And now the country turns to his hometown in a celebration of his life.
Willie Mays shows off his glove before Giant training camp at Casa Grande, Arizona, on March 2, 1964. Willie Mays played the game of baseball with fearless joy and graceful daring. He imbued those gifts upon American culture and in so doing helped change the country for the better through the power of sports.
Mays’ death, two days before the game, now transforms the event into a national celebration of his courageous brilliance and a memorial to his remarkable life. I fought back tears searching for the right words to express the power of this moment for the city, for the state, for America and for the game of baseball that Mays was born to play.
Mays emulated Jackson Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947. With Mays in the outfield, the Birmingham Black Barons won the Negro League American League in 1948 and played in the final Negro League World Series. Mays remained lifelong friends with many of the players on that team, including Rev. Bill Greason, who at 99 years old is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before Thursday’s big game at Rickwood.
Mays would wear his hat a size too small so it would fly off as he rounded the bases or tracked down a ball in the outfield. Mays perfected his famous basket catch while serving for the U.S. Army during the Korean War. When he returned from the war, he became a national sensation just as television screens were filling up American homes. Back in Birmingham, Jim Crow-era Alabama watched on as its native son used the National Pastime to tilt the course of American history towards togetherness.
As fate would have it, I spoke at length with the son of Willie Mays on the eve of his father’s death.
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