Today’s the Juneteenth holiday, recognizing the full enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Confederate states in 1865.

And tomorrow will bring the MLB at Rickwood Field baseball game, which is billed as a tribute to the Negro leagues. And and at the intersection of baseball, the Birmingham area and Rickwood Field is the giant shadow of baseball great Willie Mays — who passed away yesterday.

For more on Rickwood and the social impact it’s had, there’s plenty of good stuff in the second segment of the podcast. For more on Mays and other Alabama news, read on.

Remembering Willie Mays

Willie Mays, who was born in a Jefferson County mill town that doesn’t exist anymore, played his first professional baseball at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, and went on to top many a baseball expert’s list of the greatest players of all time, died peacefully Tuesday afternoon, reports AL.com’s Mark Inabinett.

Thursday’s MLB at Rickwood Field game between the St. Louis Cardinal and San Francisco Giants is an event that has the influence of Mays all over it. The choice to put the game near where Mays grew up, on the very ground he roamed as an outfielder for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948, and the inclusion of the big-league franchise for which he became a legend all point to Mays’ legacy.

It was hoped that Mays would be able to attend the ballgame and/or events surrounding it that also are paying tribute to negro-league baseball from the days of segregation, but it was announced just this week he would remain in San Francisco.

Mays grew up in Westfield, just west of Interstate 20 near what is now Fairfield. He graduated from Fairfield Industrial High School and joined the Black Barons the season after the major-league color barrier was broken by Jackie Robinson. He was playing with the New York Giants by 1951.

He’s sixth on the all-time home-runs list with 660. He was a rare undisputed five-tool player, meaning he was elite in hitting for average, hitting for power, running the bases, fielding and throwing.

He’s featured in pretty much every single compilation of all-time baseball highlights. You’ve probably seen what’s known as “The Catch” in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series, when Mays made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch of a fly ball but was just getting started. Maybe more impressive than the actual catch was a falling-down spin-and-throw to keep runners on first and second.

Mays also took more than a year away from the game in 1952 and 1953 to serve in the Army. And in 2015 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Willie Mays was 93 years old.

More Methodist division

A year ago, after more than half of Alabama’s United Methodist Churches disaffiliated from the denomination, the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the UMC made it more difficult for remaining churches to leave.

And now some delegates from congregations that have voted to leave have been sounding their frustrations at the conference’s annual meeting, reports AL.com’s Greg Garrison.

Forty four churches sued the Alabama-West Florida Conference, which includes roughly the southern half of Alabama, but they were told by the Alabama Supreme Court that this decision falls under the church and not the court system.

Part of the frustration is that churches that wanted to disaffiliate had been encouraged to remain until after the recent UMC General Conference. Those leaving had concerns over the direction of the denomination regarding same-sex marriage and the ordination of gay clergy, and they saw their fears play out at the General Conference with bans lifted on both.

Yet now they find themselves unable to easily break from the UMC. And the head of the conference, Bishop David Graves, indicated the issue won’t come up again until next year’s annual meeting.

Also among this week’s Methodist news: That same Alabama-West Florida Conference is closing 10 shrinking congregations. That includes Uniontown United Methodist Church, which dates back to the 1840s.

Unwanted bees

The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries announced that swarms of Africanized honeybees were located and euthanized in Jackson and St. Clair counties, reports AL.com’s William Thornton.

Africanized honeybees can more be aggressive than local swarms of honeybees. You’re heard them called “killer bees” dating back to scary movies of the late 1970s, but they are an invasive species that threatens other honeybees and can pose more of a danger to people and livestock. They won’t go after people just because they’re there, but when disturbed they’re known to send more bees after a perceived threat and even chase that threat for up to a mile.

The feds are setting up traps in areas around where they caught the bees to see whether more may be out there. If you’re a beekeeper, please report anything suspicious to the Agriculture Department.

Quoting

“Anytime I was around (Willie Mays) or the late, great Hank Aaron, man, it was pure joy being around royalty. … their greatness and humility are what separated them from anybody else.”

Charles Barkley, NBA Hall of Famer, to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins upon learning of Mays’ death

By the Numbers

That’s the increase in number of reports of elder abuse in 2023 when compared to the number filed in 2013.

Born on This Date

In 1915, actor Pat Buttram of Addison. (Residents of Hooterville called him Mr. Haney.)

In 1921, politician Howell Heflin, who represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 1997.

More Alabama News

The podcast

John Hammontree talks with Cody D. Short about the things she learned while helping produce the “Road to Rickwood” podcast.

You can find “Down in Alabama” wherever you get your podcasts, including these places: