Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, 2024, between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.The 10,800-seat stadium, opened in 1910, is the oldest professional ballpark in the U.S. and a National Historic Site. The stadium was home to the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-60.MLB said Tuesday it is staging the game around the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865. There also will be a Double-A game at the ballpark between the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League on June 18. St. Louis will be the home team for the June 20 game, scheduled to start shortly after 6 p.m. CST and to be televised nationally on Fox. Period uniforms will be used relating to the Negro Leagues history of San Francisco and St. Louis.Don't call it a "Field of Dreams" gameIn a news conference last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred addressed media reports calling the Birmingham game — which was not yet official — a "Field of Dreams" game, according to Des Moines Register reporter Tommy Birch. “There’s only one place that we play a Field of Dreams game," Manfred said. "I don’t know how this notion got out there. But that would be at the Field of Dreams.”Dyersville, where much of the classic 1989 movie was filmed, hosted two "Field of Dreams" games in 2021 and 2022. Baseball officials have not said if or when there will be another MLB game at the stadium built near the movie site.In 2021, Iowa's first MLB game drew a sell-out crowd for a matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees. Again in 2022, the stadium was full for the Chicago Cubs vs. the Cincinnati Reds.But there will be no Field of Dreams game in Iowa this summer due to construction at the site. And it doesn't look like it'll return in 2024, with the Birmingham announcement. Honoring Willie Mays, celebrating Negro LeaguesThe game will honor Hall of Famer Willie Mays, a Birmingham native who began his professional career with the team in 1948.“The legacy of the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player, Willie Mays, is one of excellence and perseverance,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing the stories of the Negro Leagues throughout this event next year.”Mays, 92, is generally considered baseball’s greatest living player. After playing with Birmingham, he signed with the New York Giants and was voted the 1951 National League Rookie of the Year as the Giants won the NL pennant.A World Series champion with the Giants in 1954, Mays was a 24-time All-Star, tied with Stan Musial for second-most behind Hank Aaron’s 25. Mays won the 1954 major league batting title and was voted NL MVP in 1954 and 1965.“I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see in my lifetime a Major League Baseball game being played on the very field where I played baseball as a teenager,” Mays said in a statement. “It has been 75 years since I played for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field, and to learn that my Giants and the Cardinals will play a game there and honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues and all those who came before them is really emotional for me. We can’t forget what got us here and that was the Negro Leagues for so many of us.”MLB will work with the city of Birmingham and Friends of Rickwood to renovate the ballpark, the home of the minor league Barons from 1910-1961, 1964-65, 1981-87. The Barons have played since 2013 at Regions Field, about 3 miles away, and shift one game annually to Rickwood in a tribute to the team’s history.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) —
Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, 2024, between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The 10,800-seat stadium, opened in 1910, is the oldest professional ballpark in the U.S. and a National Historic Site. The stadium was home to the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-60.
MLB said Tuesday it is staging the game around the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas in 1865. There also will be a Double-A game at the ballpark between the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League on June 18.
St. Louis will be the home team for the June 20 game, scheduled to start shortly after 6 p.m. CST and to be televised nationally on Fox. Period uniforms will be used relating to the Negro Leagues history of San Francisco and St. Louis.
Looking back, and ahead, at Major League Baseball's Field of Dreams games in Iowa
Don't call it a "Field of Dreams" game
In a news conference last week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred addressed media reports calling the Birmingham game — which was not yet official — a "Field of Dreams" game, according to Des Moines Register reporter Tommy Birch.
“There’s only one place that we play a Field of Dreams game," Manfred said. "I don’t know how this notion got out there. But that would be at the Field of Dreams.”
Dyersville, where much of the classic 1989 movie was filmed, hosted two "Field of Dreams" games in 2021 and 2022. Baseball officials have not said if or when there will be another MLB game at the stadium built near the movie site.
In 2021, Iowa's first MLB game drew a sell-out crowd for a matchup between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees. Again in 2022, the stadium was full for the Chicago Cubs vs. the Cincinnati Reds.
But there will be no Field of Dreams game in Iowa this summer due to construction at the site. And it doesn't look like it'll return in 2024, with the Birmingham announcement.
Honoring Willie Mays, celebrating Negro Leagues
The game will honor Hall of Famer Willie Mays, a Birmingham native who began his professional career with the team in 1948.
“The legacy of the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player, Willie Mays, is one of excellence and perseverance,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We look forward to sharing the stories of the Negro Leagues throughout this event next year.”
Mays, 92, is generally considered baseball’s greatest living player. After playing with Birmingham, he signed with the New York Giants and was voted the 1951 National League Rookie of the Year as the Giants won the NL pennant.
A World Series champion with the Giants in 1954, Mays was a 24-time All-Star, tied with Stan Musial for second-most behind Hank Aaron’s 25. Mays won the 1954 major league batting title and was voted NL MVP in 1954 and 1965.
“I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see in my lifetime a Major League Baseball game being played on the very field where I played baseball as a teenager,” Mays said in a statement. “It has been 75 years since I played for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field, and to learn that my Giants and the Cardinals will play a game there and honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues and all those who came before them is really emotional for me. We can’t forget what got us here and that was the Negro Leagues for so many of us.”
MLB will work with the city of Birmingham and Friends of Rickwood to renovate the ballpark, the home of the minor league Barons from 1910-1961, 1964-65, 1981-87. The Barons have played since 2013 at Regions Field, about 3 miles away, and shift one game annually to Rickwood in a tribute to the team’s history.
