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☆ Reggie Jackson says racism he experienced playing in Birmingham made his return for Negro Leagues tribute ‘not easy’
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Dalia Faheid | Elizabeth Wolfe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson said it was difficult to return to Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, for the Negro Leagues tribute game Thursday because of the onslaught of racism he experienced when he played there decades ago. The team played at Rickwood Field. Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons, a Negro League baseball team that called Rickwood Field home until their last season in 1963. The game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals both paid tribute to the Negro Leagues and honored Mays’s legacy. Approximately 60 Negro League players were in attendance – marking the largest official gathering of the league’s players in nearly 30 years, according to the MLB.

Persons: CNN — Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, Jackson, ” Jackson, “, ”, ’, ’ ”, Los Angeles Angels – Jackson, Mr, of Famer Willie Mays, Mays Organizations: CNN — Baseball Hall of Famer, Negro Leagues, Birmingham, Southern League, Rickwood, Fox, Yankees, CNN, of Fame, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Angels, American League, MLB, of Famer, Birmingham Black Barons, Negro League baseball, San Francisco Giants, St, Louis Cardinals, Negro League, “ Locations: Birmingham , Alabama, New York

☆ Willie Mays: Chants of ‘Willie! Willie!’ stretched to the heavens at MLB game honoring Negro Leagues and late legend
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Elizabeth Wolfe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Willie Mays' son, Michael Mays, addresses the crowd aside baseball greats Ken Griffey Jr., left, and Barry Bonds, right. Approximately 60 Negro League players were in attendance – marking the largest official gathering of the league’s players in nearly 30 years, according to the MLB. A line of Negro League luminaries processed onto Rickwood Field before the game as “When the Saints Go Marching In” swelled through the stadium. Greason, who served as a mentor to teenaged Mays, told Fox Sports reporter Ken Rosenthal that Negro League players took to the field despite racism and segregation. “The overwhelming consensus is that Willie Mays is the greatest all-around player who has ever played,” veteran sportscaster Bob Costas told CNN.

Persons: Willie Mays, Mays, “, Willie, ”, of Famer Reggie Jackson, wouldn’t, Michael Mays, I’ve, he’s, Ken Griffey Jr, Barry Bonds, Vasha Hunt, Jon Batiste, Bill Greason, Eugene Scruggs, Pedro Sierra, Henry Collins, Lively, Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones, C.S, Armstrong, “ Todays, Masyn Winn, Ken Rosenthal, –, Babe Ruth, Bob Costas, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Breed, CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Wayne Sterling, Kevin Dotson Organizations: CNN, Major League Baseball, Birmingham Black Barons, Negro Leagues, MLB, San Francisco Giants, St, Louis Cardinals, of Famer, Fox, Negro League, Saints, Batiste, Birmingham Barons, St Louis Cardinals, Cardinals, Giants, Neagro League, ” Cardinals, Fox Sports, Major League, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Giants, New York Mets, The Giants, San Francisco Mayor Locations: Birmingham, America, “ Birmingham, New York, San Francisco, Birmingham , Alabama, Rickwood

☆ Reggie Jackson, on live TV from Rickwood Field, shares stark stories of racism
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( C. Trent Rosecrans | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +9 min

Reggie Jackson played in Birmingham when he was in the minor leagues back in 1967. In his return to Rickwood Field, he shared his experience with racism and discrimination. Jackson played there just four years after four girls were killed in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church. The Giants wore the uniform of the San Francisco Sea Lions, a Negro Leagues team that folded after its only season in 1946. Giants manager Bob Melvin played at Rickwood Field in parts of three seasons in the early 1980s as a minor-leaguer.

Persons: of Famer Reggie Jackson, Jim Crow, Jackson teared, “, ”, Jackson, ’, Charlie Finley’s, ’ Finley, ‘ We’re, we’re, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson, ackson,, ollie, ou’re, haron, ove, ou,, hite, ike, ethel B, artin, uther, J, eague, eason, elvin, layed, aid., harley, ride,, riffey J r., ure, ike W, ilgore J r. Organizations: of Famer, Hollywood, Major League, Negro Leagues, Birmingham Black Barons, ust Locations: Birmingham, osh

☆ At Rickwood Field, Willie Mays Is the Star of the Show, One More Time
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Tim Arango | Brandon Holland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Earlier this week, as Major League Baseball prepared for a tribute game in his hometown Birmingham, Ala., Willie Mays said that age would keep him away but that he would be watching from afar. “Rickwood Field is where I played my first home game, and playing there was it — everything I wanted,” he said in a statement to The San Francisco Chronicle. Mays died the next day, at 93, and as fans walked into the ballpark on Thursday, it felt like he was there in spirit, watching from afar. “I’m sure he’s here,” said his son, Michael Mays, who rushed to California from Alabama to pray over his father’s body and then returned in time for the game. He’s Willie Mays.”

