Willie Mays: to or not to say hey?

[CarltonHendricks]

I’ve been a hotel bellman at a golf resort 23 years. It was probably about 12 years ago I escorted Mays to his room. Most of what I’ve read here essentially rings true except my perspective is a little different.

As I recall it had been a busy day and I was just at the right place at the right time. I came back from a check in and it was about dusk…I spotted what looked like Mays and another older black gentleman standing on the front porch of the mansion with key packet in hand. I say what looked like, since in my mind I had a much younger mental picture of him from the 1960’s…Sure enough as I walked closer I could see it was him…

The rooms where I work are spread out in four sections over 1,200 acres….so once the guests check in and get their key they drive to it following a bellman. He was in the section closest to the mansion and main hub of the property. He followed me in his car as I led him in one of our electric bell carts to the parking lot.

As I recall he seemed a little gruff when I spoke with him initially…but then when we got to the parking lot and I gestured where to park I got the full Willie experience…Normally when you point out a parking place for the guest to park 98 times out of a 100 the guest follows your lead and parks where you tell them….not Willie Mays…completely ignored me and parked 30 feet past where I said…I knew right then it was Willie’s world and there was only one way to handle him….his way!

Naturally, as a professional I had no problem with it…It’s my job to be accommodating for every kind of personality and temperament…Really, for me, handling someone like Mays is a piece of cake….you just give’um what they want…and that’s always my policy anyway so it was easy.

Naturally Willie didn’t want to ride in the cart to the room like all the other guests…he wanted to walk…no problem there….I can inch along beside him in the cart with his luggage….no matter how silly it seems…with a smile on my face and a yes sir right this way…as a bellman gruff means almost nothing to me…I actually see it as an opportunity….find out what the problem is, fix it, get a bigger tip…it’s pretty simple.

So I got him moved in and gave him a quick Readers Digest version of the property…he flipped me a twenty and I was out’a there…Willie wasn’t the usual kind of guest you chit chat with about they’re vacation and where they’re from…just the quick basics and thank you sir!...the thought of an autograph didn’t even cross my mind...it was out of the question, you could just tell!

Personally, what did I think of him?...If he’s such a jerk why’d he flip me twenty? I think he’s private and very independent…and probably touchy…which I could understand…you’re one person against a world of strangers always trying to get something from you…a smile, a handshake, an autograph, a conversation…that’s gotta get old…. but genuinely mean? I didn’t pick up on that.

You should’a seen the time I checked in Montana….when he talks to you it’s like he’s talking thru you…and I doubt he’s even conscious of it…From what I’ve seen the bigger the name, the more they’re like that…every time you stop for gas, every time you go to a store…everybody’s looking at you, trying to talk to you…I think after a short time you just go like Joe…on automatic…when he spoke to me it seemed a little like everything was canned, like a pat answer. Very polite and nice really, but kind of like he didn’t really see me.

Once I was at a card show in San Francisco…I was on a pay phone when he walked by on his way leaving…he was surrounded by security, him in the center…There weren’t that many people around and as he walked by some yahoo yells …”Hey Montana” in a rude mocking way…To me the guy was out of line obnoxious…but even though he was only ten feet away it was like Montana didn’t even hear him…Obviously they tune it out.

We’re getting way off the Willie subject but I’ll finish up…I had a little lag time with Joe and Jennifer with them in their room because I had to get them a different room. They had their two or three rambunctious little kids with them who had already knocked over the fireplace tools before I’d set down one piece of luggage LOL…The driving range was right out their back door and smart mom Jennifer was afraid they’d get out onto it so I had to get them another room…LOL I remember when I told him I got a different room but it was more secluded on the back side of the property…I’ll never forget his reaction to the word secluded…he lit up…yeah that sounds good he said LOL…

I did however, get Joe to open up just a little….I was standing there making small talk as I waited for the front desk to call back with another room…there was a Tri-Star card show coming up that weekend and I mentioned I was going to it….He goes…”Oh yeah I think Roger said he’s going to that” (Roger Craig, as a signer of course…not like us civilian slobs)…So anyway, then I asked him if he collects…I think he said a little…but I definitely remember he said he was going to be trading some of his stuff with, I’m pretty sure it was Mike Tyson, or whoever was champion then….so that was pretty cool to cough that out of him!

I remember one time Montana was there for some benefit, cerebral palsy dinner or something…and there were people hanging around the front porch waiting for him to come out…Later after the event let out I was doing the doorman thing at the front door and I saw him coming from the lobby trying to leave…people were clamoring around him for autographs…I could just tell he’d had enough…I told him we have your car up front sir…smile about used up, he goes, where’s my keys?...and the look on his face was, man get me out’a here!...There was no getting his door, he just grabbed the keys jetted for his car and left!

So anyway, there’s a little of my close up observations of why celebs might be a little different…I apologize if it was too off the Willie focus….I start writing and rambling.