batting title with a .345 average and hitting 41 home runs. His over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series is one of the most famous baseball plays of all time. The Giants swept the heavily favored Cleveland Indians for the lone World Series triumph of his career, and the team's last title before relocating to San Francisco after the 1957 season.


title: Willie Mays

text: A 24-time All-Star, tying him for the second most in history, Mays became a perennial MVP candidate, finishing in the top six in the voting in eleven of the next twelve seasons. He led the NL in home runs four times and in slugging percentage five times while batting over .300 and posting 100 runs batted in (RBI) ten times each. In 1955 he made a run at the Triple Crown, leading the league with 51 home runs and finishing second in batting and RBI. He was the runner-up for the MVP in 1958 after hitting a career-high .347, and again in 1962 after leading the Giants to another World Series with 49 home runs and 141 RBI. By 1963, he was making over $100,000 a year, setting a record at the time with a $105,000 contract. He was again named the MVP in 1965 after hitting .317 with a league-leading 52 home runs, becoming the second NL player to hit 50 more than once and setting a franchise record that stood until Barry Bonds hit 73 in 2001. Mays was also at the forefront of a resurgence of speed as an offensive weapon in the 1950s, leading the league in stolen bases four times, triples three times and runs twice, with his 179 steals during the decade topping the major leagues; he was the first NL player to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases in the same season, and the first player in history to reach both 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases. He held the NL record for career home runs from 1966 until Henry Aaron passed him during the 1972 season, during which time he became the second player and the first right-handed hitter to hit 600 home runs. Mays also set standards for defensive brilliance, winning 12 consecutive Gold Glove Awards after their creation in 1957, still a record for outfielders; he led NL center fielders in double plays five times and assists three times. He ended his career with a return to New York after a mid-season trade to the New York Mets in 1972, retiring after the team's trip to the 1973 World Series. He served as a coach for the Mets for the rest of the decade, and later rejoined the Giants as a special assistant to the president and general manager.


title: Willie Mays

text: A classic example of a 5-tool player, Mays finished his career with a batting average of .302. Upon his retirement, he held the NL record for career runs scored (2,062), and ranked second in league history behind Stan Musial in games played (2,992), third in at bats (10,881), runs batted in (1,903), total bases (6,066), extra-base hits (1,323) and walks (1,464), fourth in hits (3,283), fifth in slugging percentage (.557), and eighth in doubles (523); his 140 triples ranked fourth among players active after 1945. He holds major league records for games as a center fielder (2,829), putouts as an outfielder (7,095) and extra-inning home runs (22), and ended his career behind only Ty Cobb in total games as an outfielder (2,842) and ranking seventh in assists (188) and third in double plays (59) in center field.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 in his first year of eligibility, and was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.


title: Willie Mays

text: Willie Howard Mays Jr. was born on May 6, 1931, in Westfield, Alabama, a primarily black company town near Fairfield. His father, Cat Mays, was a talented baseball player with the black team at the local iron plant. Annie Satterwhite, his mother, was a gifted high school basketball and track star. His parents never married but separated when Mays was three. His father raised him and two girls, Sarah and Ernestine. Sarah brought young Willie to an African Methodist Episcopal Church every Sunday. Cat Mays worked as a railway porter and later at the steel mills in Westfield.


title: Willie Mays

text: Cat exposed Willie to baseball at an early age, playing catch with him at five and allowing him to sit on the bench with his Birmingham Industrial League team at ten. His favorite baseball player growing up was Joe DiMaggio; other favorites were Ted Williams and Stan Musial. Mays played several sports at Fairfield Industrial High School. On the basketball team, he led players at all-black high schools in Jefferson County in scoring. Mays played quarterback, fullback and punter for the football team. Though he turned 18 in 1949, Mays did not graduate from Fairfield until 1950, which journalist Allen Barra calls "a minor mystery in Willie's life".


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays's professional baseball career began in 1948 when he played briefly during the summer with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos, a Negro minor league team. Later that year, Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League, managed by Piper Davis, a teammate of Mays' father on the industrial team. When Fairfield Industrial principal E. J. Oliver threatened to suspend Mays for playing professional ball, Davis and Mays's father worked out an agreement. Mays would only play home games for the Black Barons. In return, he could still play high school football. Mays helped Birmingham advance to the 1948 Negro World Series, which they lost 4–1 to the Homestead Grays. He hit .262 for the season and stood out because of his excellent fielding and base running.


title: Willie Mays

text: Several major league teams were interested in signing Mays, but they had to wait until he graduated from high school to offer him a contract. The Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Dodgers both scouted him, but New York Giants scout Eddie Montague was the one who signed him to a $4,000 contract. Mays spent the rest of 1950 with the Class B Trenton Giants of the Interstate League, batting .353. Promoted to the Class AAA Minneapolis Millers of the American Association in 1951, he batted .477 in 35 games.


title: Willie Mays

text: Playing excellent defense, Mays was called up by the Giants on May 24, 1951. Initially, Mays was reluctant to accept the promotion because he did not believe he was ready to face major league pitchers. Stunned, Giants manager Leo Durocher called Mays directly and said, "Quit costing the ball club money with long-distance phone calls and join the team."


title: Willie Mays

text: The Giants hoped Mays would help them defensively in center field, as well as offensively. The Polo Grounds featured an unusual horseshoe shape, with relatively short left field () and right field () lines but the deepest center field in baseball (). Mays appeared in his first major league game on May 25 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park, batting third. He had no hits in his first 12 at bats in the major leagues, but in his 13th on May 28, he hit a home run off Warren Spahn over the left-field roof of the Polo Grounds. Mays went hitless in his next 12 at bats, and Durocher dropped him to eighth in the batting order on June 2, suggesting that Mays stop trying to pull the ball and just make contact. Mays responded with four hits over his next two games on June 2 and 3. By the end of the month, he had pushed his batting average to over .300. He would bat close to .290 for the rest of the season. Although his .274 average, 68 RBI and 20 home runs (in 121 games) would rank among the lowest totals of his career, he still won the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award. On August 11, the Giants found themselves games back of the Dodgers in the NL pennant race; Brooklyn manager Charlie Dressen triumphantly predicted, "The Giants is dead." However, the Giants went 40–18 in the season's final 58 games, winning their last seven of the year to finish the regular season tied with the Dodgers. During the pennant race, Mays's fielding and strong throwing arm were instrumental in several important Giants' victories. Mays was in the on-deck circle on October 3 when Bobby Thomson hit a three-run homer to win the three-game NL tie-breaker series 2–1.


title: Willie Mays

text: The Giants met the New York Yankees and Mays's boyhood favorite DiMaggio in the 1951 World Series, which the Giants lost in six games. In Game 1, Mays, Hank Thompson, and Monte Irvin comprised the first all-African-American outfield in major league history. Mays hit poorly while the Giants lost the series 4–2. In Game 5 he hit a consequential fly ball, which DiMaggio and Yankee rookie Mickey Mantle pursued. As DiMaggio called Mantle off, the younger Yankee got his cleat stuck in an open drainpipe, suffering a knee injury that would affect him the rest of his career.


title: Willie Mays

text: Soon after the 1951 season ended, Mays learned the United States Army had drafted him to serve in the Korean War. Before he left to join the Army, Mays played the first few weeks of the 1952 season with the Giants. He batted .236 with four home runs in 34 games. He surprised sportswriters like Red Smith when he drew cheers from fans of the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Giants' archrivals, in his last game before reporting.


