Rickwood Field

Former home of Birmingham Barons and Birmingham Black Barons

BUILT: 1910

CAPACITY: 9,312

History[edit]

Rickwood Field was the home of affiliated baseball in Birmingham, AL, from 1910 through 1987, and Negro Leagues baseball from no later than 1920 into the 1960s. In 1988, the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League began playing in a new ballpark in the Birmingham suburb of Hoover.

Two of its most famous alumni played for the Birmingham Black Barons: A 17-year-old Willie Mays played his first games under contract there in 1948, 21 seasons after the Black Barons became the second stop on the career ladder of legendary pitcher Satchel Paige.

Now part museum, Rickwood Field has hosted and will soon again host one Barons' regular-season game each year: the Rickwood Classic. The series, which began in 1996, was played in every year but one through 2019: in 2017, the game was canceled because of structural problems that have since been corrected. However, since 2019 events have conspired to prevent it. The 2020 game - the first scheduled for a Monday rather than a Wednesday - would have commemorated the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues but was lost to the Coronavirus pandemic with the rest of the 2020 Minor League Baseball season. Although there was a 2021 campaign, the Classic was again canceled with attendance restrictions being the announced reason.

In hindsight, there may have been another behind the scenes. After MLB vastly increased its operational control of the minors with its 2021 Minor League Reorganization, it began - without publicity - wielding approval on such events. Venues did not necessarily have to meet the reorganization's new ballpark standards, but MLB reportedly approved or denied on a case-by-case basis that likely was largely about the venue. The 2022 Classic was, at least publicly, up in the air into the season but was ultimately not played. No 2023 game was announced, but media coverage of a $2 million grant to improve the aging facility appears to make clear that MLB will not approve a Classic there as Rickwood currently stands.[1] The grant came too late enable a 2023 game, as work would not start before late summer, but its approval made it possible for a much bigger contest to be staged here: In June 2023, news emerged that Major League Baseball had decided to stage a "destination" game, à la the "Field of Dreams Game", at Rickwood. Two games had been played under that billing in a ballpark erected in the Iowa corn field where the classic movie was shot, but while media quickly called the Rickwood event a continuance in another location, MLB's announcement did not.[2] The June 20, 2024, game, dubbed "MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues" featured the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, playing respectively as the San Francisco Sea Lions and St. Louis Stars of the Negro Leagues.

MLB made the announcement one year to the day in advance, promoting it as honoring Mays - whom it cites as the "greatest living player" of both the Negro Leagues and the Majors.[3]

The announcement also said, without calling it a revival of the Rickwood Classic, that the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits would play a regular-season game on June 18th. Those two dates bracket the 2024 celebration of the newest American holiday, Juneteenth, and the release says the games were scheduled "around" that holiday. In November 2024, MLB confirmed the minor league game's return in 2025, on June 4th.

The Rickwood Classic baseball game was played once a year 1996-2016 and 2018-2019 at Rickwood Ballpark located in Birmingham, AL. (2010 photo, making this from its centennial season)

In February 1910, industrialist A.H. "Rick" Woodward bought controlling interest of the Birmingham Coal Barons, broke ground that April, and christened his ballpark on August 18th. He modeled it largely on Philadelphia's Shibe Park and Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. Often credited as the first concrete-and-steel ballpark in the minors, it was actually the second - Swayne Field in Toledo, OH, was of such construction and opened more than 13 months earlier - July 3rd, 1909. Like some of its other longevity titles, though, Rickwood is the first concrete-and-steel stadium opened for minor league baseball that still stands today.

The 1920 formation of the Negro Southern League included a team called the "Birmingham Stars". However, when Woodward drew up a plan to share Rickwood with the Stars, they moved in and changed their name to Birmingham Black Barons.

Simultaneously the oldest existing stadium that ever hosted a team in both Organized Baseball and the Negro Leagues, Rickwood was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. (McCormick Field in Asheville, NC hosted Negro League action as late as 1949, but it was completely rebuilt in 1992.) Rickwood attained oldest-in-the-game status when Nashville's Sulphur Dell was demolished in 1969 and oldest-in-the-Negro-Leagues when old Yankee Stadium met the wrecking ball in 2010.

Rickwood appears in the films Cobb (1994), Soul of the Game (1996) and 42 (2013). In 42, it portrayed its partial model Forbes Field and also itself.

The venerable ballpark mostly hosts college and high school games, and amateur tournaments - all while providing a glimpse into baseball's rich past.

Rickwood Classics[edit]

Date of Game	Score	Attendance
June 12, 1996	Birmingham Barons 3, Memphis Chicks 2	10,324
June 10, 1997	Birmingham Barons 12, Chattanooga Lookouts 6	8,135
June 4, 1998	Greenville Braves 12, Birmingham Barons 8	6,873
May 16, 1999	Birmingham Barons 5, Huntsville Stars 4	7,204
June 11, 2000	Mobile BayBears 12, Birmingham Barons 5	6,641
June 7, 2001	West Tenn DiamondJaxx 12, Birmingham Barons 3	6,856
April 25, 2002	Birmingham Barons 14, Chattanooga Lookouts 4	4,804
June 11, 2003	Birmingham Barons 5, Huntsville Stars 1 (8 inns, rain)	5,355
June 17, 2004	Huntsville Stars 8, Birmingham Barons 6	7,165
July 27, 2005 (ppd from June 2)	Montgomery Biscuits 6, Birmingham Barons 5	4,633
June 22, 2006	Birmingham Barons 3, Tennessee Smokies 2	4,704
May 30, 2007	Birmingham Barons 3, Jacksonville Suns 2	5,802
May 28, 2008	Jacksonville Suns 4, Birmingham Barons 2	7,515
May 27, 2009	Mississippi Braves 3, Birmingham Barons 2	7,396
June 2, 2010	Tennessee Smokies 8, Birmingham Barons 7 (11 inns)	9,448
June 1, 2011	Birmingham Barons 4, Chattanooga Lookouts 3	6,871
May 31, 2012	Chattanooga Lookouts 7, Birmingham Barons 6	7,180
May 29, 2013	Birmingham Barons 6, Tennessee Smokies 3	7,268
June 25, 2014	Mississippi Braves 5, Birmingham Barons 2	8,655
May 27, 2015	Jacksonville Suns 8, Birmingham Barons 2	7,046
June 1, 2016	Chattanooga Lookouts 7, Birmingham Barons 4	7,192
May 31, 2017	No Classic as such, due to emergency repairs to Rickwood Field; that day's game at Regions Field was played as "Turn Back the Clock game"
May 20, 2018	Birmingham Barons 7, Chattanooga Lookouts 1	6,028
May 31, 2019	Montgomery Biscuits 9, Birmingham Barons 4	7,015
June 8, 2020	Canceled w/entire 2020 Minors season; COVID-19
2021	Canceled; COVID-19
2022	Canceled per MLB
2023	Canceled per MLB
June 18, 2024	Montgomery Biscuits 6, Birmingham Barons 5	7,866
June 4, 2025	Rocket City Trash Pandas vs. Birmingham Barons

Related Sites[edit]

Rickwood Field (Birmingham) at the SABR Bio Project

Search

Namespaces

Views

Rickwood Field

Contents

History[edit]

Rickwood Classics[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Related Sites[edit]

Full Site Menu

FAQs, Tip & Tricks