“When we think about Willie Mays and in the same context Hank Aaron, they are two of the guys who validate how good the Negro Leagues were,” said Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City. “As I give people tours of this museum and tell the stories of Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell and all these great stars who preceded Willie Mays, people are always respectful. But you could tell there’s this air of skepticism. And then we come across this photograph of a seventeen-year-old Willie Mays in that great picture of the Birmingham Black Barons celebrating. All of a sudden,
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