MLB to give nod to Negro Leagues in 2024 as Rickwood Field hosts regular season game

Baseball is an old game, one of the oldest in America. Brought over from England by the colonists, it was incubated and reformed into our own national past time. And that past time was loved, and is loved, by Americans from all walks of life.

Often we look back at a rose-colored past where baseball is concerned. But even through the ugliest times in our nation’s history, through segregation and Jim Crow, baseball was right there with us. And now, after more than half a century since doing away with those dark days, MLB is trying to acknowledge the good that sometimes accompanies the bad.

Just months after announcing the inclusion of the Negro Leagues into MLB The Show 2023, the league has announced that they will bring The Show to the oldest ballpark in America.

The Birmingham Black Barons played in the Negro Leagues. Their home field, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, was once alive with the skill of Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Willie Wells, and Mule Suttles; even country music legend Charley Pride played a season for the team before Nashville came calling.

Now, after what will be a 64 year hiatus for professional baseball, Rickwood Field will echo to the cheers of big-league fans.

MLB announced on Tuesday that the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants will play a regular season game in Rickwood Field during the 2024 regular season.

“We are proud to bring Major League Baseball to historic Rickwood Field in 2024,” said MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. “This opportunity to pay tribute to the Negro Leagues as the Giants and Cardinals play a regular season game at this iconic location is a great honor. The legacy of the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player, Willie Mays, is one of excellence and perseverance. We look forward to sharing the stories of the Negro Leagues throughout this event next year.”

The game will be scheduled around next year’s Juneteenth celebrations and will include a tribute to both the Negro Leagues and Willie Mays, baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer and Birmingham native.

Mays was flabbergasted by the news, saying, “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. 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 Players Association executive director Tony Clark said, “Preserving the legacy of the Negro Leagues is vital to growing baseball’s diversity and popularity. Willie Mays, like so many other Negro Leaguers, broke down barriers and paved the way for those of us who dreamt of playing baseball at the highest level. This event helps to link the past, present and future and helps further the cause of attracting a new generation of players to our game.”

The Cardinals will be the home team and both they and the Giants will wear throwback uniforms honoring the Negro Leagues as the game will be nationally televised for all baseball fans to enjoy.