Rickwood Field

Elevation of the entrance

Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues. Though the Barons have moved their home games to the suburbs, Rickwood Field has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a "working museum" where baseball's history can be experienced.

History

The Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team began playing professionally in 1887, with their home games at an informal park called "Slag Pile Field" in West End. In 1901 they joined the Southern Association.

A. H. "Rick" Woodward, chairman of Woodward Iron Company and grandson of pioneer Birmingham industrialist Stimpson Harvey Woodward, purchased a majority share of the Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team from J. William McQueen in 1909 while he was still in his 20s. Immediately he began planning a grand showplace for his new team. He contacted Connie Mack for advice on the details, including the field dimensions. He settled on Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Shibe Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (conttrolled by Mack's team and later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) as the models for the new park. He named the field after himself, using his nickname and the first part of his last name. The 12.7 acre (51,000 m²) park was flanked along the basepaths by concrete and steel stands. A tile-roofed cupola on the roof behind home plate provided space for the announcer and the press.

Plan of the field

Opening day on August 18,1910, was celebrated by businesses closing all over town to allow fans to fill the park for the first pitch at 3:30 P.M. Over 10,000 people attended that first game in which the Barons defeated the visiting Montgomery Climbers 3–2. Throughout the first half of the 20th century Rickwood Field hosted sellout crowds for the Barons and the Black Barons who played on alternate weekends.

In 1912 a spring tornado tore through the field, pulling up the outfield fence.

In the 1920s Rickwood Field also hosted college football games.

In 1924-1927 the infield bleachers were covered with a steel-framed roof.

In 1928 new offices were built and a concrete outfield wall replaced the original fence.

In 1931 in the first game of the Dixie Series championship, Birmingham's 43-year-old Ray Caldwell outpitched 22-year-old Dizzy Dean, who had guaranteed a win. The Barons won the series 4 games to 3.

In 1936 four monumental steel-frame light towers were erected, allowing for night games.

In 1965 the City of Birmingham purchased Rickwood Field. Charlie Finley brought the Oakland Athletics AA farm team to Birmingham two years later. That year (1967) is remembered for the day that 14,000 disappointed fans were sent home early when the Atlanta Braves vs. Southern League All-Stars exhibition game was called "on account of tornado." During this period, following a trend which swept minor league baseball (and which has since been largely reversed), the team took the name of the parent major league club and was known as the "Birmingham A's".

In 1981 Art Clarkson brought minor league baseball back to Rickwood with the Chicago White Sox AA club.

In 1987 the Barons moved to a new ballpark (Hoover Metropolitan Stadium) in the suburb of Hoover, Alabama

Since 1996, Rickwood Field has hosted the Barons for a "throwback game" in which both teams wear period uniforms.

Scenes from the movies Cobb (1994) and Soul of the Game (1995) were filmed at Rickwood Field. Those productions contributed to the recreation of the scoreboard and pressbox, and the addition of 1940s period style advertisements on the outfield fence.

The park is currently under the care of the Friends of Rickwood who are slowly but surely restoring each part of the facility while hosting amateur league games and frequent visitors who can walk in any day and explore the grandstands or run the basepaths.

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Categories: Alabama landmarks | Baseball venues | Birmingham, Alabama sports