Rickwood Field
Location1137 2nd Avenue West, Birmingham, Alabama
OwnerCity of Birmingham
Capacity10,800
Field sizeLeft field: 321 feet (98 m)

Left center: 399 feet (122 m)
Center field: 393 feet (120 m)
Right center: 392 feet (119 m)
Right field: 332 feet (101 m)

Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field is located in Birmingham, Alabama
Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field is located in Alabama
Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field is located in the United States
Rickwood Field
Coordinates33°30′8″N 86°51′21″W / 33.50222°N 86.85583°W / 33.50222; -86.85583
Area12.7 acres (5.1 ha)
Built1910
NRHP reference No.92001826[1]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPFebruary 1, 1993
Designated ARLHDecember 19, 1991
SurfaceGrass
Construction
Broke groundSpring 1910
OpenedAugust 18, 1910
Construction cost$75,000
Tenants
Birmingham Barons (Southern Association) – 1910–1961
Birmingham Barons (Southern League) – 1964–1965, 1981–1987, part-time 1988–present
Birmingham A's (Southern League) – 1967–1975
Birmingham Black Barons (Negro Southern League) – 1920–1924, 1926, 1931–1936, 1938–1939
Birmingham Black Barons (Negro National League) – 1925–1926, 1927–1930, 1937, 1940–1948
Birmingham Black Barons (Negro American League) – 1949–1960
Philadelphia Phillies (Major League Baseball Spring Training) - 1911, 1920
Pittsburgh Pirates (Major League Baseball Spring Training) - 1919

Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues. Though the Barons moved their home games to the Hoover Met in the suburbs, and most recently to Regions Field in Birmingham, Rickwood Field has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a "working museum" where baseball's history can be experienced. The Barons also play one regular season game a year at Rickwood Field. Rickwood Field is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]

History

The Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team began playing professionally in 1887, with their home games at an informal park called "Slag Pile Field" in West End. In 1901 they joined the Southern Association.

Allen Harvey "Rick" Woodward, chairman of Woodward Iron Company and grandson of pioneer Birmingham industrialist Stimpson Harvey Woodward, purchased a majority share of the Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team from J. William McQueen in 1909 while he was still in his 20s. Immediately he began planning a grand showplace for his new team. He contacted Connie Mack for advice on the details, including the field dimensions. He settled on Shibe Park in Philadelphia (which was controlled by Mack's team and later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh as the models for the new park. He purchased land in the West End neighborhood of Birmingham from the Alabama Central Railroad. The $75,000 structure was designed by Southeastern Engineering Company of Birmingham (a short-lived subsidiary of Pittsburgh's General Fireproofing Company) and completed during the summer of 1910. The 12.7 acre (51,000 m2) park was flanked along the basepaths by concrete and steel stands. A tile-roofed cupola on the roof behind home plate provided space for the announcer and the press. Woodward named the field after himself, using his nickname and the first part of his last name. It was the first concrete-and-steel stadium in the minors.

Woodward invited Alabama Governor Braxton Bragg Comer, Birmingham Mayor Culpepper Exum, civic leader, George B. Ward and Victor H. Hanson, publisher of The Birmingham News, for opening day on August 18, 1910. The day was celebrated by businesses closing all over town to allow fans to fill the park for the first pitch at 3:30 P.M. Over 10,000 people attended that first game in which the Barons defeated the visiting Montgomery Climbers 3–2. Throughout the first half of the 20th century Rickwood Field hosted sellout crowds for both the Barons and the Black Barons, who played on alternate weekends.

In 1912 a spring tornado tore through the field, pulling up the outfield fence. Two years later Woodward felt the need to have electric fans installed in the grandstands for the comfort of the crowd. The Pittsburgh Pirates also made Rickwood Field their spring training home in 1919.

Rickwood Field also hosted college football games. From 1912 to 1927 the Alabama Crimson Tide played its Birmingham home dates in Rickwood. In 1921 the outfield fence was damaged in a tornado and quickly rebuilt. In 1924 to 1927 the infield bleachers were covered with a steel-framed roof designed by Denham, VanKeuren & Denham, Architects of Birmingham. Shortly after, In 1928 a new Mission style entry structure with offices was built to the designs of Paul Wright & Co., Engineers of Birmingham. A new concrete outfield wall replaced the original fence.

In 1931 in the first game of the Dixie Series championship, Birmingham's 43-year-old Ray Caldwell outpitched 22-year-old Dizzy Dean, who had guaranteed a win. The Barons won the series 4 games to 3. In 1936 four monumental steel-frame light towers designed and fabricated by the Truscon Steel Company of Youngstown, Ohio, were erected, allowing for night games. In 1938, Woodward sold the park to Ed Norton, a local businessman. In 1940 Norton sold it to the Cincinnati Reds. At that time new outfield fences were built inside the original walls to reduce the field dimensions. G. J. Jebeles of Birmingham purchased the park in 1944. A ladies' rest room was added and the outfield fence reduced again in 1948. In 1949 ownership changed hands again, going to a partnership of Al DeMent, Al Belcher, and Rufus Lackey. They added a small restaurant in the entrance building in 1950 and installed additional box seats, necessitating the relocations of the dugouts farther down the baselines. In 1958 Belcher gained a majority share and control of the park. In 1964 General Manager Glynn West purchased 1000 wooden seats from New York City's Polo Grounds and installed them at the park. Belcher sold Rickwood Field in 1966 to the City of Birmingham, but retained a lease for the remainder of that year.