title: Willie Mays

text: After his induction into the Army on May 29, Mays reported to Fort Eustis in Virginia, where he spent much of his time playing on military baseball teams with other major leaguers. It was at Fort Eustis that Mays learned the basket catch from fellow Fort Eustis outfielder Al Fortunato. Mays missed about 266 games because of his military service. Discharged on March 1, 1954, he reported to Giants' spring training camp the following day.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays began the 1954 season on Opening Day with a home run of over against Carl Erskine. After he batted .250 in his first 20 games, Durocher moved him from third to fifth in the batting order and again encouraged him to stop attempting to pull the ball and try to get hits to right field. Mays changed his batting stance and stood straighter at the plate, keeping his feet closer together. He credited these adjustments with improving his batting average, as he batted .450 with 25 RBI in his next 20 games. On June 25, he hit an inside-the-park home run in a 6–2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Mays was selected for the NL All-Star team; he would be part of 24 straight NL All-Star teams over 20 seasons. Mays became the first player in history to hit 30 home runs before the All-Star Game. He had 36 home runs through July 28. Around that time, Durocher asked him to stop trying to hit them, explaining the team wanted him to reach base more often. Mays hit only five home runs after July 28 but upped his batting average from .326 to .345 to win the team's first batting title since Bill Terry's in 1930. Hitting 41 home runs, Mays won the NL Most Valuable Player Award and the Hickok Belt.


title: Willie Mays

text: The Giants won the NL pennant and the 1954 World Series, sweeping the Cleveland Indians in four games. The 1954 series is perhaps best remembered for "The Catch", an over-the-shoulder running grab by Mays of a long drive off the bat of Vic Wertz about from home plate at the Polo Grounds during the eighth inning of Game 1. The catch prevented two Indians' runners from scoring, preserving a tie game. "The Catch transcended baseball" Barra wrote, and Larry Schwartz of ESPN said of all the catches that Mays made, "it is regarded as his greatest". Mays did not even look at the ball for the last twenty feet as he ran, saying later he realized he had to keep running if he was going to get the ball. The Giants won the game in the 10th inning on a three-run home run by Dusty Rhodes, with Mays scoring the winning run.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays added base stealing to his talents, upping his total from eight in 1954 to 24 in 1955. In the middle of May, Durocher asked him to try for more home runs. Mays led the league with 51 but finished fourth in NL MVP voting. Leading the league with a .659 slugging percentage, Mays batted .319 as the Giants finished in third. During the last game of the season, Durocher, who had supported Mays since his career had begun, told him he would not be returning as the Giants manager. When Mays responded, "But Mr. Leo, it's going to be different with you gone. You won't be here to help me," Durocher told his star, "Willie Mays doesn't need help from anyone."


title: Willie Mays

text: In 1956, Mays struggled at first to get along with new manager Bill Rigney, who publicly criticized him. The center fielder grew particularly annoyed after Rigney fined him $100 for not running to first base on a pop fly that was caught by the catcher. He hit 36 homers and stole a career-high 40 bases, becoming only the second player to join the 30–30 club. Though his RBI (84) and batting average (.296) were his lowest for nearly a decade, Barra observed that "Willie Mays was still the best all-around player in the National League."


title: Willie Mays

text: The relationship between Mays and Rigney improved in 1957. Rigney stopped giving Mays as much direction, trusting his star player's ability and instinct. In his 2010 authorized biography of Mays, James S. Hirsch wrote Mays had "one of his most exhilarating excursions" on April 21. In the game against the Phillies, Mays reached second base on an error, stole third, and scored the winning run on a Hank Sauer single, all on plays close enough that he had to slide to make each one. He stole home in a 4–3 loss to the Cubs on May 21. 1957 was the first season the Gold Glove Awards were presented. Mays won the first of 12 consecutive Gold Gloves for his play in center field. He finished in the NL's top-five in a variety of offensive categories: runs scored (112, third) batting average (.333, second), and home runs (35, fourth). In 1957, Mays became the fourth player in major league history to join the 20–20–20 club (doubles, triples, homers). He stole 38 bases that year, making him the second 20–20–20 club member (after Frank Schulte in 1911) to steal at least 20 bases. This gave him his second straight 30-30 club season.


title: Willie Mays

text: Dwindling attendance and the desire for a new ballpark prompted the Giants to move to San Francisco following the 1957 season. In the final Giants' home game at the Polo Grounds on September 29, 1957, fans gave Mays a standing ovation in the middle of his final at bat, after Pirates' pitcher Bob Friend had already thrown a pitch to him. "I do not recall hearing another ovation given a man after the pitcher has started to work on him," Mays biographer Arnold Hano wrote.


title: Willie Mays

text: In 1958, Rigney wanted Mays to challenge Babe Ruth's record of 60 home runs in a season. Consequently, Rigney did not play Mays much in spring training hoping to use his best hitter every day of the regular season. As he had in 1954, Mays vied for the NL batting title until the final game of the season. Moved to the leadoff slot the last day to increase his at bats, Mays collected three hits in the game to finish with a career-high .347, but Philadelphia's Richie Ashburn batted .350. Mays shared the inaugural NL Player of the Month award with Stan Musial in May, batting .405 with 12 home runs and 29 RBI; he won a second award in September (.434, 4 home runs, 18 RBIs). He played in all but two games, hitting only 29 home runs.


title: Willie Mays

text: Horace Stoneham, the Giants' owner, made Mays the highest-paid player in baseball with a $75,000 contract for 1959. Mays had his first serious injury in 1959, a collision with Sammy White in spring training that resulted in 35 stitches in his leg, but he was ready by the start of the season. Against the Reds in August, Mays broke a finger but kept it a secret to prevent opposing pitchers from targeting it. In September 1959, the Giants led the NL pennant race by two games with only eight games to play, but a sweep by the Dodgers began a stretch of six losses in those final games, dooming them to a third-place finish. Mays had hits in three out of 10 at bats in the Dodger series but some San Francisco fans still booed him. In 1959, Mays batted .313 with 34 home runs and 113 RBIs, leading the league in stolen bases for the fourth year in a row.


title: Willie Mays

text: After spending their first two years in San Francisco at Seals Stadium, the Giants moved into the new Candlestick Park in 1960. Initially, the stadium was expected to be conducive to home runs, but unpredictable winds affected Mays's power, and he hit only 12 at home in 1960. He found the stadium tricky to field but figured out how to play it as the season progressed. When a fly ball was hit, he would count to five before giving pursuit, enabling him to judge the wind's effect. He hit two home runs on June 24 and stole home in a 5–3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. On September 15, he tied an NL record with three triples in an 11-inning, 8–6 win over the Phillies. "I don't like to talk about 1960," Mays said after the final game of a season in which the Giants, pre-season favorites for the pennant, finished fifth out of eight NL teams. For the second time in three years, he only hit 29 home runs, but he led the NL with 190 hits and drove in 103 runs, batting .319 and stealing 25 bases.


