San Francisco Giants Announce Celebration of Life for Willie Mays

The San Francisco Giants are inviting fans to celebrate the life of the biggest legend in franchise history.

Jun 24, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Chicago Cubs players stand during a moment of silence in honor of Willie Mays before the game against San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park. / Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports

The San Francisco Giants have announced that they will host a celebration of life for Willie Mays at Oracle Park on July 8.

That is an off-day for the Giants and comes before their final homestand before the All-Star break, which starts on July 9 against Toronto.

Mays died on June 18 at 93. At the time he was the oldest living member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The celebration will be free to the public and gates at Oracle Park will open at 3 p.m. pacific time. The celebration of life will start at 4 p.m. and last approximately two hours.

“The San Francisco Giants and the family of Willie Mays will remember the tremendous talent, keen intellect, remarkable showmanship and boundless joy of the Giants legend and Hall-of-Famer,” per the Giants’ statement. “The public celebration of life is open to all fans and friends of Willie Mays — the ‘Say Hey Kid.”

The Giants are recommending that fans take advantage of mass transit, bike or walk to Oracle Park. For those that are driving the Giants are recommending that they pay for parking in advance through SpotHero.

Fans do not need to register to attend but fans must enter Oracle Park through the Willie Mays Plaza gates on 3rd and King St.

It’s not clear if Giants players, coaches, team personnel or former Giants will participate in the celebration.

San Francisco and Major League Baseball has already celebrated Mays in several ways since his passing. A couple of days after his death, the Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., to celebrate the legacy of the Negro Leagues. Mays played with the Birmingham Black Barons at that field in 1948.

The Giants are also wearing a No. 24 patch on their jerseys the rest of the season and all players wore No. 24 jerseys in a home game shortly after they returned home.

Mays was signed by the Giants while they were still in New York and he started his Major League career in 1952. He spent the vast majority of the career with the Giants before he was traded to the New York Mets in 1972, where he finished his career in 1973.

Mays was a 24-time All-Star, a two-time National League MVP, the NL Rookie of the Year, a 12-time Gold Glove winner, a .302 career hitter with 3,293 hits and 660 home runs. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1979 and his number, 24, is retired by both the Giants and the Mets.