In 1966 the lease was transferred to Charlie Finley, who brought the Kansas City Athletics' AA farm team to Birmingham for the 1967 season. Many of the players on that team later became the backbone of the championship major league A's, including Jackson, Duncan, and many of their legendary pitchers. Among other things, that year is remembered for the day that 14,000 disappointed fans were sent home early when the Atlanta Braves vs. Southern League All-Stars exhibition game was called "on account of tornado." During this period, following a trend which swept minor league baseball (and which has since been largely reversed), the team took the name of the parent major league club and was known as the "Birmingham A's". Between 1979 and 1980 the wooden seats were replaced with plastic seats in the box areas and metal bleachers under the grandstands.[2]

In 1981 Art Clarkson brought minor league baseball back to Rickwood with the Detroit Tigers AA club, which resumed the Barons name. He had a new electronic scoreboard installed at the park. In 1986, the Barons became the Chicago White Sox AA club, an affiliation that continues today.

In 1987 the Barons moved to a new facility, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium, in the suburb of Hoover. They returned to Birmingham in 2013 with the opening of Regions Field, just south of downtown Birmingham.

Current status

Since 1992 the ballpark has been under the care of the Friends of Rickwood who are restoring the facility to its former glory. They also host frequent amateur, police and semi-pro games and open the gates to visitors who can walk in and explore the grandstands or run the bases.

Since 1996, Rickwood Field has hosted the Barons for a throwback game in which both teams wear period uniforms. Each game honors a different era in Birmingham baseball history. Ballpark enthusiasts from across North America migrate to Rickwood to attend this AA regulation game, named the "Rickwood Classic", every season.[3]

The ballpark was used by several film productions which contributed to the recreation of the scoreboard and press-box and the addition of 1940s period style advertisements on the outfield fence. Some of these retro-style ads have been sponsored by real Birmingham businesses, including a section sponsored by the descendants of Rick Woodward that advertises long-gone Woodward Iron Co. The outfield signs were designed by Ted Haigh, a Los Angeles–based graphic designer and executed by Skidmore Sign Company of Birmingham.

As of 2005, the Friends of Rickwood have spent around $2 million refurbishing the grandstands, press-box, locker rooms, roof and main entrance to the park. Future plans include establishing a Museum of Southern Baseball.

Since 2011 Play at the Plate Baseball has held an annual 3 day adult baseball tournament with 4 teams from various regions of the country participating. The event is usually held in June.

ESPN Classic broadcast a re-enactment of a Negro league game played at Rickwood on February 26, 2006. It featured teams wearing the uniforms of the fictitious "Bristol Barnstormers" (named for ESPN's hometown of Bristol, Connecticut) and the Birmingham Black Barons.

Rickwood Field is also home to the Miles College baseball team, and Birmingham City High Schools play their home games there as well (Comedian Roy Wood Jr played high school baseball there for Ramsay High School).

On June 20, 2023, Major League Baseball announced that a regular season game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will be played at Rickwood Field on June 20, 2024, as part of a salute to the Negro leagues in observance of Juneteenth. The facility will undergo further renovations in preparation for the game.[4] Beginning October 2023, these renovations "include upgrading the grass playing surface to modern big league standards, padding and moving the outfield walls, overhauling the dugouts, adding new lights" as well as other items.[5]

The ballpark was used for scenes in the film biopics of Jackie Robinson (42) and Ty Cobb (Cobb).[6] The 1995 movie Soul of the Game features the park. The field is mentioned in the Willie Mays documentary, Say Hey, Willie Mays!, while detailing Mays' earlier professional career with the Birmingham Black Barons.[7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ↑ Mercer, Chloe S.; Melanie A. Betz (August 19, 1992). "Rickwood Field". National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. National Park Service. Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014. See also: "Accompanying photos". Archived from the original on March 17, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2014.
  3. ↑ Newberry, Paul (May 31, 2019). "Rickwood Field, nation's oldest ballpark, still making memories". The Cullman Times. Retrieved May 31, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Cardinals, Giants to play at oldest professional ballpark in '24". Major League Baseball. Retrieved June 20, 2023.
  5. ↑ Brewer, Jerry (August 27, 2023). "Birmingham's Rickwood Field is the best kind of monument: A real one". Washington Post. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  6. ↑ Peter Curi; Dee Jackson (February 14, 2022). "Over 110 years later, Rickwood Field's lasting legacy carries on". CBS42 News (Birmingham, Alabama). Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  7. ↑ Johnson, G. Allen (November 5, 2022). "Willie Mays is the best ever, not just in baseball but for all he overcame". Datebook (San Francisco Chronicle). Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  • Benson, Michael (1989). Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Grounds, Yards, and Stadiums, 1845-Present. McFarlands. ISBN.
  • Wainwright, Paige. "Rickwood Field: Grand Old Lady of Baseball." Alabama Heritage, Fall 1995.
  • Whitt, Timothy (1995). Bases Loaded with History: The Story of Rickwood Field: America's Oldest Baseball Park. Birmingham, Alabama: R. Boozer Press. ISBN 0-9636128-1-6.
  • United States Geological Survey (2006). https://edits.nationalmap.gov/apps/gaz-domestic/public/search/names/125622. Retrieved February 1, 2006.
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