Barry Bonds pens emotional goodbye to godfather Willie Mays

The old saying goes that bad things happen in threes. True to form, the sports world has lost three absolute giants in the past few weeks, as basketball legends Bill Walton and Jerry West were joined in death on Tuesday by arguably the greatest baseball player of all-time, Willie Mays.

Mays passed away peacefully at the age of 93, just two days before MLB at Rickwood Field, Major League Baseball's special tribute to the Negro Leagues. That game, which will be contested Thursday night, was already set to be a fitting tribute to Mays. Not only are the Giants, the team that he spent over 20 years playing for, facing the Cardinals, but Rickwood Field is the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, whom Mays played for as a teenager.

Mays' passing adds even more weight to Thursday's game, but the loss of the Say Hey Kid is such a massive one that its impact will last far beyond tonight's now-somber festivities. Mays is one of baseball's greatest success stories: a former Negro League star who became not only one of MLB's best and most exciting players, but one of its most beloved, by people of all races. The childlike enthusiasm with which he played yielded one of the most iconic nicknames in all of sports, and his basket catch in the 1954 World Series remains, even almost 70 years after the fact, one of the greatest and most memorable plays in baseball history. With 3,293 hits, 660 home runs, 12 Gold Gloves, 24 All-Star seasons, and two MVP awards, Mays is statistically one of the most accomplished players in history, but he transcended even his staggering numbers as one of baseball's true icons and ambassadors.

Mays is more than deserving of every tribute written about him, and there have been some great ones, such as this one by former New York Times sports columnist William Rhoden. None could be more fitting and emotionally poignant, though, than what Mays' godson Barry Bonds wrote in honor of his late godfather.

Barry Bonds' tribute to godfather Willie Mays is a proper send-off to a great ballplayer and a great man

It's difficult at this point to separate Barry Bonds from the steroid scandal that overshadowed his final years in the league, but there was a time when he was seen as the modern version of Mays: the greatest combination of power and speed in the game.

Bonds and Mays shared more than just a similar skill set, though. Mays played for close to five years with Bonds' father Bobby on the Giants, and his status as Barry's godfather was always proudly mentioned by both men. The fact that Barry left the Pirates in 1993 to join his godfather's former team always seemed fitting.

Thursday's game at Rickwood Field will be filled with emotion. Not only will the baseball world be able to reflect upon and celebrate its history, it will get to mourn the loss of a player who bridged the gap from the Negro Leagues to an integrated MLB with more skill and charisma than anyone else in the history of America's pastime. It's cliche to say that a recently deceased person is gone but not forgotten, but in the case of Willie Mays, it's undeniably true.