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Willie Mays bought castle-like suburban home on East Coast to escape racism in San Francisco

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Willie Mays bought castle-like suburban home on East Coast to escape racism in San Francisco

Willie Mays bought a 15-room mansion in a New York City suburb to escape housing discrimination in San Francisco and remained under the radar, as rumors swirled about a crumbling marriage.

When the New York Giants moved to the Bay Area in 1957, buyers didn’t want to sell to Mays, despite his superstar fame, because owners “stand to lose a lot if colored people move in,” Mays said in an interview, according to James Hirsch’s biography about Mays’ life.

“Down in Alabama where we come from, you know your place,” Mays said in an interview, according to Hirsch. “But up here, it’s a lot of camouflage. They grin in your face and deceive you.”

The racist housing debacle made national headlines, which he wanted to avoid. He bought a castle-like home 3,000 miles away in New Rochelle, New York, for $75,000 in 1960 from Samuel and Pauline Zaretsky, according to the deed obtained by Fox News Digital.

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Hall of Famer Willie Mays tips his cap during introductions for the first game of the World Series between the Giants and the Detroit Tigers on Oct. 24, 2012, in San Francisco. (Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee via AP, File)

New Rochelle, nicknamed the “Queen City of the Sound,” is about 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan and is the seventh most populated city in New York state.

Mays and his first wife, Margherite, were among the first Black families who moved into the upscale, secluded section of the north end of the city. 

The headline in The New York Times on May 28, 1960, read, “WILLIE MAYS BUYS WESTCHESTER HOME; Neighbors in New Rochelle Welcome Negro Family to $75,000 Stone House.”

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City historian Barbara Davis told Fox News Digital that they mostly stayed to themselves and lived in the city for a short time. 

Mays traveled coast to coast between his rental home in San Francisco and his New Rochelle palace, which is estimated to be worth about $2 million today. 

Willie Mays bought this home in New Rochelle in 1960 after encountering racist housing practices in San Francisco following the Giants’ move from the Big Apple to the Bay Area. (New Rochelle Public Library)

The headline in The New York Times in May 1960 about Willie Mays buying a home in a New York City suburb. (New York Times Archives)

Mays is honored in the city’s walk of fame outside the public library, along with other baseball greats like Mariano Rivera and Lou Gehrig, and cultural icons like Ruby Dee. 

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“New Rochelle can be proud to claim an association with part of this baseball history, as Willie Mays, the ‘Say Hey Kid,’ lived in a 15-room Normandy style mansion at 90 Croft Terrace in the early 1960s,” his plaque read. 

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The plaque includes blurbs about his childhood in Alabama, stats of arguably one of the greatest players ever and, of course, a reference to “The Catch,” the iconic image of Mays running to dead center field to catch a fly ball directly over his head in the 1954 World Series. 

The baseball legend’s death last week seemingly brought the nation together. 

Willie Mays of the New York Giants goes back to catch the ball hit by Vic Wertz of the Cleveland Indians during the World Series on Sept. 29, 1954, at the Polo Grounds in New York. (Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)

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READ: DEED OBTAINED BY FOX NEWS DIGITAL

Like Mays’ reported comment about “camouflaged” racism in San Francisco, the gorgeous home hid turbulent times in Mays’ first marriage, according to Hirsch’s biography. 

About a year or two before the Mays family moved to New Rochelle, Margherite downplayed rumors of a crumbling marriage. 

They went through a public separation that included allegations of Mays’ ex-wife’s lavish spending habits. Their seven-year marriage, from 1956 to 1963, ended in divorce. 

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Their animosity toward each other was detailed in the reporter’s biography – titled “Willie Mays. The Life. The Legend,” including instances where Mays slept at the opposite end of the home. 

The Walk of Honor plaque for Willie Mays in New Rochelle, New York, walk of fame. (City of New Rochelle)

Willie Mays visits PS 46 in Harlem, next to the site of the former Polo Grounds, where the New York Giants played before moving to San Francisco in 1958, on Jan. 21, 2011 in New York City. (Michael Nagle/Getty Images)

Mays remarried to Mae Louise Allen. They were together until she died in April 2013 at the age of 74, and Margherite died at the age of 84 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in July 2010. 

As for his playing days, Mays’ career stats include 3,283 hits, 660 home runs, a career .301 batting average, 1,909 RBIs and 339 stolen bases. 

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He still holds the MLB record for most putouts by an outfielder with 7,095. In fact, he’s the only outfielder to record over 7,000 career putouts. 

He played for the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro Leagues from 1948-1950, the New York Giants from 1951-1957 (with a two-year gap in ‘52 and ’53, when he served in the U.S. Army), the San Francisco Giants from 1958-1972, and the New York Mets from 1972-1973. 

He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, and into the New Rochelle Walk of Fame in 2014. President Barack Obama presented Mays with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015.

Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.

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Northeast

Man with machete shot and killed by police, who then find 3 more dead inside home: officials

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Man with machete shot and killed by police, who then find 3 more dead inside home: officials

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Officials in Piscataway, New Jersey, noted Tuesday that an individual with a machete was shot and killed by police, who then found the subject’s mother and grandparents dead inside a home, WABC reported.

Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler noted that the suspect’s father dialed 911, the outlet noted.

When authorities arrived at the home, the man had a machete, authorities said, according to the outlet. Authorities attempted to utilize tasers against the man but indicated it did not stop the suspect, WABC noted. 

He allegedly charged at law enforcement officers with the weapon, and they opened fire and killed him, the outlet reported.

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Authorities with the Piscataway Police Department responded to a 911 call about someone with a knife. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

After the shooting, police found three people dead in the home, a press release from the New Jersey attorney general’s office notes.

“The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred on Monday, January 5, 2026, in Piscataway Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey,” the release states.

Preliminary information indicated that authorities with the Piscataway Police Department had responded to a 911 call from someone who reported a person with a knife, the release indicates.

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Police shot a man armed with a knife Jan. 5, 2026, in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

“Officers subsequently shot and killed a man armed with a knife who they encountered at the residence,” the press release noted.

“A 2019 law … requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved,” the release explains.

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Law enforcement shot a person armed with a knife in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

 

According to a post on X, New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Peter Andreyev noted, “We are aware of the horrific crime in Middlesex County tonight. All our members that were involved are being evaluated. Thank you to all who have reached to offer support.”

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Boston, MA

Battenfeld: Michelle Wu should demand better security after Boston Medical Center rape

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Battenfeld: Michelle Wu should demand better security after Boston Medical Center rape


In the middle of Michelle Wu’s orchestrated inaugural celebration, prosecutors described a senseless hospital horror that unfolded at Boston Medical Center – a rape of a partially paralyzed patient allegedly by a mentally ill man allowed to freely roam the hospital’s hallways.

It happened in September in what is supposed to be a safe haven but too often is a dangerous campus. Drug addicts with needles frequently openly camp in front of the hospital, and in early December a security guard suffered serious injuries in a stabbing on the BMC campus. The alleged assailant was finally subdued by other security guards after a struggle.

In the September incident, prosecutors described in court this week how the 55-year-old alleged rapist Barry Howze worked his way under the terrified victim’s bed in the BMC emergency room and sexually assaulted her.

“This assault was brutal and brazen, and occurred in a place where people go for help,” Suffolk County prosecutor Kate Fraiman said. “Due to her partial paralysis, she could not reach her phone, which was under her body at the time.”

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Howze, who reportedly has a history of violent offenses and mental illness, was able to flee the scene but was arrested two days later at the hospital when he tried to obtain a visitor’s pass and was recognized by security. Howze’s attorney blamed hospital staff for allowing him the opportunity to commit the crime and some city councilors are demanding answers.

“This was a horrific and violent sexual assault on a defenseless patient,” Councilor Ed Flynn said. “The safety and security of patients and staff at the hospital can’t be ignored any longer. The hospital leadership must make immediate and major changes and upgrades to their security department.”

Flynn also sent a letter to BMC CEO Alastair Bell questioning how the assailant was allowed to commit the rape.

Where is Wu? She was too busy celebrating herself with a weeklong inaugural of her second term to deal with the rape at the medical center, which is near the center of drug-ravaged Mass and Cass.

If the rape had happened at a suburban hospital, people would be demanding investigations and accountability.

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But in Boston, Wu takes credit for running the “safest major city in the country” while often ignoring crimes.

Wu should intervene and demand better security and safety for the staff and patients at BMC.

Although the hospital is no longer run by the city, it has a historic connection with City Hall. It is used by Boston residents, many of them poor and disabled or from marginalized communities. She should be out front like Flynn demanding accountability from the hospital.

Boston Medical Center, located in the city’s South End, is the largest “safety-net” hospital in New England. It is partially overseen by the Boston Public Health Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor.

BMC was formed in 1996 by the Thomas Menino administration as a merger between the city-owned Boston City Hospital, which first opened in 1864, and Boston University Medical Center.

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Menino called the merger “the most important thing I will do as mayor.”

When he was appointed CEO by the hospital board of trustees in 2023, Bell offered recycled Wu-speak to talk about how BMC was trying to “reshape” how the hospital delivers health care.

“The way we think about the health of our patients and members extends beyond traditional medicine to environmental sustainability and issues such as housing, food insecurity, and economic mobility, as we study the root causes of health inequities and empower all of our patients and communities to thrive,” Bell said.

But the hospital has been plagued by security issues in the last few years, and a contract dispute with the nurses’ union. The nurses at BMC’s Brighton campus authorized a three-day strike late last year over management demands to cut staffing and retirement benefits.

Kirsten Ransom, BMC Brighton RN and Massachusetts Nurses Association co-chair, said, “This vote sends a clear message that our members are united in our commitment to make a stand for our patients, our community and our professional integrity in the wake of this blatant effort to balance BMC’s budget on the backs of those who have the greatest impact on the safety of the patients and the future success of this facility.”

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Pittsburg, PA

Gov. Josh Shapiro launches re-election campaign; speeches planned in Pittsburgh and Philly

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Gov. Josh Shapiro launches re-election campaign; speeches planned in Pittsburgh and Philly






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