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How Rickwood Field is significant to baseball history
A look at the 114-year-old ballpark, Willie Mays’ legacy and the importance of MLB’s arrival
Clinton Yates takes readers inside all things around MLB’s first game in Birmingham, Alabama, at Rickwood Field — the oldest professional ballpark in the United States.
Andscape senior columnist Clinton Yates explains Rickwood Field’s significance to baseball ahead of Thursday’s game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals, including the arrival of a 17-year-old Willie Mays on the scene for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and what chroniclers of Black baseball feel Rickwood represents.
Check out Yates’ other letters from Birmingham here:
Baseball legend Willie Mays is in Birmingham in spirit
Major League Baseball descends on Birmingham and Rickwood Field