Major League Baseball’s home run king thought of those that came before him as he glanced at Rickwood Field shortly before the St. Louis Cardinals took on the San Francisco Giants.

“Thank you for paving the way, for going through struggles,” Barry Bonds, the longtime former Giant, said during an appearance on Fox’s pregame show Thursday for the MLB at Rickwood: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues game.

Bonds, whose career has been tainted by a steroids scandal, suggested his own path would have been impossible without the Negro League Baseball players, including the Birmingham Black Barons, who called Rickwood home from 1920 to 1960.

“I looked at the field and the only thing I could say was: ‘Thank you for putting on the uniform, thank you for grinding everyday, thank you for going through discrimination,” Bonds said.

Among the former Barons players was Willie Mays, the legendary Hall of Famer who died Tuesday at 93.

Mays, a Fairfield native whose legacy is being celebrated both at the game and off the field, was Bonds’ godfather and played with Bonds’ father, Bobby Bonds, in San Francisco.

During the Fox show, Bonds declined to reflect on his personal relationship with Mays, suggesting he would be overcome with emotion.

“For me, its just too soon,” he said. “It’s just too soon, because its an out-of-control feeling.”