No, not that Willie Mays
His full name is William Mays Eyre, but everyone calls him Willie.
"I was named after an uncle, William," said Willie Mays Eyre, "and then they couldn't find a middle name, so my mom and dad, who are huge baseball fans, picked Mays, for Willie Mays."
Willie Mays Eyre, the six-years-younger brother of former major league pitcher Scott Eyre, was born July 21, 1978 - nearly five years after Mays' final game - in Fountain Valley, California.
Fountain Valley is in southern, not northern, California. It is not Giants country. Neither is the Salt Lake City suburb of Magna, Utah, where Eyre spent most of his childhood. And Willie Mays, of course, played most of his career with the New York or San Francisco Giants.
"Ironically, my mom (Peggy) and dad (Bob) are both huge Dodger fans," Eyre said. "My mom is the one who wanted to make my middle name Mays, and she's really a big baseball fan. She knows it, she loves it."
Peggy and Bob Eyre raised four children, and the youngest (Willie) and oldest (Scott) went on to become major leaguers - but as pitchers, not outfielders, like Mr. Mays.
Scott Eyre did, however, pitch for the Giants, as well as the White Sox, Blue Jays, Cubs and Phillies.
Willie Mays Eyre has pitched in the big leagues for the Twins and Rangers. He is in his third season with the RedHawks.
Eyre's three-year ERA in Oklahoma City is 2.66. This year he got off to a slow start, with a 6.35 ERA in his first 12 games.
"There were a couple of games where they got some hits. That stuff happens," Eyre said. "You have to bounce back and do the best you can with what's out there."
In his 10 games since the slow start, Eyre has a 1.17 ERA, allowing only two earned runs in 15 1/3 innings.
"It's just location," Eyre said. "I'm throwing the same stuff. Just with a little better location, and balls aren't falling like they were.
"I don't think I was throwing bad pitches earlier. I just think they were getting some broken-bat hits and some balls found some holes and that stuff happens sometimes. You just tip your hat and come back the next day and do the best you can."
Willie Mays Eyre, of course, isn't the only person - real or imagined - named after the great center fielder. Two others come quickly to mind:
Willie Mays Aikens was one of the Kansas City Royals' top sluggers in the '70s and '80, slamming 77 homers over a four-year period and starring in the 1980 World Series. But he would also serve two prison sentences totaling 15 years on drug charges.
The fictitious Cleveland Indians center fielder Willie Mays Hayes, played by Wesley Snipes in "Major League" and by Omar Epps in "Major League II," could steal plenty of bases but he couldn't buy a hit.
"I play like Mays and I run like (Bob) Hayes," Willie Mays Hayes said on screen. To which manager Lou Brown said, "You may run like Mays, but you hit like (bleep)."
Growing up, Willie Mays Eyre's mother would call him William when she was upset with him. Sometimes she'd call him "Say Hey," too. But usually just Willie.
As for his oldest brother, his full name is Scott Alan Eyre. No one going by the first name of Scott is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
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