Persons: Willie Mays, ”, Mays, “, Michael Mays Organizations: Major League Baseball, San Francisco Chronicle Locations: Birmingham, Ala, California, Alabama

☆ Major League Baseball Came to Birmingham. Then Willie Mays Died.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-20 | by ( Tim Arango | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When Willie Mays was perfecting his craft on the sandlots around Birmingham as a teenager in the 1940s, there was hardly anything bigger among the Black community than baseball. Overflowing crowds of Black fans packed Rickwood Field, the local ballpark, when the Birmingham Black Barons played, and on Sundays church would let out early so worshipers could watch baseball. “I don’t think they know anything about Black baseball as such,” said Charles Willis, 92, a high school teammate of Mays who played one season for the Black Barons, referring to Black children in Birmingham today. “Because nowadays, Black kids don’t play baseball.”Major League Baseball went to Rickwood this week as a tribute to the history of the Negro leagues, a celebration that will now encompass a memorial service for Mays, who died on Tuesday at 93. But it is also about looking ahead, wrestling with how to attract young African American athletes to play baseball at a time when African American representation in the sport has diminished.

Persons: Willie Mays, ”, Charles Willis, Mays Organizations: Birmingham Black Barons, Black, ” Major League Baseball, Negro, San Francisco Giants, Louis Cardinals Locations: Birmingham

☆ Willie Mays, Birmingham and Rickwood Field: Baseball Honors a Legend in His Hometown
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-19 | by ( Tim Arango | Brandon Holland | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the late innings of a minor league game on Tuesday night at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., fans throughout the grandstand, suddenly and almost in unison, began staring at the news on their phones: The great Willie Mays had died, at 93, in California. An inning later, a tribute video played on the scoreboard overlooking the outfield where Mays played his first professional game as a teenage phenom for the Birmingham Black Barons, and the loudspeaker blared “Say Hey (the Willie Mays Song),” recorded in 1954 by the R&B group the Treniers. “I was shocked,” said Randy Ferguson, 70, a member of the Friends of Rickwood, the nonprofit organization that oversees the ancient ballpark. I can’t think of any place to be than here.”At 114 years old, Rickwood Field is the nation’s oldest professional ballpark, the first place Mays played pro ball and the last ballpark still standing that he called home. To honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues, Major League Baseball scheduled a game in Mays’s hometown between the San Francisco Giants, Mays’s old team, and the St. Louis Cardinals, that will be played on Thursday.

Persons: Willie Mays, Mays, ”, “, Randy Ferguson Organizations: Birmingham Black Barons, Rickwood, Fame, Negro Leagues, Major League Baseball, San Francisco Giants, Louis Cardinals Locations: Birmingham, Ala, California, Cooperstown, Mays’s

☆ Willie Mays: One of baseball’s most electrifying and complete players has died at 93
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-18 | by ( Wayne Sterling | Kevin Dotson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

AP From left: Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Thompson hold bats on their shoulders in Yankee Stadium in 1951. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Mays, then a physical training instructor at Fort Eustis, Virginia, leads soldiers through a calisthenics session on February 19, 1953. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Mays plays stick ball with kids in New York's Harlem neighborhood in 1954. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images Mays makes a leaping, one-handed catch off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Duke Snider on August 15, 1954. JR/AP Mays, then of the San Francisco Giants, plays catch with 14-month-old Herbert Henderson, at the home of Henderson's parents, in San Francisco, California on November 14, 1957.

