Willie Mays was the first right-handed batter to hit 400 home runs in the National League. The milestone homer came against a familiar foe, Curt Simmons of the Cardinals, and was witnessed by another 400-homer hitter, Stan Musial.
On Aug. 27, 1963, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Mays capped a two-month hot streak with his 400th career home run for the Giants.
At the time, nine others had achieved the feat: Babe Ruth (714), Jimmie Foxx (534), Ted Williams (521), Mel Ott (511), Lou Gehrig (493), Stan Musial (472), Eddie Mathews (419), Mickey Mantle (415) and Duke Snider (403).
(Musial, Mathews, Mantle and Snider still were active. Musial would finish with 475, Mathews 512, Mantle 536 and Snider 407.)
The only right-handed batter in the 400-homer group besides Mays was Foxx. (Of his 534 home runs, Foxx hit 524 as an American Leaguer and 10 as a National Leaguer.) All the others, except Mantle (a switch-hitter), batted from the left side.
Mays, 32, was considered the best bet to break the National League career home run mark of 511 held by Mel Ott.
On a roll
After leading the National League in home runs (49) and total bases (382) and powering the Giants to a pennant in 1962, Mays got baseball’s highest salary in 1963 _ $105,000.
He had a substandard start to the season, hitting .233 in April and .257 in May. At the urging of the Giants, Mays got his eyes examined “and was told they were fine,” according to his biographer James S. Hirsch.
He found a groove after the all-star break and nearly was unstoppable. Mays hit .322 in July, .387 in August and .378 in September.
From July 28 through Aug. 27, Mays hit safely in 27 of 28 games. In that stretch, he raised his 1963 season batting average from .274 to .308.
His only hitless game in that period came on Aug. 13 when Jim Maloney of the Reds shut out the Giants on a two-hitter.
(The game was noteworthy for another reason. It was the first time Mays played a position other than center field in the majors. In the eighth inning, after Norm Larker batted for shortstop Ernie Bowman, manager Al Dark put Larker at first base, moved Orlando Cepeda from first to left, Harvey Kuenn from left to right, Felipe Alou from right to center and Mays from center to shortstop. Mays had no fielding chances in his one inning at short, but he told the Associated Press, “Man, that’s too close to the plate.” Boxscore)
Numbers game
On Aug. 25, 1963, facing the Reds’ Joe Nuxhall at Candlestick Park, Mays hit his 399th home run. Later , with Joey Jay pitching, Mays drove a pitch to deep left. “If Frank Robinson hadn’t caught the ball a scant foot from the top railing, Willie would have had his 400th major-league homer,” The Sporting News reported.
The next day, Aug. 26, the Cardinals opened a series at San Francisco. Mays got two singles, but no home run, against Ernie Broglio. Curt Simmons provided another opportunity on Aug. 27.
Mays had a history of success against Simmons. In 1961, for instance, Mays had a .692 on-base percentage versus the Cardinals left-hander, reaching base nine times (six hits, two walks, one hit by pitch) in 13 plate appearances. For his career, Mays finished with a .423 on-base percentage (39 hits, 22 walks, two hit by pitches) versus Simmons.
In the Aug. 27 game, with the Giants ahead, 3-0, Mays led off the third inning and lined a 2-and-1 pitch from Simmons the opposite way to right. The ball carried over the outstretched glove of George Altman, struck a railing and went over the fence for home run No. 400.
Orlando Cepeda followed with another homer against Simmons, who then was lifted for Barney Schultz. The first batter he faced, Felipe Alou, hit the Giants’ third consecutive home run of the inning. Boxscore
“I stay in good shape and I think I can hit a lot more,” Mays said to United Press International. “I may be able to reach the 500 mark.”
Stan Musial, stationed in left field when Mays hit his 400th homer, told The Sporting News, “He has an excellent chance to beat Mel Ott’s National League mark of 511 before he decides to call it quits.”
Asked about Musial, who had declared two weeks earlier that he would retire after the 1963 season, Mays said to Si Burick of the Dayton Daily News, “Nicest man I ever knew. When I was a kid coming up, I never thought a star on another team would help you, but he talked to me a lot about hitting. He even let me use his lighter bat a couple times when I was in a slump.”