title: Willie Mays

text: Alvin Dark was hired to manage the Giants before the start of the 1961 season, and the improving Giants finished in third place. Mays had one of his best games on April 30, 1961, hitting four home runs and driving in eight runs against the Milwaukee Braves at County Stadium. According to Mays, he had been unsure if he would even play because of food poisoning. Each of his home runs traveled over While Mantle and Roger Maris pursued Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in the AL, Mays and Orlando Cepeda battled for the home run lead in the NL. Mays trailed Cepeda by two home runs at the end of August (34 as opposed to 36), but Cepeda outhit him 10–6 in September to finish with 46, while Mays finished with 40. Mays led the league with 129 runs scored and batted .308 with 123 RBI.


title: Willie Mays

text: Though he had continued to play at a high level since coming to San Francisco, Mays endured booing from the San Francisco fans during his first four seasons in California. Barra speculates this may have been because San Francisco fans were comparing Mays unfavorably with Joe DiMaggio, the most famous center fielder ever to come from San Francisco. Hal Wood mentioned the DiMaggio theory, as well as two other explanations: 1) the fans had heard so many wonderful things about Mays's play in New York that they expected him to be a better player than he actually was, and 2) Mays tended to keep to himself. Mays said in 1959 that he did not mind the booing, but he admitted in a 1961 article that the catcalls were bothering him. Whatever the reason, the boos, which had begun to subside after Mays's four-home run game in 1961, grew even quieter in 1962, as the Giants enjoyed their best season since moving to San Francisco.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays led the team in eight offensive categories in 1962: runs (130), doubles (36), home runs (49), RBI (141), stolen bases (18), walks (78), on-base percentage (.384), and slugging percentage (.613). He finished second in NL MVP voting to Maury Wills, who had broken Ty Cobb's record for stolen bases in a season. On September 30, Mays hit a game-winning home run in the Giants' final regularly scheduled game of the year, forcing the team into a tie for first place with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Giants faced the Dodgers in a three-game playoff series. With the Giants trailing 4–2 in the top of the ninth inning of Game 3, Mays hit an RBI single, eventually scoring as the Giants took a 6–4 lead. With two outs in the bottom of the inning, Lee Walls hit a fly ball to center field, which Mays caught for the final out as the Giants advanced to the World Series against the Yankees.


title: Willie Mays

text: In Game 1 of the World Series, a 6–2 loss to New York, Mays recorded three hits. He would bat merely .250 in the series overall. The Series went all the way to a Game 7, which the Yankees led 1–0 in the bottom of the ninth. Matty Alou led off the inning with a bunt single but was still at first two outs later when Mays came up with the Giants one out from elimination. Batting against Ralph Terry, he hit a ball into the right-field corner that might have been deep enough to score Alou, but Giants third base coach Whitey Lockman opted to hold Alou at third. The next batter, McCovey, hit a line drive that was caught by Bobby Richardson, and the Yankees won the deciding game 1–0. It was Mays' last World Series appearance as a Giant. Mays reveled in the fact that he had finally won the support of San Francisco fans; "It only took them five years," he later said.


title: Willie Mays

text: Before the 1963 season, Mays signed a contract worth a record-setting $105,000 per season (). On July 2, when Spahn and Juan Marichal each threw 15 scoreless innings, Mays hit a 16th-inning home run off Spahn, giving the Giants a 1–0 victory. He considered the home run one of his most important, along with his first and the four-home-run game. In August, he won his third NL Player of the Month Award after batting .387 with eight home runs and 27 RBI. He hit his 400th home run on August 27 against the St. Louis Cardinals, the tenth player to reach that mark. Mays finished the 1963 season batting .314 with 38 home runs and 103 RBI, stealing only eight bases, his fewest since 1954.


title: Willie Mays

text: Normally the third batter in the lineup, Mays was moved to fourth in 1964 before returning to third in subsequent years. On May 21, Dark named Mays the Giants' captain, making Mays the first African-American captain of an MLB team. "You deserve it," Dark told Mays. "You should have had it long before this." Against the Phillies on September 4, Mays made what Hirsch called "one of the most acrobatic catches of his career". Ruben Amaro, Sr., hit a ball to the scoreboard at Philadelphia's Connie Mack Stadium. Mays, who had been playing closer to home plate than normal, ran at top speed after the ball. He caught it in midair and had to kick his legs forward to keep his head from hitting the ballpark's fence, but he held on to the ball. While he batted under .300 (.296) for the first time since 1956, he led the NL with 47 home runs and ranked second with 121 runs scored and 111 RBI.


title: Willie Mays

text: A torn shoulder muscle sustained in a 1965 game against the Atlanta Braves impaired Mays's ability to throw. He kept the injury a secret from opposing players, making two or three practice throws before games to discourage them from running on him. On August 22, Mays acted as a peacemaker during a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and Dodgers after Marichal had bloodied Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with a bat. Mays grabbed Roseboro by the waist and helped him off the field, then tackled Lou Johnson to keep him from attacking an umpire. Johnson kicked him in the head and nearly knocked him out. After the brawl, Mays hit a game-winning three-run home run against Sandy Koufax, but he did not finish the game, feeling dizzy after the home run.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays won his fourth and final NL Player of the Month award in August 1965 (.363, 17 home runs, 29 RBI). On September 13, he hit his 500th career home run off Don Nottebart, becoming the fifth player to reach the mark. Warren Spahn, off whom Mays hit his first career home run, was now his teammate. After the home run, Spahn asked him, "Was it anything like the same feeling?" Mays replied, "It was exactly the same feeling. Same pitch, too." The next night, Mays hit one that he considered his most dramatic. With the Giants trailing the Houston Astros by two runs with two outs in the ninth, Mays swung and missed at Claude Raymond's first two pitches, took three balls to load the count, and fouled off three pitches before homering on the ninth pitch. The Giants won 6–5 in 10 innings. Mays won his second MVP award in 1965 behind a career-high 52 home runs, in what Barra said "may very well have [been] his best year". He batted .317, leading the NL in on-base percentage (.400) and slugging percentage (.645). The span of 11 years between his MVP awards was the longest gap of any major leaguer who attained the distinction more than once, as were the 10 years between his 50 home run seasons. He scored 118 runs, the 12th year in a row he had scored at least 100 runs in a season.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays tied Mel Ott's NL record of 511 home runs on April 24, 1966, against the Astros. After that, he went for nine days without a home run. "I started thinking home run every time I got up," Mays explained the slump. He finally set the record May 4. Despite nursing an injured thigh muscle on September 7, Mays reached base in the 11th inning of a game against the Dodgers with two outs, then attempted to score from first base on a Frank Johnson single. On a close play, umpire Tony Venzon initially ruled him out, then changed the call when he saw Roseboro had dropped the ball after Mays collided with him. San Francisco won 3–2. Mays finished third in the NL MVP voting, the ninth and final time he finished in the top five in the voting for the award. He batted .288 with 99 runs scored, 37 home runs, and 103 RBI; by season's end, only Babe Ruth had hit more home runs (714 to 542).


