Birmingham, Alabama — Before Willie Mays electrified followers with the New York Giants and made “The Catch” within the 1954 World Series, he patrolled centerfield at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, as a youngster in 1948.
“Willie was something else,” Rev. William Greason mentioned of Mays, who died Tuesday on the age of 93. “He had a gift that God gave him.”
Greason, now nearly 100 years outdated, was Mays’ teammate on the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.
“The camaraderie that we had on that team, it was out of sight,” mentioned Greason, who added that, on the time, he had no concept he was taking part in alongside one of baseball’s all-time greats. Â
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“I just wanted to be a friend,” Greason advised CBS News.
Mays was too younger to journey with the Black Barons, who barnstormed the Jim Crow South as a member of the Negro Southern League.
At Rickwood Field, which the Black Barons shared with the all-White Birmingham Barons, segregation was the enforced customized.
“When we played here, the Whites were in right field,” Greason mentioned. “When they played, we were out there.”
Since 1910, 182 MLB Hall of Famers, each Black and White, have graced Rickwood’s grounds. Legends like Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth and “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron.
When the St. Louis Cardinals play the San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field Thursday in a game that can pay tribute to each Mays and the legacy of the Negro Leagues, Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn shall be a rarity — an African American on a Major League roster.
“Being maybe the only Black person on the field is going to be pretty special for me to represent that out there,” mentioned Winn, acknowledging, although, that the state of affairs speaks poorly of the state of African Americans in baseball proper now.
“I think it just means we need more,” Winn mentioned.
In 1991, 18% of gamers on opening day rosters had been African American, in response to numbers from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. This season, that’s down to six%.
But there are indicators that might be altering. In 2022, 4 of the highest 5 draft picks had been African American. In 2021, MLB introduced a $150 million funding aimed toward growing Black illustration in baseball.
And final month, statistics from the Negro Leagues had been formally integrated into MLB document books.
“I think it’s cool to have that Black representation up there,” Winn mentioned of that transfer. “I think it’s good for the next generation.”
MLB had deliberate for Mays to attend the Rickwood game, a ballpark simply six miles from Mays’ boyhood residence. Now, the sector the place Mays’ baseball goals started will poetically symbolize the tip of that period and presumably the daybreak of a brand new one. Â
“Many of those stats happened … right here at Rickwood Field,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin advised CBS News. “…What happened here is not just Black history, it’s America’s history. And the greats that came through this place, they literally went on to change what baseball meant.”
