'It's an honor': Ramos channels Mays with Rickwood homer

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The ghosts of Rickwood Field came alive on Thursday night, none more so than that of the late Willie Mays.

Mays, the legendary center fielder who died Tuesday at 93, was front and center as the Giants fell to the Cardinals, 6-5, in MLB’s special tribute to the Negro Leagues.

The Giants made sure they channeled Mays’ spirit even before taking the field at the historic 114-year-old ballpark, where the “Say Hey Kid” began his professional career with the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons in 1948.

The team arrived wearing throwback Black Barons caps and No. 8 jerseys, the number a teenage Mays wore before he claimed No. 24 with the Giants. Upon entering their makeshift clubhouse on these hallowed grounds, they found Mays’ Hall of Fame plaque, which was relocated from Cooperstown, N.Y., for the first time since his induction in 1979.

“I think his presence is definitely here, for sure,” LaMonte Wade Jr. said. “You can feel it.”

Giants manager Bob Melvin held a team meeting before the game to share stories of Mays, whom he’s credited with helping him fall in love with baseball during his childhood in the Bay Area.

“This is a signature game,” Melvin said. “Probably one of the signature games in baseball history. Being able to celebrate and now we’re celebrating more with statistics mattering and much more awareness of what happened here in the Negro Leagues and the great players that played in it. For us, it’s about Willie and where Willie started. We’re the perfect team to be here and play.”

The Giants’ current center fielder, Heliot Ramos, did his best Mays impression by crushing a game-tying, three-run homer to right field off Cardinals starter Andre Pallante in the third inning, but the club couldn’t overcome a rocky start from rookie Keaton Winn, who was charged with five runs on five hits over 2 2/3 innings.

Patrick Bailey recorded four hits, but the Giants’ biggest lift fittingly came from Ramos, who has already crushed a team-leading 10 home runs since being promoted from Triple-A Sacramento on May 8. The 24-year-old slugger’s red-hot June has thrust him into the conversation for his first career All-Star nod, as he’s now batting .307 with a .935 OPS, the highest mark among National League outfielders with at least 160 plate appearances this season.

“I think anytime you play center field for the San Francisco Giants, you think about Willie Mays,” Melvin said. “That's the kind of stuff he does. We’re down three and all of a sudden we're tied up with one swing of the bat. He’s been doing that for a while now.”

“It’s not a secret to everybody that Willie was one of the greats,” Ramos said. “It’s a privilege. It’s an honor. I hope his family liked that.”

Mike Yastrzemski, who exited the game after experiencing left side tightness in the fourth inning, noted that one of the anecdotes Melvin shared before the game was a story about how Mays managed to adapt his swing to still hit for power at the notoriously windy Candlestick Park.

“BoMel told us a story that when the wind was blowing out to right, he asked him how he hit all these home runs to left field at Candlestick, and he said, ‘Well, I just hit the ball to right field then,’” Yastrzemski said. “Ramos took that to heart and did it today. That was Willie speaking through him, I guess.”

The magnitude of the Rickwood game wasn’t lost on Yastrzemski, whose father, Mike, and Hall of Fame grandfather, Carl, both played here during their baseball careers. Yastrzemski also shared a connection with Rev. Bill Greason, who threw out the first pitch Thursday and was Mays’ teammate on the 1948 Black Barons. Yastrzemski and the 99-year-old Greason are both involved with the Heart and Armor Foundation, which aims to protect the health of veterans, and finally got a chance to meet in person and shake hands as part of Thursday’s moving pregame ceremony.

“It’s special,” Yastrzemski said. “You guys could feel it tonight. The buzz was different, the aura was different. It felt like we went back in time and we were playing 70 years ago. It was so fun. I just wish I got to stay out there for the rest of the game.”

Despite Thursday’s outcome, the Giants hope they’ll have another chance to step back in time and return to Mays’ old stomping grounds in the future.

“I think it should continue,” right-hander Jordan Hicks said. “I think it should be a tradition. There’s a lot of history here. I’m just happy to be a part of it and enjoy this experience and to represent the Giants.”