BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Willie Mays gave a message to his longtime friend Dusty Baker just a day before he died.
Mays, who died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 93, knew he would not be able to make the trip to Birmingham, Alabama, for a week of festivities honoring the contributions that he and other Negro League players brought to baseball. But he wanted Baker to share a message to the city he has long called home.
“Birmingham, I wish I could be with all of you today,” said Mays’ good friend and adviser Jeff Bleich, reading the release at a ceremony Wednesday honoring Mays’ life and career. “That’s where I come from. I had my first professional success here at Rickwood as the Black Baron. And now this year, some 76 years later, that success has finally gone into the record books. I guess some things take time, but I always think it’s better late than never.”
Mays also sent an antique clock with his photo to the city of Birmingham. Baker was not feeling well, Bleich said, so he was not present at the ceremony.
“Time changes things,” Mays continued in his note. “Time heals wounds. And that’s a good thing. I had some of the best times of my life in Birmingham. So I want you to have this clock to remember those times with me and everyone else players who had the chance to play here together.
The ceremony took place in downtown Birmingham, just a few miles from Rickwood Field, where Mays’ unforgettable career began. Bleich joined Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer in giving speeches in honor of Mays, standing in front of a large mural depicting the former Giants center.
It’s an enchanting rendition of the electrifying “Say Hey Kid,” showing Mays beaming with his hands resting on his knees, his multitude of athletic accomplishments painted around him.
The artwork was created by artist Chuck Styles, who said he wanted to capture Mays’ humanity.
“I knew I wanted to highlight him in a way that everyone knew him for,” Styles said, “and that was his smile.”
More tributes to Mays, who was born in Westfield, Alabama, near Birmingham, poured in Wednesday from across the country, including from President Joe Biden.
“Like so many others in my neighborhood and across the country, when I played Little League, I wanted to play center field because of Willie Mays,” Biden said in a statement. “It was a rite of passage to practice his field goal catches, his daring steals and his command at the plate – only to be told by the coaches to stop it because no one can do what Willie Mays could do.”
Mays, who began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues in 1948, was the oldest member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and was considered the sport’s greatest living player.
He died two days before a game between the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals honoring the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.
“It’s actually even heavier today,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin, wearing a Mays T-shirt. “When you read all the articles and what everyone has to say about him, it comes full circle as to what he means to our country. Even if you don’t know baseball, you know who Willie Mays is .”
The Giants wore patches with Mays’ number 24 on the chest for Wednesday’s game against the Chicago Cubs.
When the team travels to Birmingham for the Memorial Game at Rickwood Field on Thursday, the Giants will open Oracle Park for fans to watch the game on the scoreboard, the team announced.
Images of Mays will appear on the scoreboard before and after the event, and a sculpture of his jersey number will be placed at center field to honor him.
Cardinals assistant coach Willie McGee said he had several conversations with Mays when he played for the Giants from 1991-94.
“Willie was the best, man, the best I’ve ever seen,” McGee said. “He had all six tools. His aggression, his baserunning. That’s what set him apart, to me, his aggression and his instincts from the other five-tool guys.”
When asked if Mays ever gave him advice, McGee laughed.
“All the time, but I don’t remember anything,” he said.
Some of Wednesday’s most heartfelt words came from those who grew up in Alabama.
Bessemer, Alabama-born Cleveland Browns backup quarterback Jameis Winston smiled graciously as he looked out at Rickwood Field. Winston was in town with many other notable people to celebrate Mays and the Negro Leagues at a celebrity softball game at the ballpark.
“He was an extraordinary man,” Winston said. “He had a tremendous legacy, a tremendous baseball career. I’m so happy to have the right to be on the field, united with all my brothers.”
Next to Winston, comedian and actor Roy Wood Jr. spoke thoughtfully and seriously. Wood, who grew up playing high school baseball at Rickwood Field, was doing a show at the stadium Tuesday night when news of Mays’ death broke.
Wood took brief pauses between his sentences Wednesday, as if carefully choosing the words that would best describe this moment.
“The dichotomy of live television is trying to stay human while still being professional,” Wood said. “And it was saddening… There was a 90-second round of applause for Willie Mays, and you looked up in the crowd and you saw people crying but you saw them hugging and smile.”
Kelly McFarland had taken a brief break from her job directing buses to the stadium when she heard the news Tuesday evening. She was taking photos next to one of Mays’ tributes at the ballpark when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
“They said, ‘You know he passed away?'” said McFarland, a Birmingham native. “And so I look out at the field and that’s when you can feel a strange feeling. And you just saw the tears of adults, of men, crying.
“I’m glad I had the chance to experience what he brought to the community and see the emotions of people aged 93 to 3.”