The Alabama native got his start with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948. His death at 93 came the same week baseball came back to historic Rickwood Field.
A statue of Willie Mays stands outside Oracle Park, home of the Giants, in San Francisco. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Before the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s minor league game between the Montgomery Biscuits and Birmingham Barons, the public address announcer at historic Rickwood Field announced that Willie Mays, baseball icon,
On Tuesday at Rickwood Field, Mays’s impact on the Birmingham community was obvious. Fans submitted a standing ovation as his highlights played on the video board. “Say Hey,” a 1950s R&B song by the Treniers, blasted over the speakers as fans broke out in chants of “Willie!” Later, John Chaney, 67, stopped by with his grandson Christian Johnson, 22. Chaney was in the stands when a fan sitting close by informed him of the news. It gave him a chance to reflect: Chaney has been coming to Rickwood since he was a child. His grandfather grew up three blocks from the stadium, so as a kid he would walk there and head for the section of the park where Black patrons were allowed to sit. His uncle played for the Black Barons, he said.
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