Rickwood Field makes MLB history with poignant tribute to Negro Leagues

It felt to so many perhaps as if this night would never come. Racial divides have long been the norm in America, and while these divisions were centuries in the making, they should not take as long as that to be dismantled. One further brick was removed from that shameful wall last night when the St Louis Cardinals played the San Francisco Giants at Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field.

This ground is sacred, as hallowed as Fenway or Yankee Stadium, and has been entirely overlooked by MLB until now. The oldest professional ballpark in the country, Rickwood Field played host to the Giants and Cardinals, with the Giants arriving in style, wearing throwback Birmingham Barons jerseys on the bus as a tribute to the late great Willie Mays.

In a stirring pre-game ceremony, New Orleans’ favorite son, five-time Grammy winner Jon Batiste performed and then announced former Negro League players, who came out accompanied by the Giants and Cardinals.

The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by former Negro League player Bill Greason; the oldest of his colleagues still alive. Growing up across the street from the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Greason fought at Iwo Jima before a life of ministry called him to lead Bethel Baptist Church for 53 years.

The lineups were exchanged before the game and Lamonte Wade Jr., the Giants’ only Black position player, brought out the card, capping a historic moment. Wade is on the injured list and unable to play, but when he presented the lineup to the umpires, it made official the first game in MLB history with an all-black umpiring crew.

In a 6-5 Cardinals win, it was perhaps fitting that the first home run of the evening was a three-run shot hit by Cardinals left fielder Brendan Donovan, an product of Enterprise, Alabama. He later drove in another RBI and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle on the day, doing Alabama proud.

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The firework display at the end of the game capped a joyous atmosphere for all present. MLB had a hand in the racial imbalance of the past, and while they have worked from the forefront for over 75 years in trying to right those historic wrongs, this game is a long time overdue.

As Americans, we are often divided by so many things; race, religion, politics. But Thursday’s game at Rickwood Field reminds us that we must hold tightly onto that which unites us all.