Willie Mays passed away on Tuesday just days before being honored at MLB’s Rickwood Field Game in Birmingham.
On Thursday, MLB will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues with the Giants and Cardinals playing a regular-season game at Rickwood — the historic home of the Birmingham Black Barons — in Alabama, the first time MLB will play in the state. Mays’ connection to Rickwood, after having grown up nearby with dreams of playing at the field years before his legendary Hall of Fame baseball career, was one of the reasons the league chose the location for Thursday’s historic game.
At 17 years old, Mays began his professional career in the Negro Leagues with the Barons, before signing with the New York Giants in 1950, launching a 22-season MLB career. A day before his passing, Mays, who was 93, announced that he would not be attending the game in Birmingham.The San Francisco Giants play against the St. Louis Cardinals in a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field on June 20, 2024.“I wish I could come out to Rickwood Field this week to be with you all and enjoy that field with my friends. Rickwood’s been part of my life for all of my life. Since I was a kid.
“The first big thing I ever put my mind to was to play at Rickwood Field. It wasn’t a dream. It was something I was going to do. I was going to work hard to be one of the Birmingham Black Barons and play ball at Rickwood Field. That’s what I did. It was my start. My first job. You never forget that. Rickwood Field is where I played my first home game, and playing there was IT — everything I wanted.
The San Francisco Giants play against the St. Louis Cardinals in a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field on June 20, 2024.Fans stand for a moment of silence for former MLB player Willie Mays during the sixth inning of a baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Chicago Cubs in Chicago, Tuesday, June 18, 2024.
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