After the death of Willie Mays, the game at Rickwood Field takes on new meaning

Birmingham, Alabama — Before Willie Mays wowed fans with the New York Giants and made “The Catch” in the 1954 World Series, he was a teenager patrolling center field at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama in 1948.

“Willie was special,” Rev. William Greason said of Mays. who died on Tuesday at the age of 93. “He had a gift that God had given him.”

Greason, now nearly 100 years old, was Mays’ teammate on the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.

“The camaraderie we had on that team was incredible,” said Greason, who added that he had no idea at the time that he would be playing alongside one of the greatest baseball players of all time.

“I just wanted to be a friend,” Greason told CBS News.

Mays was too young to travel with the Black Barons, who, as members of the Negro Southern League, populated the Jim Crow laws in the South.

At Rickwood Field, which the Black Barons shared with the all-white Birmingham Barons, racial segregation had become common practice.

“When we played here, the Whites were in right field,” Greason said. “When they played, we were out there.”

Since 1910, 182 members of the MLB Hall of Fame, both black and white, have graced the Rickwood grounds. Legends like Reggie Jackson, Babe Ruth and “Hammerin’ Hank” Aaron.

When the St. Louis Cardinals face the San Francisco Giants on Thursday at Rickwood Field in a game that pays tribute to both Mays and the legacy of the Negro Leagues, Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn will be a rarity – an African-American on the major league roster.

“To be perhaps the only black person on the field and to represent that there will be something very special for me,” Winn said, but acknowledged that this situation does not bode well for the current situation of African-Americans in baseball.

“I think it just means we need more,” Winn said.

In 1991, according to figures from the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, 18% of players on the opening roster were African-American. This season, that number is down to 6%.

But there are signs that could be changing. In 2022, four of the top five draft picks were African American. In 2021, MLB announced a $150 million investment aimed at increasing the representation of black players in baseball.

And last month, Statistics from the Negro Leagues were officially entered into the MLB record books.

“I think it’s cool that there are so many black people up there,” Winn said of the move. “I think it’s good for the next generation.”

MLB had planned for Mays to attend the game at Rickwood, a ballpark just six miles from Mays’ childhood home. Now, the field where Mays’ baseball dreams began will poetically symbolize the end of that era and possibly the beginning of a new one.

“Many of those statistics were achieved … right here at Rickwood Field,” Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told CBS News. “…What happened here is not just black history, it’s American history. And the greats who came through this place literally changed the meaning of baseball.”