Giants prepare for an emotional experience honoring Willie Mays at Rickwood Field

CHICAGO — His jersey hung in the Giants dugout. His memory lingered in everyone’s thoughts.

The San Francisco Giants honored Willie Mays by wearing No. 24 patches on their chest during Wednesday afternoon’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Players from both teams stood on the warning track prior to the anthem and observed a moment of silence, as players did in any Major League stadium.

The news of Mays’ death at the age of 93 on Tuesday was too sudden for anyone in uniform to process. It took a night’s sleep to understand the magnitude of what was lost: the biggest star and ambassador of one of baseball’s most decorated clubs, a man who fused the New York and San Francisco eras of the Giants, a historic figure in the complicated and ongoing social world of America. and racial reckoning that was both part of and transcended his time, and an icon whose exuberant play and boundless talent created some of baseball’s most enduring images as the sport was at the height of its popularity.

The Giants will forever covet Willie Mays.

They were a team that needed a spark in the 6-5 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday afternoon. They made a series of defensive mistakes while playing a bullpen game where they couldn’t afford to give away any outs. The Giants showed more grit in the late inning when Jorge Soler’s grand slam erased nearly the entire five-run deficit and they had the winning run on base in the ninth after a pair of one-out walks. But they couldn’t 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

— Talking Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) June 19, 2024

Willie Mays may be the ultimate embodiment of the Giants, but their current roster is not the perfect embodiment of him. They are not dynamic enough. They are not consistent enough. They didn’t play with enough smarts or attention to detail. They rank last in the major leagues in stolen bases for the second straight season.

“I think we’re still in the process of creating our identity as an offense,” said outfielder Austin Slater, their longest-tenured player.

The good news is that the National League is filled with teams like them: underachievers and water traders. The other good news is that much of the season can be played.

We continue on Thursday, when the Giants will honor Mays by playing in his hometown.

Club officials have spent the better part of a year planning this trip to Birmingham, Alabama, and the historic game at Rickwood Field against the St. Louis Cardinals, which will serve as a tribute to the Negro Leagues. The Giants were selected to participate in the game because they are Willie Mays’ franchise and it was at the 115-year-old Rickwood, the nation’s oldest professional baseball stadium, where the 17-year-old Mays began his professional baseball career. with the Birmingham Black Barons.

Although the Giants and Major League Baseball had known for some time that Mays would be too weak to travel to Alabama, much of the event was intended as a celebration of his life and legacy.

“Now it’s going to carry more weight,” Slater said. “What we are going to celebrate will be heavier. It becomes more of a memory. The party won’t happen automatically, but those moments will become harder.”

Mays grew up in segregated Westfield, Alabama, the son of an ironworks worker and semipro baseball star, and considered playing at Rickwood Field for the Black Barons the pinnacle of what he could accomplish 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 of playing at Rickwood Field. But because of Robinson’s sacrificial performance, 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 and embarked on a quarter-century Major League career that was considered by many to be unparalleled in terms of all-around impact and talent.

It was hard enough for current Giants players and coaches to come to terms with Mays’ passing and all he meant to their franchise, to baseball and to the country, while trying to play out the remainder of their series at Wrigley Field . It will be even more overwhelming to take the field in his honor and in his hometown.

“I don’t think we can fathom that right now,” Melvin said. “With his death it goes to another level. It will be a special, characteristic day. I know this will be something for me in my baseball career.

“You read all the articles and what everyone has to say about him and it comes full circle to what he meant to our country, even if you don’t know anything about baseball.”

The Giants announced that they will open the gates of their waterfront ballpark in San Francisco — located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza — on Thursday to fans who want to honor Mays and pay tribute to the legacy of the Negro Leagues. The match will be televised on the scoreboard. There will be a number 24 sculpture in midfield for fans to view and a condolence book that fans will be encouraged to sign. Gates are open from 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM PDT. First pitch at Rickwood Field is scheduled for 4:15 PM PDT.

In honor of Willie pic.twitter.com/WuCEjhVyVV

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 19, 2024

Giants and Major League Baseball officials discussed additional plans to honor Mays prior to the game, including the possibility of all players wearing No. 24. Melvin said he fully supported the idea. Giants right-hander Sean Hjelle, who wears No. 64, said he would love to trade his 6 for a 2 to show his respect and appreciation for the franchise legend.

It is a deep disappointment that Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. will be unable to play in the match as he undergoes the final stages of his rehabilitation process due to a strained hamstring. The Giants appealed to Major League Baseball to have Wade activated for one day — the Giants and Cardinals will each receive a 27th player on Thursday because of the additional travel involved — but the league denied the request, saying rules are rules and Wade couldn’t. retroactively if he were to be scheduled for the day and placed back on the IL.

Last year, on May 6, when Mays visited the Giants’ home clubhouse on his 92nd birthday, he asked for one-on-one time with just one player. He sent clubhouse manager emeritus Mike Murphy to look for Wade. When Murphy found Wade in the trainer’s room, the outfielder jumped off the table and double-crossed him into Murphy’s office.

“I can’t have Willie waiting for me,” Wade said last year. “It’s a very special moment that we got to share with him, seeing him laugh and talk about baseball and life in general. And the fact that he knows who I am, that’s crazy.”

“This time I remembered to come in with a strong grip,” Wade continued. “If you don’t shake his hand vigorously, he’ll let you know. It’s, “Hey, are you sick or something?” It’s really cool how he still watches our games. … He asked me, ‘Do you play every day?’ I said, ‘Well, not quite yet, Willie. They’re kind of doing the platoon system here.” He said right-handed or left-handed didn’t matter to him. Keep everything simple.

“I like to hear him talk about hitting. And to know that he’s paying attention, it definitely gives him the motivation to play the game well.”

If Mays’ spirit endures, so should the motivation. And the Giants will never be more 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. After a day off on Friday that was scheduled to provide a buffer against a rainstorm in Birmingham, Jordan Hicks and Logan Webb will be on the mound for the Giants this weekend at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

When the Giants return home to face the Cubs again on Monday in San Francisco, they will once again have to do their utmost to fill the back of a rotation that has been without five healthy starters all season. Navigating the rest of their first-half schedule and staying afloat as they wait for the return of Blake Snell, Robbie Ray, Alex Cobb, Tristan Beck and Kyle Harrison won’t be easy. But as Melvin recalled Wednesday, Mays played more games at the windy and inhospitable Candlestick Park than at any other venue. And he never complained about how hard it was.

“I know we’ll figure it out and play full baseball,” Slater said, after the Giants lost two of three to a Cubs team that hadn’t won a three-game series since May 10-12. “We have played quite a few games that were incomplete. Parts of our game were very good and a third part falls apart. But there’s still plenty of season left to find out and I’m sure we will.”

(Photo of Melvin with Mays’ jersey behind him in the Giants’ dugout: Kamil Krzaczynski / USA Today)