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays had 13 home runs and 44 RBI through his first 75 games of 1967 but then went into a slump. On June 7, Gary Nolan of the Cincinnati Reds struck him out four times; this was the first time in his career this had happened, though the Giants still won the game 4–3. Afflicted by a fever on July 14, Mays left that day's game after the sixth inning because of fatigue and spent five days in a hospital. "After I got back into the lineup, I never felt strong again for the rest of the season," he recalled. In 141 games, Mays hit .263 with 83 runs scored, 128 hits, and 22 home runs. He had only 70 RBI for the year, the first time since 1958 he had failed to reach 100.


title: Willie Mays

text: Before a game in Houston on May 6, 1968, Astros owner Roy Hofheinz presented Mays with a 569-pound birthday cake for his 37th birthday—the pounds represented every home run Mays had hit in his career. After sharing some of it with his teammates, Mays sent the rest to the Texas Children's Hospital. He played 148 games and upped his batting average to .289, accumulating 84 runs scored, 144 hits, 23 home runs, and 79 RBI. In 1969, new Giants' manager Clyde King moved Mays to the leadoff position in the batting lineup because Mays was hitting fewer home runs. Mays privately chafed at the move, later comparing it to "O. J. Simpson blocking for the fullback". He injured his knee in a collision with catcher Randy Hundley on July 29, forcing him to miss several games. On September 22, he hit his 600th home run, saying later, "Winning the game was more important to me than any individual achievements." In 117 games, he batted .283 with 13 home runs and 58 RBI.


title: Willie Mays

text: The "Sporting News" named Mays the 1960s "Player of the Decade" in January 1970. In an April game, Mays collided with Bobby Bonds while reaching his glove over the wall but made a catch to rob Bobby Tolan of a home run. Mays picked up his 3,000th hit against the Montreal Expos on July 18. "I don't feel excitement about this now," he told reporters afterwards. "The main thing I wanted to do was help Gaylord Perry win a game." In 139 games, Mays batted .291 with 94 runs scored, 28 home runs, and 83 RBI. He scheduled his off days that season to avoid facing strikeout pitchers such as Bob Gibson or Tom Seaver.


title: Willie Mays

text: Though center field remained his primary position in 1971, Mays played 48 games at first base. He got off to a fast start in 1971, the year he turned 40. Against the Mets on May 31, he hit a game-tying eighth-inning home run, saved multiple runs with his defense at first base, and performed a strategic base-running maneuver with one out in the 11th inning, running slowly from second to third base to draw a throw from Tim Foli and allow Al Gallagher to reach first safely. Evading Foli's tag on the return throw to third, Mays scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly. He had 15 home runs and a .290 average at the All-Star break but faded down the stretch, only hitting three home runs and batting .241 for the rest of the year. One reason he hit so few home runs was that Mays walked 112 times, 30 more times than he had at any point in his career. This was partly because Willie McCovey, who often batted behind Mays in the lineup, missed several games with injuries, causing pitchers to pitch carefully to Mays so they could concentrate on getting less-skilled hitters out. Subsequently, Mays led the league in on-base percentage (.425) for only the second time, though his 123 strikeouts were a career-high. He batted .271 and stole 23 bases.


title: Willie Mays

text: The Giants won the NL West in 1971, returning Mays to the playoffs for the first time since 1962. In the NL Championship Series (NLCS) against the Pirates, Mays had a home run and three RBI in the first two games. In Game 3, Mays attempted an unsuccessful sacrifice bunt in a 1–1 tie in the sixth with no outs and Tito Fuentes on second base, a move that surprised reporters covering the game. The Giants lost 2–1. "I was thinking of the best way to get the run in," Mays explained the bunt, pointing out that McCovey and Bonds were due up next. The Giants lost the series in four games. After the season, Mays was honored as the winner of the inaugural Roberto Clemente Award, known at that time as the Commissioner's Award.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays got off to a tortuous start to the 1972 season, batting .184 through his first 19 games. Before the season began, he had asked Stoneham for a 10-year contract with the Giants organization, intending to serve in an off-the-field capacity with them once his playing career was over. The Giants organization was having financial troubles, and Mays had to settle for a two-year, $330,000 contract. Mays quibbled with manager Charlie Fox, leaving the stadium before the start of a doubleheader on April 30 without telling him. On May 5, Mays was traded to the New York Mets for pitcher Charlie Williams and an undisclosed amount rumored to be $100,000. The Mets agreed to keep his salary at $165,000 a year for 1972 and 1973, promising to pay Mays $50,000 a year for 10 years after he retired.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays had remained popular in New York, and owner Joan Payson had long wanted to bring him back to his major league roots. In his Mets debut against the Giants on May 14, Mays put New York ahead to stay with a fifth-inning home run, receiving ecstatic applause from the fans at Shea Stadium. Mays appeared in 88 games for the Mets in 1972, batting .250 in 244 at bats with eight home runs.


title: Willie Mays

text: In 1973, Mays showed up a day late to spring training, then left in the middle of it without notifying manager Yogi Berra beforehand. He was fined $1,000 upon returning; a sportswriter joked half the fine was for leaving, half was for returning. Things did not improve as the season began; Mays spent time on the disabled list early in the year and left the park before a game when he found out Berra had not put his name in the starting lineup. His speed and powerful arm in the outfield, assets throughout his career, were diminished in 1973, and he only made the All-Star team because of a special intervention by NL President Chub Feeney. However, the Mets won the NL East.


title: Willie Mays

text: On August 17, 1973, Mays hit his final (660th) home run against the Reds' Don Gullett. Having considered retirement all year, Mays finally told the Mets officially on September 9 that 1973 would be his last season. He made the announcement to the public on September 20. "I thought I'd be crying by now," he told reporters and Mets' executives at a press conference that day, "but I see so many people here who are my friends, I can't...Baseball and me, we had what you might call a love affair." Five days later, the Mets honored him on Willie Mays Night, proclaimed by New York City mayor John Lindsay, where he thanked the New York fans and said goodbye to baseball. In 66 games, Mays batted a career-low .211 with six home runs.


title: Willie Mays

text: Against the Reds in the NLCS, Mays helped restore order in Game 3 after Mets fans began throwing trash at Pete Rose following a brawl Rose and Bud Harrelson had started. Game 5 was the only one Mays played; he had a pinch-hit RBI single as the Mets won 7–2, clinching a trip to the 1973 World Series against the Oakland Athletics. A shoulder injury to Rusty Staub prompted the Mets to shift Don Hahn to right field and start Mays in center at the start of the Series. He stumbled four times in the first two games, including a fielding error in Game 2 that allowed the Athletics to tie the game and force extra innings. Mays's last hit came later in the same game, an RBI single against Rollie Fingers that snapped a 7–7 tie in the 12th inning of a 10–7 victory. His final at bat came in Game 3, where he pinch-hit for Tug McGraw and grounded into a force play. The Mets lost the series in seven games.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays's 24 appearances on an All-Star Game roster are tied with Musial for second all-time, behind only Hank Aaron's 25. He "strove for All-Star glory" according to Hirsch, taking the game seriously in his desire to support his NL teammates. In the first All-Star Game of 1959, Mays hit a game-winning triple against Whitey Ford; Bob Stevens of the "San Francisco Chronicle" wrote that "Harvey Kuenn gave it honest pursuit, but the only center fielder in baseball who could have caught it hit it." He scored the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning of the first All-Star Game of 1961 on a Clemente single in a 5–4 win for the NL. At Cleveland Stadium in the 1963 All-Star Game, he made the finest catch, snagging his foot under a wire fence in center field as he grasped a long fly ball hit by Joe Pepitone that might have given the AL the lead. The NL won 5–3, and Mays was named the All-Star Game MVP. With a leadoff home run against Milt Pappas in the 1965 All-Star Game, Mays set a record for most hits in his All-Star Games (21). Mays led off the 1968 All-Star Game with a single, moved to second on an error, advanced to third base on a wild pitch, and scored the only run of the game when McCovey hit into a double play; for his contributions, Mays won the All-Star Game MVP Award for the second time. He individually holds the records for most at bats (75), hits (23), runs scored (20), and stolen bases (six) by an All-Star; additionally, he is tied with Musial for the most extra-base hits (eight) and total bases (40), and he is tied with Brooks Robinson for the most triples (three) in All-Star Game history. In appreciation of his All-Star records, Ted Williams said, "They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays."


