Costacos Collection Announces Inaugural NFT Drop with Baseball Legend Willie Mays
Washingtoner/10137414

SEATTLE - Washingtoner -- Today, the Costacos Collection announced its inaugural drop will feature one of the most respected legends in professional sports, Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Mays. The 90th Birthday Celebration Drop will take place this Sunday, October 24, as an ode to Willie's iconic number and two days before the start of the 117th World Series. For the fifth year, the MVP of the Fall Classic will be recognized as the "Willie Mays World Series Most Valuable Player."

Willie will be donating all proceeds from the drop to his Say Hey Foundation's effort to honor the people who gave him a start in life, by establishing a baseball academy for underprivileged youth where he grew up in Alabama, and to restore the historic baseball facilities at Rickwood Field where Willie started his career with the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons. Mays said, "I've never forgotten the people who supported me, taught me, and helped me find my way. I want every child to have the same chances that I had, and this gives me a way to do that starting in my original hometown. Rickwood was the first place I ever got to see professional ballplayers, and I want these kids to learn the game and be inspired the way I was." Rickwood Field itself serves as a central theme of the drop's art.

More on Washingtoner

• Brindle Pet Supplies Now Carries Badlands Ranch Dog Food in Canada
• $10 Million Allocated to Establish Crypto Treasury Focused on High Value Ethereum (ETH) & Bitcoin (BTC) as Long-Term Holdings for Cybersecurity Leader
• Arcadis welcomes transportation leader Greg Spotts to advance mobility in Seattle and California
• Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies Celebrates New DBH Graduates
• $100 to $200 Million Equity Agreement with Top Digital Advisor Bitwise to Power Major Digital Asset Initiative for Bitcoin and Solana: OFA Group

The first drop tells the story of Willie's path to the majors, from Fairfield Industrial High in Birmingham, to the Negro American League, culminating with his move to the New York Giants with whom he would win the Rookie of the Year Award in 1951. The various edition pieces capture the key themes and statistics of those periods, and the 1/1 hero piece adds to the story with a number of never-before-seen personal documents and images from Willie's journey - most notably, a copy of Willie's high school diploma, in which he was assigned a career in "cleaning, dyeing, and pressing." Willie recalls that all Black kids were assigned trade careers, while white kids "on the other side of the barbed-wire fence" were able to choose their paths and professions. Willie's journey to becoming one of America's most beloved sports figures and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom was only possible because of baseball and the people of Fairfield and beyond who helped him chart a different path. The NFT art piece includes a voiceover in which Willie's powerful story is told by Bob Costas, who will join Mays in donating to the baseball academy and Rickwood Field restoration project.

More on Washingtoner

• New Collaboration Launches Corporate ESG Solution for Responsible Decommissioning and Transparent Reporting
• SlickCashLoan Launches Free Loan Calculator to Help You Plan Monthly Payments
• TikTok Star ArcadeFriends Attempts 24-Hour Claw Machine Marathon at Lucky Puppy Arcade in Las Vegas
• Pyro Marketing Launches New Website to Accelerate Growth for Fitness Brands
• Annual Snapshot Estimate of Spokane County's Homeless Population Shows Overall Decrease for Second Year in a Row

http://www.costacoscollection.com