The game commemorating baseball's Negro Leagues that is being played Thursday at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, which Giants legend Willie Mays had intended to attend in person before he passed away Tuesday, will be screened at Oracle Park for free.
As reported earlier, the greatest of all Giants Willie Mays died on Tuesday at the age of 93. He was the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and remains a barrier-breaking legend in long story of America's Pastime.
In his honor, and in honor of the legacy of the Negro Leagues in baseball history and Juneteenth, the San Francisco Giants announced Wednesday that they will be opening up their stadium to fans on Thursday for a free screening of the game being played at Rickwood Field between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. As the Chronicle reports, admission will be free, with entrances open on Willie Mays Plaza and on the Portwalk along right field.
The first pitch is scheduled for 4:15 pm PT, and there will be a special tribute to Mays before the game, as CNN reports.
The game, which we first reported on last year, is the first regular season Major League Baseball game ever to be played in Alabama. It is happening at the recently renovated Rickwood Field, the home field of the minor league Birmingham Barons, and once home to the Birmingham Black Barons, the team on which Mays got his start at age 17.
And at 114 years old, Rickwood Field is the oldest professional baseball stadium in the country, beating Boston's Fenway Park by two years.
"We really hope that young people across the globe learn about these great players, the Negro League's players, who didn't make a lot of money, but loved they game, and they changed the game in many ways," says MLB's Senior Vice President of Social Responsibility April Brown, speaking on the Today Show, referring to other famed players who played at Rickwood Field like Jackie Robinson and Satchel Page.
"The overwhelming consensus is that Willie Mays is the greatest all-around player who has ever played,” says veteran sportscaster Bob Costas, speaking to CNN. "And, as sad as it is, there’s something poetic about the fact that he passes while much of the baseball world is gathered in Birmingham, Alabama, in Rickwood Field, for a game that was to be dedicated to Willie and still will be."
Mays had announced on Monday that he would not be able to attend the game in person due to his ailing health.
For the commemorative (but still regular season!) game, the teams chosen to play were the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals because of those two cities' long histories of supporting the Negro Leagues. The Giants will reportedly be sporting historic uniforms like those of the Negro League team the San Francisco Sea Lions, and the Cardinals will wear the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars.
Rickwood Field has undergone a $5 million renovation over the last two years in preparation for this game, which included a new padded wall, new broadcast center, and shifting the entire field by five feet to make it more symmetrical.
And in what is likely to be the first in a deluge of remembrances at baseball games nationwide, during the Minor League game of the Birmingham Barons Tuesday night, the announcer shared the news with fans in attendance, and a video remembrance was met with a standing ovations by the 7,866 fans.
In a statement Monday, announcing that he couldn't attend Thursday's game, Mays himself said, "My heart will be with all of you who are honoring the Negro League ballplayers, who should always be remembered, including all my teammates on the Black Barons. I wanted to thank Major League Baseball, the Giants, the Cardinals and all the fans who’ll be at Rickwood or watching the game. It’ll be a special day, and I hope the kids will enjoy it and be inspired by it."
Over a month before Mays's passing, the Giants opened a pop-up museum in his honor on King Street, across the street from Oracle Park, called The Willie Mays Say Hey Experience. The 2,000-square-foot space at 190 King Street includes a gallery, as well as seven projectors showing more than 500 slides of Mays, and three additional projectors showing video.
The Willie Mays Say Hey Experience has been open before Giants home games this season and will continue to be, but it will operate with special hours this week: It will be open until 4 pm today (Wednesday), and then from 10 am to 8 pm Thursday, and from 10 am to 4 pm Friday.
Following his death, Mays's son Michael Mays said in a statement to fans, "I want to thank you all from the bottom of my broken heart for the unwavering love you have shown him over the years. You have been his life’s blood."
Previously: Giants to Play a Game on Willie Mays’s Hometown Field In Alabama Next Season