Pelosi shares photo of wrong player in botched Willie Mays tweet

Publish date: 2024-07-14

Say what?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to honor baseball legend Willie Mays for his 90th birthday Thursday but fouled out when the 81-year-old pol instead tweeted out a smiling photo of herself — with Willie McCovey.

McCovey and the Say Hey Kid are both black Hall of Famers who played together for almost two decades for the San Francisco Giants. The Dem boss apparently has smiling images of herself with both men.

The original birthday message from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a picture of Willie McCovey. Twitter
The second post from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a photo of Willie Mays. Twitter

McCovey died in 2018 at 80. 

After the mistake was noticed, the photo was quickly swapped out for one with Pelosi and Mays. 

It’s unclear how long the embarrassing post lingered on the speaker’s Twitter account. Her office fobbed the issue off to a staffer error. 

Willie Mays warms up before a game in 1970. Focus on Sport/Getty Images

“A staffer inadvertently selected the wrong photo for the tweet,” Team Pelosi said in a statement to CBS San Francisco. “The photo we wanted to use was of the speaker and Willie Mays at Willie McCovey’s August 2018 wedding. The quickly deleted photo was the wrong photo from the right wedding. We apologize for the error.”

The corrected tweet went on: “Happy 90th birthday to an all-American icon, Willie Mays. A trailblazing, record-breaking baseball player, civil rights leader, and champion for youth sports and well-being, Willie Mays is a civic legend and national treasure. #SayHey90,” Pelosi said.

“On his 90th birthday, we remember Willie Mays growing up with injustice and blazing a trail, first in the Negro Leagues, and then as a Hall of Famer in Major League Baseball with the Giants,” she added in a longer statement also shared to Twitter. “We celebrate his lasting impact, through his Say Hey Foundation and the Willie Mays Boys and Girls Club of San Francisco, on the legions of youth scholars and athletes he has helped.”

Former San Francisco Giants players Willie Mays (left) and Willie McCovey at a ceremony in 2018. Lachlan Cunningham/Pool via Getty Images

Mays began his storied MLB career with the New York Giants before the club moved to California. He retired a New York Met in 1973.

Inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979, he was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 2015 by President Barack Obama.

Black activists told The Post the Pelosi tribute was typical of Democratic outreach that focuses on symbols rather than fulfilling campaign promises.

“Instead of symbolic gestures, like putting up pictures of baseball players, how about she talk about reparations,” Hawk Newsome, a New York City Black Lives Matter activist, told The Post.

“That’s the problem with Democrats, we vote for them first and they think about us last.”

Mays could not be reached for comment.

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