Two North Carolina men will join baseball history this week in Birmingham, Alabama.
Willie Sellars and Henry Mullins are two former Negro League ballplayers. They have been invited by Major League Baseball to attend Thursday night's game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants to honor the legacies of the Negro Leagues.
The tribute will be held on Thursday on the same ball field where so many greats played, such as the late Willie Mays.
The Birmingham native died Tuesday evening in California after it was announced earlier in the day on X he would not make the cross country trip for health reasons.
Sellars, 74, almost couldn’t believe it when the invitation arrived in the mail.
“My wife, when the box came she said, ‘What have you ordered now?’ I said, ‘I hadn’t ordered nothing.’ I said, ‘You open the box up.’ When she opened the box up, this is what was in the box,” Sellars said.
The former pitcher pulled out a poster that said "A Tribute to the Negro Leagues" in big, bold font. Inside the box was a ticket to the game and a written letter from the MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
Sellars read aloud the invitation.
“You are invited to Rickwood Field,” Sellars said as he stared down at the green and manilla envelope.
Rickwood Field is the nation’s oldest professional ballpark. Legends of the game like Mays shined in the Negro Leagues before etching his name in Cooperstown for the New York and San Francisco Giants.
Sellars does not underestimate the significance of being acknowledged alongside a Hall of Famer such as the "Say Hey Kid."
“When I seen that, I said, ‘My, my, my. Somebody heard about me in my playing days,’” Sellars said.
The honor will be at no cost to them.
“They paid for it. It feels good,” Sellars said.
Sellars and Mullins have known each other for most of their lives. Both were on the Indianapolis Clowns, the Negro League baseball version of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Mullins, 73, sat beside Sellars at his Reidsville home, not far from the Virginia state line, as he went through the box's contents.
“It’s good. We talk about that stuff anyway. It actually happened,” Mullins said.
The two are prone to wisecracks at each other’s expense, much like old teammates and close friends often do.
“He wants me to give him $5 to tell my part,” Sellars said with a laugh. Mullins smiled and shook his head.
They are not stationary in their older years. After discussing the invites, each picked up a glove and tossed the ball around Sellars’ backyard.
“Don’t get carried away. That’s all,” Mullins said to Sellars.
“I believe I can go five,” Sellars said. He meant about five innings on the mound.
These two men, in their 70s, displayed a passion for the sport when they first talked about their playing days three years ago.
“It's just something we grew up doing and just enjoyed doing it,” Mullins said in 2021.
Both took swings in Sellars’ batting cage that winter in the heart of the pandemic, using an older model mechanical throwing arm.
“We just barnstormed throughout the country,” Sellars said sitting in his recliner in 2021.
Although photos and video documenting their times in the Negro Leagues are hard to come by, it doesn’t lessen their recognition.
“That was the thing to do back then. Baseball. Everybody played baseball,” Mullins said.
Mullins and Sellars arrived in Birmingham earlier this week. Their itinerary includes talks to current minor leaguers, a visit to the Negro Southern League Museum and a day full of events coordinated by the city of Birmingham along with the MLB on Thursday.
The first pitch will be 7:15 p.m.