Today’s guest columnist is Gerald Watkins.

The world’s about to discover a unique Birmingham attraction.

An attraction that even many local folks don’t know much about.

A huge event is coming to Birmingham!

An event that that virtually no one saw coming.

You may have heard of Rickwood Field.

And you may know it’s the oldest baseball park in America.

The event coming to Rickwood Field is a big deal that will lead to great opportunities for our City.

Major League Baseball is coming to Birmingham on June 20, 2024.

The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will play a regular season game at Rickwood.

Not an ordinary baseball game

This is a huge win for Rickwood, but an even bigger win for Birmingham.

The game will be broadcast worldwide by FOX and the Park will host 8,000 fans from all over the country.

The game will place our great city on display for millions of television viewers and the fans who come to Birmingham. Birmingham will basically have a 3 hour commercial to share what a great place we live.

Rickwood Field was built by industrialist A.H. “Rick” Woodward in 1910 to serve as a home for his Birmingham Barons. Rickwood hosted the Birmingham Barons and Birmingham A’s from 1910-1987.

The Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues played at Rickwood from 1920-1962. From its beginning in 1910 Rickwood has seen over 180 members of baseball’s Hall of Fame play there.

In 1964 the Barons became the first integrated professional team to play in Birmingham.

In 1967 Birmingham native Charlie O. Finley bought the Kansas City A’s farm club in Mobile and moved the team to Birmingham, naming it the Birmingham A’s. The A’s years saw Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers develop their skills which later helped create the Oakland A’s dynasty.

The Barons moved to Hoover in 1987.

This left Rickwood field vacant, but fortunately a group of business and civic leaders formed “Friends of Rickwood”, a non-profit led by Coke Matthews, Tom Cosby, Terry Slaughter, and Bill Cather. The Friends of Rickwood persuaded the City of Birmingham, to lease the Park to them.

Hollywood came calling

In 1994 Ron Shelton, a noted Hollywood producer, chose Rickwood Field to film “Cobb”, a biopic staring Tommy Lee Jones in the title role.

Since the Park had been remodeled for “Cobb,” the Park was now able to host high school and men’s league baseball.

In 1996 Rickwood and the Barons began the Rickwood Classic, a tradition which ESPN called one of the 100 events every baseball fan should do before they die.

The Rickwood Classic became a baseball and cultural phenomenon which saw huge attendance and gave fans a trip back in time as the Barons and their opponents wore throw back uniforms with different themes for each year.

Rickwood then hosted two more feature films: “Soul of the Game” in 1996 and “42” in 2010.

And over time Rickwood became the home field for the Miles College baseball team and the explosion of travel ball began to fill up summers at Rickwood.

In early 2021 Major League baseball (MLB) announced plans to play a regular season game at the Field Of Dreams movie site in Iowa.

Learning of this development we began to ask “why couldn’t we host a game on a real Field of Dreams? “Rickwood is a place where real people like a 17 year old Willie Mays dreamed of playing in the big leagues.

The game will pay tribute to Birmingham’s heritage as a hub of activity in the Negro Leagues.

During the 42 year history of Negro League play at Rickwood almost all of the biggest stars of the Negro Leagues played at the Park. Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Jackie Robinson were just a few of the outstanding stars who displayed their skills at Rickwood.

Many improvements are being made to prepare the playing field and Park for a big league game.

Everything is on schedule for the week in June where Birmingham will be the center of the baseball universe.

On June 18 Rickwood will host the Barons again as the Montgomery Biscuits come to town.

A special event is planned for June 19^th.

Then the Giants play the Cardinals on Thursday night June 20 in the Magic City.

This game will be a new beginning for Rickwood.

We now possess the oldest baseball park in America, fully remodeled, and ready for  great opportunities soon to follow.

Note from author:  I would like to personally thank Mayor Woodfin and the City Council who agreed to pay for the necessary improvements. The Birmingham’s business community: Alabama Power, The Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau, Regions Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Protective Life, Encompass Health, ACIPCO, and Vulcan Materials also made significant contributions.

Gerald Watkins, the Executive Director of Friends of Rickwood, is a lifelong baseball fan. He graduated from Jacksonville State University and celebrated a 42 year career in banking. Living in the Birmingham area his entire life, Watkins coached little league and travel ball teams and was a softball player himself. He volunteers with the American Baseball Foundation and Alabama Coaches Association and served on the board of directors of the Friends of Rickwood for 10 years before being named Chairman in 2010.

David Sher is the founder and publisher of ComebackTown.  He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

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Invite David to speak for free to your group about how we can have a more prosperous metro Birmingham. dsher@amsher.com