Persons: Willie Mays, Mays, “, Michael Mays, ” Michael Mays, ”, –, Babe Ruth, Hall, Hall of Famer Willie Mays, Robert D, Manfred, ” Manfred, ” Mays, couldn’t, wouldn’t, Negro League ballplayers, Monte Irvin, Hank Thompson, William F, Donegan, Duke Snider, Charles Hoff, Jackie Robinson, Bettmann, Frank Hurley, Joe DiMiaggio, Sid Mercer, Margherite Wendell, AP Mays, Herbert Henderson, Ernest Bennett, Pepe, San Francisco, Willie McCovey, Jon Brenneis, Ed Sullivan, Mel Ott, Hank Aaron, Joan Whitney Payson, Dan Farrell, douse Mays, Paul Sakuma, Monica M, Davey, John G, Mabanglo, San Francisco Giants Barry Bonds, of Famer Willie McCovey, Bonds, Willie, Laura Bush, George W, Bush, Chip Somodevilla, Jeff Gross, Barack Obama, Louis, Pete Souza, Jon Miller, Ezra Shaw, Nicholas Kamm, Gabrielle Lurie, ’ Mays, Vic Wertz, ” San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Breed, ’, Peter Ueberroth, Leo Durocher, ” Obama, “ Willie, Gavin Newsom, ” Newsom, Emma Tucker, Elizabeth Joseph, Taylor Romine Organizations: CNN, of Famer, San Francisco Giants, Giants, Major League Baseball, New York Giants, National League, Hall of Famer, MLB, Negro League statistics, Negro American, Birmingham Black Barons, San Francisco Chronicle, Juneteenth, Negro Leagues, Black Barons, Louis Cardinals, Negro League, Gloves, Bettmann, American, Minneapolis Millers, Minnesota Historical Society, AP, Yankee, The New York Giants, Army, Major League, Los Angeles Dodgers, NY, Mays ' New York Giants, Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Baseball Writers, JR, San, Candlestick Park, CBS, Getty, Astrodome, Mays, Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Mets, Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs, National League East, AP Mays, Candlestick, San Fransisco Giants, Park, Willie Mays Plaza, Bell Park, White, Little League's Challenger Division, T, Air Force, London Breed, Hall, Polo, New York, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York Yankees, Franciscan, ” San Francisco Mayor London, of Fame, Baseball Hall of Fame, Baseball Locations: Birmingham , Alabama, Birmingham, American, New York, Omaha , Nebraska, Camp Kilmer , New Jersey, Fort Eustis , Virginia, Phoenix , Arizona, New, Harlem, Mays ', NY, East Elmhurst , New York, San Francisco , California, San Francisco, Candlestick, Houston , Texas, New York City, Chicago , Illinois, AFP, Washington , DC, St, Washington ,, California

☆ As MLB changes its records, Josh Gibson, not Ty Cobb, is all-time batting leader
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

And as of Wednesday, Josh Gibson will replace Cobb as the leading hitter in the official records of the game. Thorn estimated that about 75 percent of all Negro Leagues box scores have been documented, and that MLB would update the records as more are uncovered. To some extent, Negro League numbers will always be a work in progress. Barnstorming games, essential as a financial lifeline to Negro League teams, are not included in the statistics. The scheduled games range from 26 (Negro American League, 1942) to 91 (Negro National League I, 1927).

Persons: Abner Doubleday, Tyrus Raymond Cobb, Doubleday, Josh Gibson, Cobb, ”, Larry Lester, “, Ty Cobb, Oscar Charleston, Rogers, Jud Wilson, Ed Delahanty, Buck Leonard, Ted Williams, John Thorn, Thorn, ” Lester, I’ve, Gibson, Chino Smith’s, Hugh Duffy’s, Chino Smith, Hugh Duffy, Charlie Blackwell, Ross Barnes, Willie Keeler, Rogers Hornsby, Tetelo Vargas, Vargas, — Lyman Bostock Sr, Bostock, Ted Williams ’, Sean Forman, Ty, Lester, Gary Ashwill, Kevin Johnson, Seamheads, ” Thorn, Elias, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Oscar, Barry Bonds, Jimmie Foxx, Ed Walsh, Addie Joss, Mordecai Brown, John Ward, Christy Mathewson, Rube Waddell, Walter Johnson, Dave Brown, Tommy Bond, White, Willie Mays, Mays, Bullet Rogan, Turkey Stearnes, ’ ” Lester, Simon Bruty Organizations: Major, Baseball, Negro Leagues, MLB, “, Negro League, Negro, Rogers Hornsby, Turkey Stearnes, Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Kansas City Monarchs, American, National Leagues, Negro American League, Negro National League I, Boston, New York Cubans, Twins, Red Sox, Sports, Birmingham Black Barons, Graphics, Retrosheet, Oscar Charleston, Barry, Major League Baseball, Birmingham, Giants, Mets Locations: Turkey, Birmingham, Ala, Chicago, Moline, Washington ,

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