title: Willie Mays

text: During the first part of his career, Mays often participated in barnstorming tours after his regular season with the Giants ended. Teams of star players would travel from city to city playing exhibition games for local fans. Following his rookie year, Mays went on a barnstorming tour with an All-Star team assembled by Campanella, playing in Negro League stadiums around the southern United States. From 1955 through 1958, Mays led Willie Mays's All-Stars, a team composed of such stars as Irvin, Thompson, Aaron, Frank Robinson, Junior Gilliam, Brooks Lawrence, Sam Jones, and Joe Black. The team travelled around the southern United States the first two years, attaining crowds of about 5,000 in 1955 but drawing less than 1,000 in 1956, partly because of the advent of television. In 1957, the team went to Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, drawing 117,766 fans in 15 games, 14 of which were won by Mays's team. They played 20 games in Mexico in 1958, but Mays did not lead a team in 1959; Stoneham wanted him to rest because he was suffering from a broken finger. In 1960, Mays also did not barnstorm, but he and the Giants did go to Tokyo, playing an exhibition series of 16 games against the Yomiuri Giants. Though teams of black All-Stars assembled those two seasons, they drew fewer fans and opted not to assemble in 1961, when Mays again decided not to barnstorm. The tradition soon died out, as the expansion of the major leagues, the increased televising of major league games, and the emergence of professional football had siphoned interest away from the offseason exhibition games.


title: Willie Mays

text: The batting stance Mays employed showed the influence of one of his childhood favorites, Joe DiMaggio. Like his hero, Mays would stand with his legs spread apart, placing the same amount of weight on both while holding the bat high. His right thumb would stick out in the air as he waited for pitches, but he wrapped it around the bat as he swung. Mays believed this late motion added power when he swung. Mays channelled his energies into the swing by abstaining from extra motion and opening his hips. "If there was a machine to measure each swing of a bat," Branch Rickey suggested, "it would be proven that Mays swings with more power and bat speed, pitch for pitch, than any other player." His focus extended to his antics, or lack thereof, at the plate; Mays did not rub dirt on his hands or stroll around the batter's box like some hitters did. Naturally more of a pull hitter, Mays adjusted his style in 1954 to hit more to right and center field in a quest for a higher batting average at his manager's request, but the change was not permanent. When the Giants moved to Candlestick Park, Mays found that pulling the ball worked better at home but hitting to right and center worked better on the road; he tried to adjust his style depending on where he was playing.


title: Willie Mays

text: Defensively, Mays was one of the best outfielders of all time, as evidenced by his record 12 Gold Gloves as an outfielder. His signature play was his "basket catch," the technique that displayed Mays’s stylistic flash as opposed to the pure raw skill that was on display when he made "The Catch" in the 1954 World Series. Holding his glove around his belly, he would keep his palm turned up, enabling the ball to fall right into his glove. Sportswriters have argued about whether the technique made him a better fielder or just made him more exciting to watch, but the basket catch did not prevent Mays from setting a record with 7,095 outfield putouts. Koppett observes, "His range was limitless, and his arm so strong that he could make effective throws from the most unlikely locations and from the most unlikely body positions." That range allowed him to play a shallow center and prevent shallow singles, while still being able to get back and not let extra-base hits get over his head.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays's flashy style of play stemmed partly from his days in the Negro leagues. "We were all entertainers," he said, "and my job was to give the fans something to talk about each game." He wore his cap one size larger than necessary so that it would fly off when he was running the bases or making fielding plays. Sometimes he would deliberately slip to the ground for catches to make them look tougher than they really were. Though he was a powerful hitter, he had a knack for stealing bases. He ran the bases daringly, becoming the only modern player to score from first base on a single to left field, and another time scoring from first base on a McCovey bunt (without an error).


title: Willie Mays

text: On January 23, 1979, Mays was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. He garnered 409 of the 432 ballots cast (94.68%). Referring to the other 23 voters, the acerbic "New York Daily News" columnist Dick Young wrote, "If Jesus Christ were to show up with his old baseball glove, some guys wouldn't vote for him. He dropped the cross three times, didn't he?" In his induction speech, Mays said, "What can I say? This country is made up of a great many things. You can grow up to be what you want. I chose baseball, and I loved every minute of it. I give you one word—love. It means dedication. You have to sacrifice many things to play baseball. I sacrificed a bad marriage and I sacrificed a good marriage. But I'm here today because baseball is my number one love." In 1999, Mays placed second on "The Sporting News"s "List of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players", trailing only Babe Ruth. Later that year, fans elected him to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.


title: Willie Mays

text: Fellow players and coaches recognized his talent. "To me, Willie Mays is the greatest who ever played," Roberto Clemente said. Willie Stargell learned the hard way how good Mays's arm was when the center fielder threw him out in a game in 1965. "I couldn't believe Mays could throw that far. I figured there had to be a relay. Then I found out there wasn't. He's too good for this world." "If somebody came up and hit .450, stole 100 bases and performed a miracle in the field every day, I’d still look you in the eye and say Willie was better," Durocher said. "All I can say is that he is the greatest player I ever saw, bar none," was Rigney's assessment. When Mays was the only player elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979, Duke Snider, who finished second in voting that year, said, "Willie really more or less deserves to be in by himself." Don Zimmer remarked, "In the National League in the 1950s, there were two opposing players who stood out over all the others—Stan Musial and Willie Mays. ... I’ve always said that Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw. ... [H]e could have been an All-Star at any position." Teammate Felipe Alou said, "[Mays] is number one, without a doubt. … [A]nyone who played with him or against him would agree that he is the best." Al Rosen remembered "...you had the feeling you were playing against someone who was going to be the greatest of all time."


