Rickwood Field (Birmingham Alabama)/Other Negro League Stadium

[Schlesinj]

I traveled this week to Tuscaloosa and flew into Birmingham. As it turns out the only other standing negro league stadium (Black Barons) still standing happens to be 10 minutes from the airport, so I made a short trip and took a few pictures. This is where a number of players played including Willie Mays. Due to time constraints I only did a drive by, but it sounds like I may be hanging out in Alabama for the next four years off and on.

https://rickwood.com

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[mrreality68]

Very cool

Thanks for sharing

[D. Bergin]

Yeah, fascinating. That's a cool little park. Also looked very familiar to me, and it turns out several movies were filmed there.

Ran into this neat story searching around.

[Clutch-Hitter]

I played ball at Birmingham Southern College in the mid 90s, which is walking distance from Rickwood. During the off-season we played a summer ball game there. A then older guy I knew in college played a catcher in the Cobb movie.

When I was a kid, we attended several Barons games at Rickwood prior to their move to Hoover.

Now live one county south, about 30 minutes from the stadium.

[Kidnapped18]

Glad you were able to drive by Rickwood Field Jamie!
Barons still play a game there in the Summer.

I played my HS baseball games there and the outfield is DEEP. Only one player I played against in HS was able to consistently hit it over the outfield fences...needless to say he was drafted by the Pirates later that year!

Many fond memories of Rickwood...

[abothebear]

I’m playing there in a couple months. If anyone is interested in joining me, send me a message and I’ll get you an invitation.

I learned recently that it was modeled after Shine Field. So if you want to know what Shibe looked like, you can find out by going to Rickwood.

[BobC]

There are more than two Negro League parks still standing. Though not exclusively a Negro League ballpark, League Park in Cleveland is still around as well, and hosted the Cleveland Buckeyes of the Negro American League, in the 1940's. The diamond and ballpark was originally an all wood stadium constructed in 1891, and used by the Cleveland Spiders of the National League as their home from 1891-99. A Western Association team, the Grand Rapids Rustlers, moved to Cleveland and League Park in 1900, and became the Cleveland Long Shores of the newly formed American League. And following some more name changes, they later became the Naps, and finally the Indians.

Completed in 1910, the League Park stadium renovations used concrete and steel to replace the all wood original structure. It remained the sole home of the Naps/Indians till 1932, when they moved into the newly constructed Municipal Lakefront Stadium. But even after the move, they still split games played between the new Municipal Stadium and League Park through 1946, with many of the weekday games still played at League Park. The Cleveland Buckeyes played at League Park starting in 1942, and played there through 1950. Except for the 1949 season when they played out of Louisville for a single year. During 1914 and 1915, League Park was also shared as the home park between the Naps and the American Association minor league team out of Toledo (Mud Hens) that was also owned by the then Naps team owner, Charles Somers. They played as the Cleveland Bearcats in 1914, and then as the Spiders in 1915, before moving back to Toledo in 1916.

Not sure, but it may be the oldest MLB ballpark/diamond site still standing if you don't count the early 1900's renovations/improvements against it. It is certainly one of the oldest still around, if not the oldest. Also, I'm not sure there still exists, if another one ever did, a ballpark that was home to an MLB National League team, an MLB American League team, a Negro League Team, and minor league team. Oh, and League Park also hosted college football games for Western Reserve University as well, including games against the likes of the Pitt Panthers, West Virginia Mountaineers, Cincinnati Bearcats, and even the Ohio State Buckeyes. And NFL games were also played there by the then, Cleveland Rams. And yes, that is the current LA Rams team, they started in Cleveland. This was truly a busy and historic place, and is also credited with hosting what some have considered as the first ever de facto all-star game, when the Cleveland Naps took on a team of star players from the rest of MLB's American League teams on July 24, 1911, in a benefit game for Addie Joss' widow and children. The all-star team players included the likes of Cobb, Collins, Speaker, Chase, Crawford, Wallace, Wood, WaJo, and many others who just attended to honor Joss and his family. There's even some famous photos of Cobb wearing a borrowed Cleveland uniform, as his Detroit uniform was forgotten/misplaced.

Sadly, a large part of the original stands/stadium of League Park were demolished in 1951. But the field and remnants of the structure are still there, such as the ticker office built and added on in 1909,. Today the park has undergone renovations and was rededicated in 2014 as the Baseball Heritage Museum, which can be visited and toured.

Great piece of historic trivia. The first ever ballgame at League Park took place on May 1, 1891, and starting for the Cleveland Spiders was Cy Young. You can't do much better than that!