San Francisco Giants’ trip to Birmingham, Ala. was already bound to be emotional.
But the gravity of the club’s special one-off game at Rickwood Field increased tenfold after the death of baseball legend Willie Mays on Tuesday. He was 93 years old.
From the start, the entire event centered on Mays. The game was touted as a celebration of the most illustrious Giant of all-time, someone many had considered the greatest living baseball player.
Rickwood Field is where Mays, at just 16, played his first professional game ever as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. The stadium is also less than 10 miles away from Mays’ hometown of Fairfield, Ala.
His death made the game just that much more important,” Negro Leagues historian Phil Dixon told The Examiner on Wednesday from Birmingham, shortly before the unveiling of a mural honoring Mays. “I already told my wife [that] I think this game in Birmingham, next to the World Series and All-Star Game, will be the greatest baseball event of the year. And the fact that Willie passed on the eve of that event, it’s gonna be hard for the World Series and All-Star Game to compete with it for me.”
A ceremony honoring Mays will take place prior to the game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. First pitch is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on Thursday. The Giants announced Wednesday that they will open Oracle Park for fans to watch the game on the stadium’s massive video screen at no charge.
“I wish I could come out to Rickwood Field this week to be with you all and enjoy that field with my friends,” he said in a statement. “Rickwood’s been part of my life for all of my life”
“I’d like to be there, but I don’t move as well as I used to,” he said. “So I’m going to watch from my home. But it will be good to see that. I’m glad that the Giants, Cardinals and MLB are doing this, letting everyone get to see pro ball at Rickwood Field. Good to remind people of all the great ball that has been played there, and all the players. All these years and it is still here. So am I. How about that?”.
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