The death of Giants legend Willie Mays at age 93 on Tuesday left the MLB world at large reeling, as the game lost one of the greatest players ever to step foot on the diamond.
At the ballpark where Mays' Baseball Hall of Fame career first began, the news was met with a moving ovation from the crowd gathered at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., who made their appreciation for the MLB titan heard loud and clear.
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Mays was born in Westfield, Ala., in 1931 and played at Rickwood Field in the Negro Leagues from 1948 to 1950 as part of the Birmingham Black Barons. The Giants and St. Louis Cardinals will play at the ballpark, the oldest professional baseball stadium in America, in a historic game on Thursday. It was announced Monday that Mays would not travel to his home state for MLB's special four-day event.
As part of those festivities, a special minor league game between Double-A Birmingham Barons (White Sox) and the Montgomery Biscuits (Rays), with both team sporting special Negro League throwbacks, was in progress when news of Mays' death broke.
The crowd was audibly distraught, as captured in a video posted by MiLB reporter Sam Dykstra. But their sadness soon turned into a roar of admiration and a standing ovation for the late legend.
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Mays' impact transcended sports, and the reaction to his passing shows just how dearly "The Say Hey Kid" will be missed.