Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama will host minor league baseball on May 27 when the Southern League’s Birmingham Barons face the Pensacola Blue Wahoos in a game that will honor the 116-year-old ballpark’s connection to the Negro Leagues.
The ballpark, which opened in 1910, was the main ballpark in Birmingham until the Barons moved to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium in the late 1980s, hosting the Barons, as well as the Birmingham Black Barons, who played in several segregated leagues, but are best remembered for their run in the Negro American League from 1940-60.
In 1948, the Birmingham Black Barons won the NAL championship with a team that included a 17-year-old Willie Mays, who grew up in nearby Fairfield, Alabama. In addition to Mays, the Black Barons also featured Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Willie Wells, and Mule Suttles during their time playing at Rickwood.
The Blue Wahoos will wear uniforms honoring the Pensacola Seagulls, a local team that fed the Negro Southern League during segregation, for the May 27 game.
For years, the Southern League’s Barons played one regular season game at Rickwood Field, doing so from 1996 to 2016 and again in 2018-19. The ballpark was renovated in advance of a Major League Baseball regular season game played 0n June 19, 2024 between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants. Notably, Mays passed away at age 93 the night before the game between the Giants, the team for whom Mays played the bulk of his MLB career, played at the stadium where he first won a professional championship.
Photo: Los Cardenales de San Luis y los Gigantes de San Francisco se enfrentan en el Rickwood Field de Birmingham, Alabama, el jueves 20 de junio de 2024. (AP Foto/Vasha Hunt)