title: Willie Mays

text: Throughout his career, Mays maintained he did not specifically try to set records, but he ranks among baseball's leaders in many categories. Third in home runs with 660 when he retired, he still ranks sixth as of June 2021. His 2,062 runs scored rank seventh, and his 1,903 RBI rank 12th as of June 2021. Mays batted .302 in his career and his 3,283 hits are the 12th-most of any player as of June 2021. His 2,992 games played are the ninth-highest total of any major leaguer as of June 2021. He stole 338 bases in his career. By the end of his career, Mays had won a Gold Glove Award 12 times, a record for outfielders today (shared by Roberto Clemente). He is baseball's all-time leader in outfield putouts (7,095), and he played 2,842 games as an outfielder, a total exceeded only by Cobb (2,934) and Barry Bonds (2,874). Mays's 24 appearances on an All-Star Game roster are tied with Musial for second all-time, behind only Aaron's 25. He holds individually the All-Star Game records for most at bats (75), hits (23), runs scored (20), and stolen bases (six); additionally, he is tied with Musial for the most extra-base hits (eight) and total bases (40), and he is tied with Brooks Robinson for the most triples (three) in All-Star Game history.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays's 156.2 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) ranks fifth all-time, and third among position players (trailing Barry Bonds's 162.8 and Ruth's 162.1). He led NL position players in WAR for 10 seasons, and led the league in on-base plus slugging (OPS) five times, ranking 26th all time with a .941 mark. Sabermetrician Bill James thinks Mays was the best centerfielder of all time, naming him the best in the major leagues in the 1950s and the 1960s. David Schoenfield of ESPN, James, and Barra each think he should have won the NL MVP Award at least seven times. "He was one of the best fielders of all time," Schoenfield writes, noting Mays has the eighth-most fielding runs saved (a sabermetric stat) of all-time. Barra claimed in 2004, "Most modern fans would pick Willie Mays as the best all-around player in the second half of the twentieth century." Sportscaster Curt Gowdy said of Mays, "Willie Mays was the best player I ever saw. He did everything well."


title: Willie Mays

text: Sudden collapses plagued Mays sporadically throughout his career, which occasionally led to hospital stays. He attributed them to his style of play. "My style was always to go all out, whether I played four innings or nine. That's how I played all my life, and I think that's the reason I would suddenly collapse from exhaustion or nervous energy or whatever it was called."


title: Willie Mays

text: At the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, former Mets teammate John Milner testified Mays kept a bottle of liquid amphetamine in his locker at Shea Stadium. Milner had never seen Mays use amphetamines, and Mays denied having taken drugs during his career. "I really didn't need anything," Mays said. "My problem was if I could stay on the field. I would go to the doctor and would say to the doctor, 'Hey, I need something to keep me going. Could you give me some sort of vitamin?' I don't know what they put in there, and I never asked him a question about anything." Hirsch wrote "It would be naïve to think Mays never took amphetamines" but admits that Mays's amphetamine use has never been proven, calling Mays "the most famous player who supposedly took amphetamines".


title: Willie Mays

text: Along with Mantle (of the Yankees) and Snider (of the Dodgers), Mays was part of a triumvirate of center fielders from the New York teams of the 1950s who would be elected to the Hall of Fame. The three were often the subject of debates amongst the New York fans as to who was the best center fielder in the city.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays was a popular figure in Harlem, New York's predominantly African-American neighborhood and the home of the Polo Grounds. Magazine photographers were fond of chronicling his participation in local stickball games with kids, which he played two to three nights a week during homestands until his first marriage in 1956. In the urban game of hitting a rubber ball with an adapted broomstick handle, Mays could hit a shot that measured "five sewers" (the distance of six consecutive New York City manhole covers, nearly .


title: Willie Mays

text: Unlike other black athletes such as Jackie Robinson, Mays tended to remain silent on race issues, refraining from public complaints about discriminatory practices that affected him. Naturally, his approach had its critics. Robinson once accused him and some of his teammates of not doing enough for the civil rights movement. Aaron wished Mays had spoken out more on racial issues. Mays believed his job was to play baseball, not talk about social issues. "I'm a ballplayer. I am not a politician or a writer or a historian. I can do best for my people by doing what I do best."


title: Willie Mays

text: After Mays retired as a player, he remained in the New York Mets organization as their hitting instructor until the end of the 1979 season. Mays missed several appointments during these years and was often absent from Mets games. When Joe McDonald became the Mets' General Manager in 1975, he threatened to fire Mays for this. Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and Mays's lawyer intervened, and the Mets agreed to keep him, as long as he stayed at home games for at least four innings. During his time with the Mets, Lee Mazzilli learned the basket catch from him.


title: Willie Mays

text: In October 1979, Mays took a job at the Bally's Park Place casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. While there, he served as a special assistant to the casino's president and as a greeter. After being told by Kuhn that he could not be part of both baseball and a casino, Mays terminated his contract with the Mets, and he was banned from baseball. Kuhn was concerned about gambling infiltrating baseball, but Hirsch points out that Mays's role was merely as a greeter, he was not allowed to place bets at the casino as part of his contract, and the casino did not engage in sports betting. In 1985, less than a year after replacing Kuhn as commissioner, Peter Ueberroth decided to allow Mays to return to baseball. At a press conference with Mays and Mantle (reinstated from a similar suspension), Ueberroth said, "I am bringing back two players who are more a part of baseball than perhaps anyone else."


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays was named special assistant to the president and general manager of the Giants in 1986. He signed a lifetime contract with the team in 1993 and helped to muster public enthusiasm for building Pac Bell Park, which opened in 2000. Mays founded a charity, the Say Hey Foundation, which promotes youth baseball. The Giants retired Mays's number 24 in May 1972. Oracle Park, their stadium, is at 24 Willie Mays Plaza. In front of the main entrance is a nine-foot-tall statue of Mays, who has a private box at the stadium. When the Giants dedicated a Wall of Fame to their greatest players in 2008, Mays became part of its inaugural class.


title: Willie Mays

text: At a special ceremony during the Mets’ 60th anniversary Old-Timer’s Game on August 27, 2022, the team announced that, pursuant to a promise Mets’ owner Joan Payson had made to Mays when she traded for him in 1972, they were following the Giants in retiring Mays’ number 24. Mays became the 14th person (player or manager) to have their number retired by two teams.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays has met with United States Presidents. During Gerald Ford's administration in 1976, he was invited to the White House state dinner honoring Queen Elizabeth II, whom Mays met. He was the Tee Ball Commissioner at the 2006 White House Tee Ball Initiative on July 30, 2006, during George W. Bush's presidency. On July 14, 2009, he accompanied Barack Obama to St. Louis aboard Air Force One for that year's All-Star Game. Six years later, Obama honored Mays with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


title: Willie Mays

text: In September 2017, Major League Baseball renamed the World Series MVP Award the Willie Mays World Series MVP Award. Though Mays never went to college, he has been awarded honorary degrees by Yale University, Dartmouth College, and San Francisco State University.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays has made many appearances on film and television. He made multiple appearances as the mystery guest on the long-running game show "What's My Line?" Through a friendship with Tony Owen and Donna Reed, he was able to appear in three episodes of "The Donna Reed Show". During the 1960s, he appeared on shows including "The Dating Game" and "Bewitched". NBC-TV aired an hour-long documentary titled "A Man Named Mays" in 1963, telling the story of the ballplayer's life. In 1972, Mays voiced himself in the animated fictional special "Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid", produced by Rankin/Bass Productions. Charles M. Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts" mentioned Mays numerous times. The plot of the "" episode "In the Cards" (aired 1997, story set in 2373) centers around the son of Captain Sisko (a noted baseball aficionado) attempting to obtain as a gift for his father a vintage 1951 Willie Mays rookie card.


title: Willie Mays

text: Many popular songs reference Mays. The Treniers recorded the most famous one—"Say Hey (The Willie Mays Song)"—in 1954, with Mays himself participating in the recording. "Centerfield" by John Fogerty, which is often played at major and minor league stadiums, mentions Mays, Cobb, and DiMaggio. Others mentioning him include "I Shall Be Free" by Bob Dylan, "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey & The Duke)" by Terry Cashman, which refers to the three great New York City center fielders of the 1950s, and "Willie Mays is Up at Bat" by Chuck Prophet and Kurt Lipschutz.


