Giants lose, baseball wins in game at Rickwood Field

The spirit of Willie Mays was on site in Birmingham, Alabama Thursday night. At Rickwood Field, the place that Mays began his career with the Birmingham Black Barons, the Giants and Cardinals honored his legacy and the Negro Leagues. Mays, who died Tuesday, was widely celebrated.

This was a game in honor of the roots of America's pastime, and the reality of segregation.

Under the leadership of Andrew "Rube" Foster -- a former player, manager and executive -- the Negro Leagues were established in 1920 as a place where Black and Hispanic athletes could play baseball. They carried popularity for the better part of the next 30 years, with the Negro National League disbanding in 1948 after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. The Negro American League disbanded by 1958.

The day began with music and performances led by musician Jon Batiste, as the living former Negro Leagues players took the field alongside the Giants -- donning their San Francisco Sea Lions jerseys -- and Cardinals -- in their St. Louis Stars jerseys.

Behind home plate, there were words from Willie Mays' son, Michael, flanked by Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. He told the crowd to cheer, because Willie was listening.

The game itself was a loss for the Giants. Even a Heliot Ramos game-tying 3-run home run -- this one a sneaky pop fly that kept going over the right field fence -- and a couple late innings runs were not enough to overcome some poor pitching in the 6-5 loss. But the result is besides the point.

The game was a living history lesson, with Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum spending multiple innings discussing the history. In the fifth inning, the broadcast even employed a throwback presentation in black and white, shot from a high angle behind home plate, and from up high.

But the stark reality of what we are really talking about was said best by Mr. October, Reggie Jackson. Jackson played at Rickwood in 1967 for the then-Kansas City Athletics' Double-A Birmingham affiliate. He spoke bluntly before the game about the racism he faced on the road.

Note: Jackson uses a racial slur when recalling the racism he faced, which is partially censored below.

"Coming back here is not easy," Jackson said. "The racism that I played here when I played here. The difficulty of going through different places where we traveled. Fortunately, I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn't wish it on anybody...

"I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say, 'A ni***r can't eat here. I would go to a hotel and they'd say, 'The ni***r can't stay here.'"

Jackson said he stayed with teammates until they were threatened.

That is the reality of the Negro Leagues. Any appreciation of their history is inextricably linked to the racist history of the Jim Crow South, and the fact that separate leagues had to be created based on race.

The result of the day was a public celebration of Black history, told largely by Black voices and the faces who lived their legacies.

These were literal living legends, including the likes of the 99-year-old Bill Greason, a former Mays teammate with the Black Barons. He was the winning pitcher of the 1948 Negro Leagues World Series, fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, and spent 53 years as the minister of Bethel Baptist Church.

Greason said he never expected that he would live to be honored, which is a simultaneously poignant moment, and harrowing, especially with the knowledge that Mays did not live to see it.

Thursday was a moment of appreciation, reflection and honor for the legacy of our pastime's heroes.