CHICAGO — His jersey hung in the San Francisco Giants dugout. His memory hung on everyone’s minds.
The Giants honored Willie Mays by wearing No. 24 patches on their chests for Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Players from both teams stood on the warning track prior to the national anthem and observed a moment of silence, as players did in every major-league stadium.
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The news of Mays’ passing at age 93 on Tuesday was too sudden for anyone in uniform to process. It required a night’s rest to comprehend the magnitude of what was lost: the greatest star and ambassador of one of baseball’s most decorated franchises, a man who fused the Giants’ New York and San Francisco eras, a historic figure in America’s complicated and ongoing social and racial reckoning who both was a part of his time and also transcended it, and an icon whose ebullient play and boundless talent created some of baseball’s most enduring images while the sport was at the pinnacle of its popularity.
The Giants will forever long for Willie Mays.
GO DEEPER
Giants react to the death of Willie Mays: 'The things he did we'll never see again'
They were a team in need of a spark in a 6-5 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday afternoon. They made a series of defensive mistakes while playing a bullpen game in which they couldn’t afford to give away outs. The Giants showed more late-inning chutzpah when Jorge Soler’s grand slam erased nearly all of a five-run deficit, and they had the winning run on base in the ninth after drawing a pair of one-out walks. But they could not complete the comeback as Heliot Ramos and Patrick Bailey grounded out.
Jorge Soler grand slam makes it a one-run game in the 8th! pic.twitter.com/ZFwXAh0exK
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 19, 2024
Willie Mays might be the ultimate embodiment of the Giants, but their current roster is not the perfect embodiment of him. They aren’t dynamic enough. They aren’t consistent enough. They haven’t played with enough smarts or attention to detail. They are last in the major leagues in stolen bases for the second consecutive season.
“I think we’re still in the midst of creating our identity as an offense,” said outfielder Austin Slater, their longest tenured player.
The good news is that the National League is stockpiled with teams just like them: underachievers and water treaders. The other good news is that there is so much of the season to play.
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Continuing on Thursday when the Giants will honor Mays by playing in his hometown.
Club officials have spent the better part of a year planning for this trip to Birmingham, Ala., and the heritage game at Rickwood Field against the St. Louis Cardinals that will serve as a salute to the Negro Leagues. The Giants were selected to participate in the game because they are the franchise of Willie Mays and it was at 115-year-old Rickwood, the oldest professional baseball stadium in the nation, where a 17-year-old Mays began his professional baseball career with the Birmingham Black Barons.
Even though the Giants and Major League Baseball have known for some time that Mays would be too frail to travel to Alabama, so much of the event was designed as a celebration of his life and legacy.
“Now it’s going to carry more weight,” Slater said. “There’s going to be more of a heaviness to what we’ll be celebrating. It turns more into a remembrance. The celebration doesn’t go by the wayside, but there’s going to be more heaviness to those moments.”
Growing up in segregated Westfield, Ala., as the son of an iron foundry worker and semipro baseball star, Mays considered playing at Rickwood Field for the Black Barons as the height of what he could achieve in baseball. Mays was a few weeks short of his 16th birthday in 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier and made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Mays still fulfilled his dream to play at Rickwood Field. But because of Robinson’s sacrificing achievement, Mays didn’t play for the Black Barons for long. Mays was the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1951 when he debuted for the New York Giants, beginning a quarter-century major-league career that came to be viewed by many as peerless in terms of all-around impact and talent.
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It was difficult enough for the current Giants players and coaches to process Mays’ passing and all that he meant to their franchise, to baseball and to the country while they attempted to play the remainder of their series at Wrigley Field. It’ll be even more overwhelming to take the field in his honor and in his hometown.
“I don’t think right now we can comprehend that,” Melvin said. “With his passing, it goes to another level. It’s going to be a special, signature day. I know it will be for me in my baseball career.
“You read all the articles and what everyone has to say about him and it comes full circle what he’s meant to our country, even if you don’t know about baseball.”
The Giants announced that they will open the gates of their waterfront ballpark in San Francisco — the one located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza — on Thursday for fans who wish to honor Mays and pay tribute to the legacy of the Negro Leagues. The game will be televised on the scoreboard. There will be a No. 24 sculpture in center field for fans to view and a condolences book that fans will be encouraged to sign. Gates will be open from noon till 8 p.m. PDT. The first pitch at Rickwood Field is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. PDT.
In honor of Willie pic.twitter.com/WuCEjhVyVV
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 19, 2024
The Giants and Major League Baseball officials were discussing additional plans to honor Mays prior to the game, including the potential for all players to wear No. 24. Melvin said he fully supported the idea. Giants right-hander Sean Hjelle, who wears No. 64, said he would be thrilled to swap his 6 for a 2 to show his respect and appreciation for the franchise legend.
It’s a deep disappointment that Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. will be unable to play in the game while he goes through the latter stages of his rehab progression for a strained hamstring. The Giants appealed to Major League Baseball to allow Wade to be activated for one day — the Giants and Cardinals each receive a 27th player on Thursday because of the additional travel involved — but the league declined the request, saying rules are rules and Wade could not be backdated if he were to be rostered for a day and placed back on the IL.
Last year on May 6, when Mays visited the Giants’ home clubhouse on his 92nd birthday, he requested one-on-one time with just one player. He sent emeritus clubhouse manager Mike Murphy in search of Wade. When Murphy found Wade in the trainer’s room, the outfielder leapt off the table and double-timed it to Murphy’s office.
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“I can’t have Willie waiting on me,” Wade said last year. “It’s a very special moment we got to share with him, see him smile and talk baseball and life in general. And for him to know who I am, that’s crazy.
“This time I remembered to come in with a firm grip,” Wade continued. “If you don’t shake his hand strong, he’s going to let you know. It’s, ‘Hey, are you sick or something?’ It’s really cool how he still watches our games. … He asked me, ‘Are you playing every day?’ I said, ‘Well, not quite yet, Willie. They kind of do the platoon system here.’ He said right-handed or left-handed didn’t matter to him. Just keep everything simple.
“I love hearing him talk about hitting. And to know he’s paying attention, that definitely gives you motivation to play the game the right way.”
If Mays’ spirit endures, then so does the motivation. And the Giants will never be so motivated to play in honor of Mays than when they take the field at Rickwood.
Right-hander Keaton Winn will take the mound against Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante. Then following a day off on Friday that was scheduled as a buffer against a rainout in Birmingham, it’ll be Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb on the mound for the Giants over the weekend at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
When the Giants return home to face the Cubs again Monday in San Francisco, they’ll be scrambling again to fill the back end of a rotation that hasn’t operated with five healthy starters all season. It won’t be easy to navigate the remainder of their first-half schedule and stay afloat while they await the returns of Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Alex Cobb, Tristan Beck and Kyle Harrison. Then again, as Melvin reminded on Wednesday, Mays played more games at windy and inhospitable Candlestick Park than any other venue. And he never complained about how difficult it was.
“I know that we’ll figure it out and start playing complete baseball,” said Slater, after the Giants lost two of three to a Cubs team that hadn’t won a three-game series since May 10-12. “We’ve played quite a few games that have been incomplete. Parts of our game have been really good and a third part falls apart. But there’s plenty of season left to figure it out, and I’m sure we will.”
(Photo of Bob Melvin with Willie Mays’ jersey behind him in the Giants dugout: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)