As originally aired on The Rochester Press Box
It opened in 1910. 114 years later it still stands. The oldest ballpark in the country. Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The Giants and the Cardinals played a game there last week. It was meant to honor the Negro Leagues, which earlier this month were granted full and complete access to the game’s record books. But more to the point, it was meant to honor Willie Mays.
Mays got his start as a 15-year-old playing parts of three seasons at Rickwood with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. He blossomed from there into one of the best and most electrifying performers in baseball’s long history. He was the original five tool player. An All Star a record eighteen times, Mays is the only Major Leaguer to have at least 3000 hits, a 300-career batting average, 300 home runs and 300 stolen bases. A numerologist’s delight. An iconic catch and throw he made in the 1954 World Series cemented his defensive legacy. The Say Hey Kid, playing centerfield, the saying goes, “is where triples went to die.”
It is literally the end of an era. Mays made it known he couldn’t attend the game last week, but he’d be watching on television. “My heart will be with all of you,” he said. “It’ll be a special day.” Willie didn’t make it. Although there had to be some solace knowing it was scheduled, at 93, he died two days too soon. Willie, Mickey and the Duke. Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle and Duke Snyder. New York baseball’s great triumvirate from the game’s golden years. Mays was the last man standing. Now they’re all gone.
Rickwood is in Birmingham, not Fairfield.