As we enter June and into the summer months of the 2024 MLB season, the top dawgs and cellar dwellers are making themselves known. The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees have been on fire, while the Chicago White Sox have yet to reach 20 wins and have seemingly forgotten how to win. Aaron Judge and Bryce Harper were named Player of the Month in their respective league for May, while the Yankees have struck gold with right-handed rookie pitcher Luis Gil, who was named both Pitcher and Rookie of the Month in the American League.
With two months of the season behind us - or down the drain for some teams - there’s a lot to look ahead to, but also some looking back at history.
Not only does June mark the sixth annual London Series, taking place on June 8 and 9 between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, but a new event is being inaugurated on June 20. That being MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues in which the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will partake in a regular season matchup at the oldest professional ballpark in the United States and former home of the Birmingham Barons of the Negro Leagues. The game is set to begin at 7:15 p.m. Eastern time on that Thursday evening.
So, the news from last week that Negro League statistics from 1920 to 1948 across the seven different Negro Leagues have been integrated into MLB statistics couldn’t have come at a better time. It will make the event that much more meaningful and an authentic tribute to the significance of not only Rickwood Field in the history of the game but the Negro Leagues as a whole.
Historic Significance of Rickwood Field
As stated, Rickwood Field is the oldest professional ballpark in the United States, opening its doors in 1910 and being the home of the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-1960. Birmingham was initially organized as the Birmingham Stars in 1920 as one of the first teams in the Negro Southern League. According to the Negro Southern League Museum in Birmingham, Frank Perdue paid $200 for the rights to be the team’s first owner, and the Stars nickname was discarded shortly after that.
The 1920s saw several future Hall of Famers don a Birmingham jersey and step onto Rickwood Field for the Black Barons. The Negro Leagues were a step towards Major League Baseball for African Americans who were wrongly segregated during those years leading up to 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier while stepping onto Ebbets Field in a Dodgers uniform. The future Hall of Famers to play on Rickwood Field included left-handed pitcher Bill Foster - who pitched just one game for the Black Barons in 1925, the legendary Leroy “Satchel” Paige - who threw for Birmingham from 1927 to 1930, and first baseman and outfielder George “Mules” Suttles - who spent the first two years of his professional career in Birmingham in 1924 and 1925.
The Black Barons would drop back to the Negro Southern League in 1931, which was caused by financial pressures from the Great Depression. They would get back to the regular Negro League in the 1940s under co-owners Tom Hayes and Abe Sperstein.
The 1940s would be fairly successful for the Black Barons, as they won the Negro American League pennant in 1943, 1944, and 1948 but fell in the Negro League World Series in each season. Before he became a household name for the New York Giants, the great Willie Mays made his professional debut for Birmingham in 1948. Mays lasted 13 games there before he joined the Giants’ minor league system in 1950 and made his MLB debut in 1951.
Image Credit: Bham Now
That same year, following Robinson's breaking the color barrier, several other African American players were integrated into MLB, including Paige, who debuted with the then-Cleveland Indians as the first Black pitcher in the American League and seventh Black player in the majors overall. He made his debut at age 42, making him the oldest player to debut, and he would win a World Series in that same year with Cleveland.
Due to the success of Black players going over to MLB teams from the Negro Leagues, the 1948 Negro League World Series between the Barons and Homestead Grays was the final contest before the disbandment of the Negro National League. Mays played in the final true World Series of the Negro Leagues and was just 17 years old at the time as he juggled Barons games with high school football. His fielding and speed took several MLB teams, and they waited until he graduated high school before offering him a contract. The Giants eventually signed him, and he went on to win Rookie of the Year in 1951 before winning a World Series and MVP in 1954, another MVP in 1965, and 24 All-Star selections across 23 years in the big leagues - 21 with the Giants. That culminated in an election to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979 in his first year on the ballot.
Rev. Bill Greason was another member of the 1948 Black Barons roster, and he has a legacy beyond baseball. Greason enlisted in World II with the all-Black 66th Supply Platoon just before his baseball career. The right-handed pitcher played for the Black Barons from 1948 to 1951 before the St. Louis Cardinals acquired him as their second Black player on the roster in 1954.
Another key member of the Black Barons during their year at Rickwood Field was Lorenzo “Piper” Davis, nicknamed for his hometown of Piper, Alabama. He began with Birmingham in 1942 and was seen as a versatile player who could play any infield position. Davis helped the Black Barons to earn their consecutive pennants in 1943 and 1944 before transitioning to a player-manager in 1948 and leading the way to a Negro League World Series with Mays and Greason, his top players.
By the 1960s, the Birmingham Black Barons were essentially just a barnstorming team, and 1962 was their final season in Birmingham.
Since 1910, 181 future Hall of Famers have come through the ballpark, including Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, and Reggie Jackson. The first integrated team in Alabama was the Double-A Birmingham Barons of the Southern League, who played at Rickwood from 1981-1987.
Birmingham native Charlie Finley built up the Oakland Athletics, and young talents like Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers, and Vida Blue came through Birmingham at Rickwood as part of the Oakland farm system. From the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, Hank Aaron and the Atlanta Braves played the Southern League All-Stars at Rickwood.
The Birmingham A’s moved to Chattanooga after the 1975 season and left Rickwood dormant for five seasons until Memphis General Manager Art Clarkson purchased the Montgomery Rebels and moved them to Birmingham, rebranding the club as the Barons. Those Barons would win Southern League titles in 1983 and 1987, but after the 1987 season, they moved to a new ballpark in Hoover.
In 1991, The National Register of Historic Places officially acknowledged Rickwood’s unique place in American history. So, instead of being demolished, the Friends of Rickwood organization was formed in 1992 and took control of the park. This led to Rickwood being successfully leased as a set for films about Rickwood alumni, including “Cobb” about Ty Cobb, “Soul of the Game” about Negro Leagues Paige, Josh Gibson, and Robinson, and more recently “42” about the journey of Jackie Robinson to the big leagues.
In 1996, the Birmingham Barons agreed to return to Rickwood as part of the Rickwood Classic to pay tribute to the 1948 Birmingham Barons and Black Barons teams. The Rickwood Classic gained enough popularity among fans and players that it became an annual event approaching its 30th year.
Rickwood Field hosts over 100 amateur games a year, including high school, baseball camps, and travel baseball games. It also serves as the home field for HBCU Miles College.
More on the 2024 Game
Rickwood Field previously had a capacity of 10,800, although the ticketed-seating capacity for the Giants and Cardinals will be around 8,300. In preparation for the ballpark’s first regular-season AL/NL game, the entire playing surface received a $5 million makeover. This included adding a new padded outfield wall that was also moved back 10 feet. There are also new dugouts, a more modern batter’s eye, a digital scoreboard, and netting along the foul lines.
For the game on June 20, the Cardinals will be the home team as the first game in a three-game series in which the other two games will be played in St. Louis following an off-day. The two teams will wear throwback uniforms that highlight the history of the Negro Leagues in San Francisco and St. Louis.
All 157 living Nego League players have been invited to the game, and 60 are confirmed to attend, including Mays. Another interesting fact about Rickwood is that the famous barnstorming team, Savanna Bananas, played to a sellout crowd there in 2022.
Main Image Credit: From Getty Images
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