Tributes to Willie Mays pour in as mural is unveiled in Alabama

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Willie Mays sent a message to his longtime friend Dusty Baker just a day before he died.

Mays, who died Tuesday afternoon at 93, he knew that he could not make a trip to Birmingham, Alabama for a week of festivities honoring the contributions he and other Negro Leaguers made to baseball. But he wanted Baker to deliver a message to the city he’s long called home.

“Birmingham, I wish I could be with all of you today,” said Mays’ good friend and adviser Jeff Bleich, reading the statement at a ceremony Wednesday honoring Mays’ life and career. “I’m from here. I had my first professional hit here at Rickwood as Black Baron. And now this year, some 76 years later, that hit has finally been counted in the record books. I think some things take time. But I always think better late than never.”

Mays also sent an antique clock with his picture on it to the city of Birmingham. Baker was not feeling well, Bleich said, so he was not 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 watch to remember those times with me and to remember all the other players who were lucky enough to play here together.”

The ceremony took place in downtown Birmingham, just miles from Rickwood Field, where Mays’ unforgettable career began. Bleich joined Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and San Francisco Giants CEO Larry Baer to give speeches in Mays’ honor, standing in front of a grand mural of the former Giants center fielder.

It is a delightful description of the electrifying “Say Hey Kid,” showing Mays beaming with his hands resting on his knees, his plethora 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 present him in a way that everyone knew him for,” Styles said, “and that was his smile.”

Other tributes to Mays, who was born in Westfield, Alabama, near Birmingham, poured in across the country on Wednesday, including from President Joe Biden.

“Like many others in my neighborhood and around the country, when I was playing 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 basket catches, daring steals and command at the plate — only to be told by the coaches to put him away because nobody could do what Willie Mays could do.”

Mays, who began his professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues in 1948, had been baseball’s oldest Hall of Famer and was considered the sport’s greatest living player.

He died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals to honor the Negro Leagues at Rickwood Field in Birmingham.

“Actually, it’s even tougher today,” said Giants manager Bob Melvin, wearing a Mays jersey. “When you read all the articles and read what everyone has to say about him, it comes full circle in what he meant to our country. Even if you don’t know baseball, you know who Willie Mays is.”

The Giants wore Mays’ No. 24 chest patch 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 in 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 greatest I’ve ever seen,” McGee said. “He had all six gears. His aggressiveness, his base running. That’s what separated him, for me, his aggressiveness and his instincts from other five-tool guys.”

When asked if Mays ever gave him any advice, McGee chuckled.

“All the time, but I don’t remember anything,” he said.

Some of the most heartfelt words on Wednesday came from those who grew up in Alabama.

Jameis Winston, a backup quarterback with the Cleveland Browns who was born in Bessemer, Ala., smiled benevolently as he looked out at Rickwood Field. Winston was in town along with many other notables to celebrate Mays and the Negro Leagues in a celebrity softball game at the stadium.

“He was an amazing man,” Winston said. “He had a tremendous legacy, a tremendous career playing baseball. I’m so happy to be allowed to be on the diamond, united with all my brothers.”

Alongside Winston, comedian and actor Roy Wood Jr. spoke thoughtfully and earnestly. Wood, who grew up playing high school baseball at Rickwood Field, was doing a stadium show Tuesday night when news of Mays’ death broke.

Wood paused between his sentences on Wednesday, as if carefully choosing the words that would best describe the moment.

“The dichotomy of live television is trying to stay human but also be professional,” Wood said. “And he was saddened. … 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 smiling.”

Kelly McFarland had taken a short break from her job directing buses to the field when she heard the news Tuesday night. She was taking pictures next to one of Mays’ tributes at the stadium when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“They said, ‘You know he passed?'” said McFarland, a Birmingham native. “So I look at the field and then you might get a strange feeling. And you just saw tears from grown people, men, just crying.

“I’m glad I had the chance to experience what he brought to the community and see the emotions of people from 93 to 3 years old.”

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AP Sports Writer Andrew Seligman in Chicago and Associated Press Writer Terry Spencer in Miami contributed to this report.

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