title: Willie Mays

text: Willie Mays appeared as himself in the animated feature "Willie Mays and the Say-Hey Kid", which was broadcast in 1972-1973 as part of "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" show.


title: Willie Mays

text: Mays became the third husband of Marghuerite Wendell Chapman (1926–2010) in 1956. The couple adopted a five-day-old baby named Michael in 1959. They separated in 1962 and divorced in 1963, with Marghuerite taking Michael for the majority of the time. Eight years later, Mays married Mae Louise Allen, a child-welfare worker in San Francisco. Wilt Chamberlain had given Mays her number in 1961, and they dated off and on the next several years. In 1997, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease; Mays cared for her devotedly until she died from it on April 19, 2013.


title: Willie Mays

text: In the 1970's, Mays was good friends with Gambino Crime Family caporegime Greg DePalma, often playing golf with him. Mays is the godfather of Barry Bonds, whose father, Bobby Bonds, was a friend of his when they were Giants teammates.


title: Willie Mays

text: Glaucoma forced Mays to stop driving a car and playing golf after 2005. In 2018, blind sportswriter Ed Lucas wrote that Mays had told him a "few years ago" that he had actually gone blind. However, James S. Hirsch wrote in "The New York Times" in 2021 on the occasion of his 90th birthday that his vision was merely "compromised" by glaucoma and that he was still able to watch games on television with difficulty.


title: Moissanite

text: Moissanite () is naturally occurring silicon carbide and its various crystalline polymorphs. It has the chemical formula SiC and is a rare mineral, discovered by the French chemist Henri Moissan in 1893. Silicon carbide is useful for commercial and industrial applications due to its hardness, optical properties and thermal conductivity.


title: Moissanite

text: The mineral moissanite was discovered by Henri Moissan while examining rock samples from a meteor crater located in Canyon Diablo, Arizona, in 1893. At first, he mistakenly identified the crystals as diamonds, but in 1904 he identified the crystals as silicon carbide. Artificial silicon carbide had been synthesized in the lab by Edward G. Acheson just two years before Moissan's discovery.


title: Moissanite

text: In its natural form moissanite remains very rare. Until the 1950s, no other source for moissanite other than as presolar grains in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites had been encountered. Then, in 1958, moissanite was found in the upper mantle Green River Formation in Wyoming and, the following year, as inclusions in the ultramafic rock kimberlite from a diamond mine in Yakutia in the Russian Far East. Yet the existence of moissanite in nature was questioned as late as 1986 by the American geologist Charles Milton.


title: Moissanite

text: Discoveries show that it occurs naturally as inclusions in diamonds, xenoliths, and such other ultramafic rock as lamproite.


title: Moissanite

text: Analysis of silicon carbide grains found in the Murchison meteorite has revealed anomalous isotopic ratios of carbon and silicon, indicating an extraterrestrial origin from outside the Solar System. 99% of these silicon carbide grains originate around carbon-rich asymptotic giant branch stars. Silicon carbide is commonly found around these stars, as deduced from their infrared spectra. The discovery of silicon carbide in the Canyon Diablo meteorite and other places was challenged for a long time as carborundum (SiC) contamination had occurred from man-made abrasive tools.


title: Moissanite

text: The crystalline structure is held together with strong covalent bonding similar to diamonds, that allows moissanite to withstand high pressures up to 52.1 gigapascals. Colors vary widely and are graded from D to K range on the diamond color grading scale.


title: Moissanite

text: All applications of silicon carbide today use synthetic material, as the natural material is very scarce.


title: Moissanite

text: The idea that a silicon-carbon bond might in fact exist in nature was first proposed by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius as early as 1824, (Berzelius 1824). In 1891, Edward Goodrich Acheson produced viable minerals that could substitute for diamond as an abrasive and cutting material. This was possible, as moissanite is one of the hardest substances known, with a hardness just below that of diamond and comparable with those of cubic boron nitride and boron. Pure synthetic moissanite can also be made from thermal decomposition of the preceramic polymer poly(methylsilyne), requiring no binding matrix, "e.g.", cobalt metal powder.


title: Moissanite

text: Single-crystalline silicon carbide, in certain forms, has been used for the fabrication of high-performance semiconductor devices. As natural sources of silicon carbide are rare, and only certain atomic arrangements are useful for gemological applications, North Carolina-based Cree Research, Inc., founded in 1987, developed a commercial process for producing large single crystals of silicon carbide. Cree is the world leader in the growth of single crystal silicon carbide, mostly for electronics use.


title: Moissanite

text: In 1995 C3 Inc., a company helmed by Charles Eric Hunter, formed Charles & Colvard Ltd. (later changed to Charles & Colvard) to market gem quality moissanite. Charles & Colvard was the first company to produce and sell synthetic moissanite under U.S. patent US5723391 A, first filed by C3 Inc. in North Carolina.


title: Moissanite

text: Moissanite was introduced to the jewelry market as a diamond alternative in 1998 after Charles & Colvard (formerly known as C3 Inc.) received patents to create and market lab-grown silicon carbide gemstones, becoming the first firm to do so. By 2018 all patents on the original process world-wide had expired. Charles & Colvard currently makes and distributes moissanite jewelry and loose gems under the trademarks "Forever One", "Forever Brilliant", and "Forever Classic". Other manufacturers market silicon carbide gemstones under trademarked names such as "Amora".


title: Moissanite

text: On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness (with diamond as the upper extreme, 10) moissanite is rated as 9.25. As a diamond alternative Moissanite has some optical properties exceeding those of diamond. It is marketed as a lower price alternative to diamond that does not involve the expensive mining practices used for the extraction of natural diamonds. As some of its properties are quite similar to diamond, moissanite may be used as counterfeit diamond. Testing equipment based on measuring thermal conductivity in particular may give results similar to diamond. In contrast to diamond, moissanite exhibits a thermochromism, such that heating it gradually will cause it to temporarily change color, starting at around . A more practical test is a measurement of electrical conductivity, which will show higher values for moissanite. Moissanite is birefringent (i.e., light sent through the material splits into separate beams that depend on the source polarization), which can be easily seen, and diamond is not.