(The kindness shown by Musial was paid forward by Mays. A week after Mays’ 400th home run, Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson hit a 400-foot homer against the Pirates’ Don Schwall with a bat Mays had given him, The Sporting News reported. At 34 ounces, it was two ounces heavier than Gibson’s bat. Boxscore)
Join the club
On the same day Mays hit his 400th home run, Hank Aaron of the Braves slugged his 333rd (against Don Nottebart of the Houston Colt .45s). Three years later, on April 20, 1966, Aaron achieved home run No. 400 versus the Phillies’ Bo Belinsky.
Aaron went on to hit 755 home runs and Mays finished with 660.
In his book, “I Had a Hammer,” Aaron said, “I considered Mays a rival, certainly, but a friendly rival. At the same time, I would never accept the position as second best (to him). I’ve never seen a better all-around ballplayer than Willie Mays, but I will say this: Willie was not as good a hitter as I was. No way.”
In August 2023, 60 years after Mays became the 10th player to reach 400 career home runs, the total number of players achieving the feat had risen to 58.
RetroSimba 
It must have been something to watch Stan Musial, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays in their prime. My first exposure to Hank Aaron was when he reached the 700 homerun mark. And my first time seeing Willie Mays play was during the 1973 World Series. But most of my information came from my grandfather who witnessed all three of them play during their peak years.
How fortunate that your grandfather got to see them play and to tell you about those experiences.
In the 1957 All-Star Game at St. Louis, the Nos. 2 through 4 batters in the National League starting lineup were right fielder Hank Aaron, first baseman Stan Musial and center fielder Willie Mays. https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1957/B07090NLS1957.htm
In the 1958 All-Star Game at Baltimore, the top three batters in the NL starting lineup were Mays, Musial and Aaron.
Jimmie Foxx has to be one of the most underrated superstars of all time. No one ever really talks about him and I’ve had a rough time finding any books about him. Of course, all the other top guys of the time have libraries written about them.
Agreed.
Jimmy Dykes, a teammate of Jimmie Foxx, had a career in the major leagues that spanned from 1918 to 1961. Dykes played for 22 years in the majors and managed for 21 years in the majors. In July 1967, after Foxx died, Dykes told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “I always maintained that nobody hit the ball as far as he did, and I’m including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Harry Heilmann, anybody you want to mention.”
Dykes added that Foxx hit those homers in an era when the ball was “25 to 40 percent” deader than the ball used after World War II.
What great news to read that Mays once played shortstop. I never knew that. To me, that the manager put Mays in at SS seems to be a tribute to his versatility and what a humble and humorous comment by Mays to say “Man, that’s too close to the plate.” He may not have been a “spokesman” for civil rights like Aaron or Robinson, but he seemed to have appreciated that he was playing a game and making a living out of it.
Mays playing SS reminds me of this year and Mookie Betts being asked to play SS for a number of games and his incredible adaptation to the position.
Willie Mays made one more appearance at shortstop. It came in a 23-inning game between the Giants and Mets in May 1964. Mays shifted from center to shortstop for three innings (10th through 12th) and then returned to center. https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1964/B05312NYN1964.htm
Three months later, in a game against the Dodgers, Mays moved from center to third base when Jim Ray Hart got injured. Mays played most of the game at third. It was the only time he played third base. https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1964/B08260LAN1964.htm
Both teams were 6.5 games behind the Dodgers, and attendance at the ‘Stick was 30,514, outrageous for a Tuesday night in 1963. Maybe the fans didn’t realize Gene Oliver had been traded. Eleven days earlier in St. Louis, Curt Simmons beat the Giants 13-0. Attendance 30,680.
Thanks for the insights. That was quite a Tuesday night crowd (8:15 p.m. game start, local time) at Candlestick Park.
According to baseball-reference.com, the Giants’ largest home crowd in 1963 was for a July 7 Sunday afternoon doubleheader with the Cardinals: 42,787 for pitching matchups of Curt Simmons vs. Jack Sanford in Game 1 and Bob Gibson vs. Juan Marichal in Game 2.
The Giants largest home crowd for a night game in 1963 was 40,676 to see Sandy Koufax vs. Juan Marichal on Friday night May 24.
The Giants largest home crowd for a Tuesday night game in 1963 was 37,780, again against the Dodgers, on June 18. The pitching matchup was Bob Miller vs. Jack Sanford.