BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Willie Mays gave a message to his old friend Dusty Baker just one day before he died.
Mays, who died Tuesday afternoon at age 93, knew he would not be able to travel to Birmingham, Alabama, for a week of festivities honoring the contributions he and other Negro Leagues players have made to baseball. But he wanted Baker to share a message to the city he long called home.
“Birmingham, I wish I could be with all of you today,” said Mays’ good friend and advisor Jeff Bleich, reading the statement at a ceremony Wednesday honoring Mays’ life and career. “This is where I’m from. I had my first professional hit here in Rickwood as Black Baron. And now this year, some 76 years later, that hit was finally counted in the record books. I guess some things take time. But I always think that more “better late than never.”
Mays also sent an antique clock with his photo to the city of Birmingham. Baker was not feeling well, Bleich said, so she was not at the ceremony.
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“Time changes things,” Mays continued in his note. “Time heals wounds. And that’s a good thing. I had some of the best moments of my life in Birmingham. That’s why I want you to have this watch to remember those moments with me and to remember all the other players who were lucky enough to do it. play here together.”
The ceremony took place in downtown Birmingham, just a few miles from Rickwood Field, where Mays’ unforgettable career began. Bleich joined Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer to deliver speeches in honor of Mays, standing in front of a large mural of the former Giants center fielder.
It’s a charming rendering of the electrifying “Say Hey Kid,” showing Mays beaming with her hands on her knees and her array of athletic accomplishments painted around her.
The artwork was created by artist Chuck Styles, who said he wanted to capture Mays’ humanity.
“I knew I wanted to show him in a way where everyone knew him,” Styles said, “and that was his smile.”
A mural of Willie Mays was unveiled Wednesday at a ceremony in downtown Birmingham that honored the life and career of the late Hall of Famer. KeynoteUSA Photo/Alanis Thames
Other tributes to Mays, who was born in Westfield, Alabama, near Birmingham, poured in across the country on Wednesday, including from President Joe Biden.
“Like many others in my neighborhood and across the country, when I played in the minor leagues, I wanted to play center field because of Willie Mays,” Biden said in a statement. “It was a rite of passage to practice his catches, daring steals and dominance at the plate, only to be told by coaches to quit because no one can do what Willie Mays could do.”
Mays, who began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues in 1948, had been the oldest living member of baseball’s Hall of Fame and was considered the sport’s greatest living player.
He died two days before a game between the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals honoring the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.
“Actually, it’s even heavier today,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said, wearing a Mays jersey. “When you read all the articles and read what everyone has to say about him, it comes full circle to what he means to our country. Even if you don’t know baseball, you know who Willie Mays is.”
Melvin said the Giants would wear patches with Mays’ No. 24 on their chest for Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
When the team travels to Birmingham for the memorial game at Rickwood Field on Thursday, the Giants will open Oracle Park for fans to watch the game on the scoreboard, the team announced.
Images of Mays will appear on the scoreboard before and after the event, and a sculpture of his jersey number will be placed in center field to honor him.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Thursday’s game becomes even more poignant after Mays’ death.
“Being there with everything that’s going on will definitely be meaningful. You have a sports icon in the city where it all started, so I think bringing light to all of this will be a cool moment there,” Marmol said. .
The 37-year-old manager said he never met Mays, but it was interesting to hear stories from former Giants like Brandon Crawford about him.
“I’ll do more of that today. It will be fun to hear people’s stories,” Marmol said. “I’m curious to ask those who have.”
Cardinals assistant coach Willie McGee said he had several conversations with Mays when he played for the Giants from 1991 to 1994.
“Willie was the best, the best I’ve ever seen in my life,” McGee said. “He had the six tools. The aggressiveness of him, the baserunning of him. That’s what separated him, to me, the aggressiveness of him and his instincts from other five-tool guys.”
When asked if Mays ever gave him any advice, McGee chuckled.
“All the time, but I don’t remember any of it,” he said.
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