BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — When Willie Mays died earlier this week, many Giants players and coaches only learned of the news when it was announced in the middle of their game at Wrigley Field.
Not LaMonte Wade Jr.
He and manager Bob Melvin, who has talked at length of his own kinship with Mays, were among those to be informed before first pitch.
“It was definitely sad news to hear, especially after these last two years getting to know Willie a little bit,” Wade said Thursday on the very site where Mays got his start.
Decades after Mays made his professional debut for the Birmingham Black Barons right here at Rickwood Field, where the Giants faced the Cardinals in a one-off game honoring the Negro Leagues, he took a special interest in another Black player trying to establish himself in the major leagues.
Wade and Mays met only twice, but each time was for an “extended period,” Wade said.
When Mays paid his first visit to Oracle Park since the COVID-19 pandemic, he sought out Wade, calling the first baseman into then-clubhouse manager Mike Murphy’s office. Last year, when Mays made his final visit to the park last May, he rang in his 92nd birthday with Wade, again.
“It’s kind of hard to put into words,” Wade said while addressing Mays’ passing for the first time Thursday. “You go out there and try to play the game the right way. Just go out there and play. And to have a legend like that to be following you, giving you pointers about the game, trying to teach you lessons about the game with what he went through, it’s very special. Something you’ll never forget, for sure.”
Between his personal relationship with Mays and his status as one of the handful of prominent active Black players in MLB, Wade had been talking about this game since it was put on the schedule, Melvin said. He was inactive, however, continuing to nurse the hamstring he strained last month.
“If anybody wanted to play in this game desperately, it was him,” Melvin said. “Once he got injured, my head went to a timeline for this game because he had been talking about it for a while.”
Despite progressing to on-field activities during this road trip, Wade estimated he was still “a couple weeks” away from returning to the lineup. Melvin said he was “at least probably a week away from him playing.”
“I wish I was playing today,” Wade said. “Just being her, though, is very special. To go out there on the field and see all the stuff around there is really cool to see. To share the field with all those guys who came before us, it’ll be very special to go out there today.”
Understanding the significance, Melvin reached out to the league office and petitioned for an exception that would have allowed the Giants to add Wade to their roster for the game without having to reset his eligibility on the injured list. Both teams were able to add a 27th player for the game, but the Giants went with utilityman Tyler Fitzgerald when their request was denied by MLB.
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“We were just trying to do anything we can to get him an at-bat,” Melvin said.
The gesture, while ultimately unsuccessful, was appreciated by Wade, who mistakenly believed the league would empathize with their situation.
“I thought it was going to work out. I don’t see why it wouldn’t,” he said. “BoMel really pushed for it and I appreciated him for doing that. But the rules are the rules and you’ve got to follow the rules. But I mean, for something like this, you would think that they would make an exception. I feel like we make exceptions in this league for other stuff, so why not this one?”
Hardly a consolation prize, Melvin found one way for Wade to participate. He enlisted him to take out the lineup card to home plate before first pitch.
“I know it’s not like playing in the game,” Melvin said. “But if there’s anyone you wanted to see play in this game, it was LaMonte.”