There was going to be a Negro League memorial game where Willie Mays would be recognized. Once he passes away, the incident has fresh significance

Major League Baseball will pay tribute to the Say Hey Kid at the oldest professional stadium in America, where a youthful Willie Mays once roamed the outfield for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, two days after losing one of its most historic players.

Tuesday was the 93rd birthday of Mays, the dynamic Hall of Famer who was a master of all aspects of the game and whose memorable grab in the 1954 World Series continues to enthrall fans. He had informed the San Francisco Chronicle the day before that he would not be able to go to Rickwood Field on Thursday for MLB's commemoration of the Negro Leagues, where a young Mays was beginning to exhibit the bravery and elegance that would go on to become an iconic player.

Veteran sportscaster Bob Costas told CNN that "the overwhelming consensus is that Willie Mays is the greatest all-around player who has ever played." Even though it is tragic, there is a certain poetic quality to the fact that he dies away when a large portion of the baseball community is in Birmingham, Alabama, at Rickwood Field, for a game that was, and still is, being held in Willie's honor.

MLB intended to pay tribute to Mays during the game in his home state of Alabama. Mays said that, instead, he was going to see the San Francisco Giants, his favorite team, play the St. Louis Cardinals on television.

"My heart goes out to all of you who are paying tribute to the Negro League ballplayers—including all of my teammates on the Black Barons—who deserve to be remembered forever," Mays said to the publication.

According to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, this Thursday's game will now be a national memorial for "an American who remains everlasting on the short list of the most impactful personalities our great game has ever known."

MLB at Rickwood Field: A pregame ceremony commemorating Mays, who started his professional career with the Black Barons in 1948, will be part of Fox's Tribute to the Negro Leagues.

In a statement released by the Giants, the MLB team that most closely resembled Mays, Michael Mays, the son of the late Say Hey Kid, claimed that his father passed away "peacefully and among loved ones."

From the bottom of my shattered heart, I want to thank each and every one of you for your unflinching love for him throughout the years. His lifeblood has been you, Michael Mays said.

The field at Rickwood is sacred. In October 1948, it hosted the last Negro League World Series game. The Homestead Grays defeated Mays and his Black Barons in five games. Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball stadium in America, was constructed in 1910.

Willie Mays, a 17-year-old who played center field for the Birmingham Black Barons, came out of that location, according to Bob Kendricks, head of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. It always has significance. It made my skin tingle. It continues to do so each time I go onto that field.

"Even though everyone is feeling a little depressed right now, I think this will be the greatest celebration of Willie Mays' life."

Greg Morla, who is traveling to Birmingham from San Francisco with his spouse on Thursday, remembered his father bringing him to his first Major League Baseball game in 1970 at the former Candlestick Park in San Francisco as he was standing close to Rickwood Field on Wednesday. Although Morla was unfamiliar with the local Giants, he was struck by the standing ovation shown for a certain player.

Who's that, dad? Donning a Giants jersey, Morla claimed to have asked his dad. "My father taught me about Willie." That's how I started to like the Giants. That's how Willie captured my heart. And I started crying last night when he went away. I hope he finds peace. He will always be my hero.”

Mays excels at running, throwing, and fielding in addition to hitting for average and power. He played in 23 big league seasons, mostly with the New York and San Francisco Giants. At the conclusion of his career, he had 660 career home runs, which was second only to the legendary Babe Ruth.

After playing in two seasons with the New York Mets, Mays would go on to participate in 24 All-Star games until retiring in 1973. San Francisco Giants retired his number 24.

Mays told CNN that "it must be some kind of record for a 93-year-old" in early June, after Major League Baseball's incorporation of Negro League statistics into its record books and the addition of 10 hits to his career totals.

In 1948, as a youngster playing for the Black Barons of the Negro American League, he scored his first hits.

Mays said, "I was still in high school." There was not a baseball team at our school. I enjoyed baseball, but I also played basketball and football. My father so gave me permission to play, but only provided I attended class. He want for me to earn my degree. I participated in the team's games on the weekends until the summer break from school.

"I believed that to be the pinnacle of the universe; that was IT." "It was an honor to play with those guys," he said. Mays described his 93-year-old statistics achievement as "amazing."

Mays led the National League five times in slugging and four times in home runs and steals. He had a lifetime average of.301 and batted over.300 ten times. He served as both a representative of the sport and a father figure to many younger athletes who went on to achieve success in their own way.

"He was the one who everyone in New York watched out for throughout his entire stay there. In 1958, the Giants relocated westward. Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, Juan Marichal, and the Alou brothers were among the people he suddenly turned into a protector of others, according to John Shea, a baseball journalist and Mays biographer for the San Francisco Chronicle.

"That guy in the clubhouse was him." He was the team member. That's why all the knowledge he gained from seeing the Black Barons and Negro Leagues and from watching his father play catch when he was a small lad was combined.

And he wanted to repay it all throughout his life, and he has been doing so for the last many decades. And now have a look at it. He seems to be leaving on his own terms. That is a complete circle. We're all in Birmingham to honor Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues. Additionally, he expressed gratitude two days before to the Rickwood game.