Montgomery, Alabama
“The Field of Dreams is really cool,” Watkins, 68, said, “but we have a real Field of Dreams here. This is a place where Willie Mays, among others, was standing in the outfield dreaming about being in the big leagues.”
“All of Major League Baseball is in mourning today as we are gathered at the very ballpark where a career and a legacy like no other began,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred“Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise. From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime.
Mays became a star there at only 17 years old, helping the Black Barons reach the Negro League World Series in 1948. Major league scouts came to see him play, and the Black Barons were so popular locally that ministers sometimes preached early on Sundays to accommodate fans eager to attend games. The field was also a bright spot amid the fight for racial equality in the 1950s and 1960s. Alabama, one of the epicenters of the Civil Rights Movement, was the site of“It was a place where horror was allowed to take a pause for nine innings,” Wood said. “ … Rickwood was never going to solve Black people’s problems, but it represented a place where Black people didn’t have to think about them for a few hours.”The ballpark is still standing against many odds.
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