Mays’ death makes game held in his honor ‘that much more important’

The 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.

Mays had not been shy about hiding his enthusiasm for the event at Rickwood Field. He was scheduled to be at Thursday’s game before revealing earlier this week that he would not be able to make it.

“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?”

The Giants announced Mays’ death one day later.

Mays played at Rickwood Field well before he became a 24-time All-Star, two-time MVP and the fourth-leading home-run hitter of all-time with 660. When he suited up for the Barons, he was one of the youngest players playing professional baseball at any level, if not the youngest.

And in those days, playing at Rickwood Field was a big deal, said Jim Hirsch, author of Mays’ biography “Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend.”

He likened the stadium to a “cathedral,” the equivalent of Yankee Stadium. It’s where Mays developed the charisma that would soon become his trademark as he grew into a larger-than-life figure.

“There’s been a lot of discussion the last couple days about Willie being the consummate showman, with the basket catch and his hat flying off his head and the way he ran the bases,” Hirsch said. “This was something that Willie learned about and developed in the Negro Leagues, because he knew that the fans were out there not only to watch their team win, but to be given a show.”

Two years after playing for the Barons, Mays signed with the Giants for $4,000. The rest is history.

Thursday’s game will be both a celebration of Mays’ life and the Negro Leagues, which Black players formed and played in before Major League Baseball became integrated in 1946. Some of the all-time greats in baseball history played in the Negro Leagues, including Mays, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron and Jackie Robinson.

”So much of baseball, I think more than other sports, is about telling the story of the history of our game to the next generation, and that’s what I think this night is going to be about,” former Giants vice president Mario Alioto said. “Now, with this undercurrent of the passing of Willie Mays, it just brings it all together. And it’s going to be very emotional.”

Roughly 60 living Negro League players will be in attendance for the Giants’ game at Rickwood Field.

Hirsch said Mays’ death will add to the “poignancy of the events.” He characterized the game as both a celebration of Mays and other Negro League greats and also an acknowledgement of the racism that denied those players opportunities.

“Willie, more than anyone else, was our connection to the Negro Leagues,” Hirsch said. “There are still Negro League players who are alive and with us, but that number is few. And of those that were around, as of a couple of days ago, Willie was the most prominent. So his death is just a reminder of what we as a country are losing in terms of what the Negro Leagues were all about.”