In the 2000 edition of Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Mays ranks third all time, behind Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner, and just ahead of Negro League legend Oscar Charleston.
More than any other team, Spain embodies one of the enduring quirks of the tournament, which is now in its third edition: Loose rules that allow fringe countries to compensate for a lack of baseball talent by signing just about anyone who could remotely identify with them.