Mays will not attend Giants-Cardinals game in his honor at Rickwood Field originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Giants legend Willie Mays will not be in attendance Thursday when San Francisco faces the St. Louis Cardinals in a historic game at Rickwood Field.
Mays, 93, will enjoy the game in the Bay Area instead of traveling to Birmingham, Alabama, where the Giants and Cardinals will play on the oldest professional ballpark in America. Rickwood Field is the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons, for whom Mays played in the Negro Leagues from 1948 to 1950.
In a statement released by the Giants, Mays expressed his regret about missing the game, reflected on his memories of Rickwood Field and ended with an emphatic statement: “All these years and it’s still there. So am I. How about that? “
The two MLB teams will wear Negro League jerseys during Thursday’s historic game, with the Giants paying tribute to the San Francisco Sea Lions and the Cardinals wearing the uniform of the St. Louis Stars. In addition, there will be a minor league game on Tuesday between the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits, with the Barons representing the Black Barons and the Biscuits performing as the Montgomery Gray Sox.
At home in the Bay, Mays will watch the game with a group of friends, including former Giants clubhouse manager Mike Murphy, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“If he doesn’t go, I’m not going,” Murphy told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I’m spending the day with Willie.”
And while Mays won’t be at Rickwood Field this week, the living legend will be honored there in several ways, including a mural in downtown Birmingham.
What better place to recognize Mays as one of, if not the single greatest, baseball player of all time than where it all began for the Say Hey Kid?
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