title: Moissanite

text: Because of its hardness, it can be used in high-pressure experiments, as a replacement for diamond (see diamond anvil cell). Since large diamonds are usually too expensive to be used as anvils, moissanite is more often used in large-volume experiments. Synthetic moissanite is also interesting for electronic and thermal applications because its thermal conductivity is similar to that of diamonds. High power silicon carbide electronic devices are expected to find use in the design of protection circuits used for motors, actuators, and energy storage or pulse power systems. It also exhibits thermoluminescence, making it useful in radiation dosimetry.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: The X Factor is a British reality television music competition, created by Simon Cowell. Premiering on 4 September 2004, it was produced by Fremantle's Thames and Cowell's production company Syco Entertainment for ITV, as well as simulcast on Virgin Media One in Ireland. The programme ran for around 445 episodes across fifteen series, each one primarily broadcast late in the year, until its final episode in December 2018. All episodes were presented by Dermot O'Leary, with some exceptions: the first three series were hosted by Kate Thornton; while Caroline Flack and Olly Murs hosted the show for the twelfth series.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Each year of the competition saw contestants of all ages and backgrounds auditioning for a place, in hopes of proving that they had singing talent. Auditionees attempted to do so before a panel of judges, each selected for their background in the music industry these have included Cowell, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne, Dannii Minogue, Cheryl, Gary Barlow, Tulisa, Kelly Rowland, Nicole Scherzinger, Mel B, Rita Ora, and Robbie Williams. Those acts who survived the auditions entered a bootcamp stage in which the judges each took charge of a category of contestants to mentor, determining who may move on to the live stages of the contest, with a public vote in the live rounds eliminating these contestants one by one. The winner of the live final received a recording contract with record label Syco Music and a cash payment, though the majority was allocated to marketing and recording costs.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: At the same time of its premiere, "The X Factor" was accompanied by spin-off behind-the-scenes show called "The Xtra Factor" on ITV2, which focused on the recent episode's performances; this was later replaced in 2016 with an online spin-off show, "Xtra Bites", on ITV Hub. The programme itself proved popular on British television, attracting high viewing figures at its peak over 14 million on average in the seventh series leading to the formation of an international franchise. In addition, many of its acts, including JLS, Little Mix, One Direction and Ella Henderson, later went on to release singles that entered number-one in the UK charts.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: From 2011, viewing figures began to decline, and Cowell later opted to rest the programme in 2019, assigning two spin-offs as mini-series that year "" and "". On 28 July 2021, ITV announced that there were no plans to air another series of the programme, effectively meaning it was shelved.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: The programme's format was devised by Sony Music executive Simon Cowell in 2004. The concept for "The X Factor" stemmed from his involvement as a judge on "Pop Idol", another music talent competition that ITV aired from 2001–2003. While the programme had been massively successful in its own right, Cowell disliked the lack of control that he and the judges had on the contestant's progress several individuals, including fellow judge Pete Waterman, agreed with him that a contestant who won the second series of "Pop Idol" had been unworthy to earn victory compared to others who had participated.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Cowell eventually made plans to devise a new televised competition, in which he would own the television rights and thus maintain control on decisions held on the new programme. In 2004, ITV secured the rights to broadcast "The X Factor" after Cowell approached them with his concept, despite a legal challenge by Simon Fuller, the creator of "Pop Idol", over perceived similarities between the two shows.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Each year's competition begins with auditions round, which consists of three stages held several months prior to the series premiere, and within venues around the United Kingdom; in some series, auditions were also allowed within the Republic of Ireland. Participants are required to provide a performance across each stage, focused on singing a piece from another artist to gauge their musical talent. The first round consists of auditionees performing before production staff either by application and appointment, or at "open" auditions that anyone can attend. Those wishing to apply could do so via postal or online applications, with "The X Factor" having no upper-age limit and groups can participate. If an auditionee passes this stage, they then move on to the second stage in which they perform before a senior production member. Both of these stages are not filmed, but shots of the crowds waiting to audition are later spliced into audition episodes during final editing; the televised version can sometimes misrepresent the process in this fashion by implying that huge crowds all perform before the judges.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Participants that make it to the third stage of auditions then conduct their performance and potential singing talent before the judges for that year's competition. To proceed into the next round of the contest, each participant must secure a majority vote from the judges, otherwise they are eliminated at this point; the judges themselves will usually comment on what they heard first, before they cast their vote. For the majority of series (Series 1–5, 10–11, and 13–14), the third stage auditions were conducted in a closed room in which performance were done without a backing track, while for other series, they were conducted before a live audience (similar to "Britain's Got Talent", with performances either done a cappella or over a backing track. Filming takes place during this stage, with the final edits for audition episodes focusing on the best, the worst and the most bizarre.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: In the second round, participants who reach this stage are sent to a "bootcamp" to refine their performances, while they are organised into categories based on the conditions of their application. The first category consists of men and women solo acts aged under 24 both categories were conjoined in early series until separated in the fourth series with the minimum age allowed being 16 (except for the fourth to sixth series where it was lowered to 14). The third category consists of men and women solo acts aged 25 and older (with the exception of a few series where the minimum age was raised to 26, 28 and 29). The final category consists of group acts, which include two or more members within each group. During this time, the producers decide on which judge for that year's competition is assigned to mentoring one of the category of participants. After the judges receive their assigned category, they then oversee two stages of performances from participants in each category, in which they must whittle down the number of participants to around six per category (eight for the seventh and eighth series). The process varies across the programme's history in most cases, their performances during this stage determines whether they move on to the next round or not; in some series, audition tapes are reviewed before the round with the judges making their choices before this stage of the competition.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Once the judges each have their selected participants for their category to mentor, these participants move on to the "judges' houses" stage of the competition, which is held in private residences for each judge; according to Louis Walsh, these homes tend to not belong to the judges, but rented out for this purpose. In this stage, the participants each conduct a performance before their category's judge, who must decide which of their group will proceed into the live rounds.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Both the bootcamp and the judges' homes stages of the contest are pre-recorded, though in some cases, either between the first and second stages of Bootcamp or prior to judges' houses, judges may look at certain rejected solo artists who they feel have potential but may be better suited in a group, and in an attempt to give them a lifeline, then send these acts into a room to form a number of different groups, each depending on size, height, fashion and chemistry. Lineup changes may also sometimes occur depending on what the judges feel the group is missing or which members they think work well with others. In the tenth series, the bootcamp stage was changed to a new format called "Six-Chair Challenge" in which participants had to secure a majority vote to sit in one of six empty chairs for their category, to move into the next stage; if all six seats were filled, the judge of that category must replace one of these participants with another they wish to see through. This new format, despite some tweaks, was not well received by viewers after its introduction.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: Contestants who make it through both the second and third stages eventually enter the live rounds of the competition. By this stage they compete against each other over a series of elimination heats, with those that make it through competition to win in a live final, with these filmed in two parts in a fixed studio venue (except for the final after the eighth series): a performance episode featuring all active participants; and a results episode, which includes a live or pre-recorded performances by celebrity performers. During this time, they move into shared accommodation while involved in the live episodes, sharing this with production staff; filming "behind-the-scenes" within the accommodation is frequently down and used in live episodes for "The Xtra Factor". In some series, some additional participants are sometimes selected from the rejects to act as wildcards in these stages, alongside those who progressed to the live episodes.


title: The X Factor (British TV series)

text: In these stages, each participant not only performs on live television, but also before the judges and a live studio audience. Their routine is often designed to fully judge their singing talent, appearance, personality and stage presence that may not have been noticeable during auditions, with their routine focusing a performance to a specific song originally a pop or contemporary hit from the charts in early series, before being later assigned based on the musical theme for the episode. Performance may sometimes be accompanied by backing dancers and musicians, and, in some cases, participants may also provide their own music and/or dance routines. At the end of each performance, the judges provide feedback on each performance, with their discussions often regularly adding entertainment value to each live episode. However, success is determined by the public vote in each episode. The system involves the same phone number, with exception for the last two digits which, beginning at "01", is assigned to each participant by order of appearance. The phone number is displayed twice for viewers once after a participant's performance is over, and a second time after all performances are completed and phone lines opened. Voting is conducted over a set time period, and closed before the results are announced of each stage of the live shows is shown, with the public vote results not detailing the actual number of votes or the ranked order (first to last) the public placed each act in.