Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama is the oldest ballpark in America. It holds the stories of 114 years of baseball. On June 20, two legacy Major League Baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals, will square off against each other at the historic site. The players will assemble along the foul lines before first pitch, as is tradition for special events. But those lines and those players represent more than baseball tradition. They capture a seam in time.

The regular-season game at Rickwood Field will pay tribute to the Negro Leagues and to baseball’s greatest player: Hall of Famer, Giants legend, Birmingham native and Birmingham Black Barons star Willie Mays.

It was no surprise that Mays emerged as a superstar in his three seasons with the Black Barons. In 1950, he was snapped up by the New York Giants. Mays endured harassment from white fans and players wherever he went, yet he still skyrocketed through the Giants’ farm system and into a Major League uniform with “24’’ on his back. The number 24 is baseball. The name Willie Mays has been and always will be the embodiment of excellence. No player in Giants history, and many would say baseball history, has had the impact of Willie Mays.