 And at a mere 17 years old, Mays finds himself playing in the last great Negro League World Series. I don't think too many of you know that Willie Mays played for the Birmingham Black Barons. Today, the story of the people in the team that prepared Willie Mays for the majors, his first year in the Negro Leagues at its most competitive and most precarious, and the only city in which it could have all taken place.