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.
