Topline: The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants will press pause on their rivalry tonight to honor the late baseball Hall-of-Famer Willie Mays at Dodger Stadium. Mays played for the Giants for two decades, and died from heart failure last month at 93.
At tonight’s game: Mays’ son Michael Mays is set to attend the tribute, which will take place ahead of tonight’s 7:10 p.m. opener of the four-game series between the two ball clubs.
“As beautiful as the outpouring of love for my father has been, frankly, I’m not surprised,” said Michael Mays. “But for his team’s forever rival to make it their business to pay tribute to him may be the greatest testament of all to his impact.”
The backstory: The legendary batter began his storied career for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948 before joining the first wave of Black players to compete in Major League Baseball. He played 23 seasons in the majors, taking the Giants to a world series victory in 1954 before they relocated to San Francisco.
The rivalry: Despite the fierce rivalry between the two teams, Dodgers’ Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully remarked that Willie Mays was “the greatest player he ever called” and “his favorite player, even though you wore the wrong uniform.” Willie Mays was in the broadcast booth when Scully called his final game, a road game in San Francisco, where he revealed a plaque honoring Scully.
Willie Mays played 383 games against the Dodgers in his career, hitting 98 home runs – the most he hit against any opposing franchise and the most by a single player against the Dodgers in history.
