The San Francisco Giants will open Oracle Park to the public for free on Thursday from noon to 8 p.m. for a free program paying tribute to honor Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues.
Mays, who died in Palo Alto on Tuesday at the age of 93, played for the Giants from 1951 to 1972 — during which the baseball team moved from New York to San Francisco. Mays previously played for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League.
Oracle Park, located at 24 Willie Mays Plaza, will open at noon and the ballpark’s scoreboard will begin to televise a game between the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, at 4:15 p.m. Pacific time.
The Rickwood Field game will serve as a tribute to Mays, a Birmingham native, and to the Negro Leagues in which he played, according to Major League Baseball’s website.
Before and after the game, Oracle Park will televise historic images of Mays. The program will conclude at 8 p.m.
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