Willie Mays began his professional baseball career with the Birmingham Black Barons, who barnstormed the Jim Crow South as a member of the Negro Southern League.
Birmingham, Alabama — Before Willie Mays electrified fans with the New York Giants and made « The Catch » in the 1954 World Series, he patrolled centerfield at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, as a teenager in 1948.
« Willie was something else », Rev. William Greason said of Mays, at the age of 93. « He had a gift that God gave him. »
Greason, now almost 100 years old, was Mays’ teammate on the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.
« The camaraderie that we had on that team, it was out of sight », said Greason, who added that, at the time, he had no idea he was playing alongside .
« I just wanted to be a friend », Greason told CBS News.
Mays was too young to travel with the Black Barons, who barnstormed the Jim Crow South as a member of the Negro Southern League.
At Rickwood Field, which the Black Barons shared with the all-White Birmingham Barons, segregation was the enforced custom.
