At 114 years old, Rickwood Field is the nation’s oldest professional ballpark, the first place Willie Mays played pro ball and the last ballpark still standing that he called home.
A visitor photographs an art installation of a towering Willie Mays baseball card in downtown Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday, June 19, 2024, one day after his death. Major League Baseball is in Birmingham to honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues. With Mays’s death, the celebration at ancient Rickwood Field takes on new meaning. BIRMINGHAM, Ala.
The Rev. William H. Greason, 99, who was the first Black pitcher for the Cardinals in the 1950s, has been a pastor in Birmingham for more than a half-century since retiring from baseball. He had been hoping to see his old friend this week, at the ballpark where they played together. Willie Mays issued a statement Monday evening to The San Francisco Chronicle, saying he was too unwell to travel, and reminiscing about Rickwood Field, describing it as “like a church.”
“This area and this town was, despite all of the history that we know in these Black communities, it was joy, and despite the racism, the Birmingham Black Barons were the toast of the town,” Michael Mays said this week. The ranks of veterans of the Negro Leagues are dwindling, and while many believe Major League Baseball’s recognition should have come much earlier, Michael Mays said it was “long overdue but strangely on time.”
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