The Passing of a Legend: Willie Mays and His Unforgettable Connection to Rickwood Field
In a poignant twist of fate, the recent passing of Willie Mays, an inner-circle baseball great and one of the most luminous stars the sports world has ever known, is a curiosity of timing. Mays died at the advanced age of 93, with the fullest of lives behind him, but he also died two days before he was to be honored at Birmingham's Rickwood Field, the very venue where his big-league baseball career began.
On Thursday evening, in the bituminous coalfields of Alabama where Mays was born and raised, Mays' own San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals will play a game at Rickwood Field. This event is poised to be a parallel celebration of Mays, Rickwood, and the Negro Leagues, as Major League Baseball emphasized when it announced the event almost a year ago. The hope, of course, was that Mays would be able to attend, and up until very recently, that was the expectation.
Unforeseen Absence
However, on Monday, Mays informed the San Francisco Chronicle that he would not be able to make it to Birmingham. Tragically, on Tuesday, we lost Willie Mays, adding a veneer of mourning and solemnity to what will happen at Rickwood Field on Thursday night. Still, the evening will be rich with appreciations, memories, and tales of Mays' unparalleled brilliance on the diamond and his towering importance to baseball.
The most keenly felt truth will be that right there on that swath of outfield grass just off 2nd Avenue West in Birmingham is where Mays' journey to the very pantheon of the sport began in earnest.
The Early Years
Willie Mays was born in 1931, right in the thick of the Great Depression, and was reared in the working-class mill towns just outside Birmingham. A gifted multi-sport athlete in high school, Mays truly shined when he played outfield alongside his father for a local industrial team and then a nearby semi-pro outfit. He also spent some time with the Chattanooga Choo-Choos, which functioned as a somewhat haphazard farm team for the Negro-League Birmingham Black Barons. It was there that he caught the eye of Piper Davis, the Black Barons' manager.
The Unconventional Path
The Black Barons signed Mays at the age of 16. However, Mays' father insisted that his son remain sufficiently devoted to finishing high school, leading to an unconventional arrangement with the Black Barons. For the 1948 season, Mays would be permitted to play only in the Black Barons' weekend home games at Rickwood Field until the conclusion of the school year. Although this reduced Mays' first taste of high-level baseball to just that — a taste — it was enough.
Mays made his Black Barons debut in the second game of a doubleheader. He manned left field, batted seventh, and registered a pair of hits off starting pitcher Chet Brewer. A broken leg suffered by regular center fielder Bobby Robinson soon after allowed Mays to man the up-the-middle position that would become his province in the decades to come.
Scouting the Prodigy
The expansive Rickwood Field outfield allowed Mays to demonstrate his precocious gifts as a fly-catcher and no doubt caught the eyes of scouts descending upon the Negro Leagues in those months after Jackie Robinson's 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In the end, Mays played just 10 games for the Black Barons, and over that span, he batted .233/.313/.326 with a triple and a stolen base. The 10 hits he picked up at his hometown field of Rickwood have been added to his official MLB tally as of the league's recent decision to incorporate Negro League statistics.
The Black Barons that year were a powerhouse, going 63-28-2 in the regular season. In the Negro American League Series, they edged the Kansas City Monarchs in eight games, and during that sprawling series, Mays picked up seven hits and drew six walks. In the Negro League World Series, Mays and the Black Barons fell to the Homestead Grays in five games. Although the numbers Mays put up in '48 weren’t vintage, he was a mere 17 years old at the time. Merely surviving against such advanced competition while playing once a week was itself a sign of future greatness.
The Legacy of Greatness
As we know, that greatness would be realized at a level that exceeded anyone's imagination. In a material sense, Mays' journey toward that greatness began at Rickwood Field — it's where he earned his first 10 major-league hits. Fitting, then, that baseball will say goodbye to him at the very same place.
"It'll be a special day, and I hope the kids will enjoy it and be inspired by it," Mays had said in a previous announcement.
Conclusion
Major League Baseball's announcement highlighted the significance of Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States and former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, as the site for this special event. This experience, scheduled around Juneteenth next year, will include a variety of activities as a tribute to the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player - Hall of Famer, Giants Legend, Birmingham native, and former Birmingham Black Barons player Willie Mays.
As Mays himself said, "It has been 75 years since I played for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field, and to learn that my Giants and the Cardinals will play a game there and honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues and all those who came before them is really emotional for me. We can't forget what got us here and that was the Negro Leagues for so many of us."
Though Mays won't be able to attend the event in Birmingham, his legacy and the memories he created will undoubtedly resonate throughout Rickwood Field on this poignant evening. As the fans gather and players take the field, they will honor not just a game and a history, but the enduring spirit of one of baseball's greatest heroes.