It’s been 75 years since Willie Mays first played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., for the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.
Now, in one year, Mays’ big league team will take that same field for a game.
Major League Baseball announced on Tuesday that the Giants will take on the St. Louis Cardinals in a game at Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in the country, on Thursday, June 20, 2024, in game specifically set up as a tribute to “the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player” in Mays.
Mays, 92, played with the Black Barons starting in 1948, when he was just 16 years old, and quickly became a star in the Negro Leagues. According to the Society for American Baseball Research, several MLB teams tried to sign Mays, including the Boston Braves, Chicago White Sox, the then-Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox and the then-New York Giants.
But Mays didn’t sign right away, hitting .311 in 75 games in 1949 before starting the 1950 season by hitting .330 with a .547 slugging percentage.
The Giants’ pursuit of Mays continued, and a telegram sent June 21, 1950 from Giants owner Horace Stoneham to Black Barons owner Tom Hayes shows the Giants officially offered to buy Mays’ contract for $10,000.
That made Mays a member of the Giants — and changed baseball history forever.
Next year, the Giants will get a chance to honor their franchise icon and play on the field where Mays started his career.
“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 released by MLB. “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 has had multiple one-off games at different locations in the United States since 2016, when the Marlins and Braves first played a game at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
MLB has held an annual Little League game in Williamsport, Pa., during the Little League World Series since 2017 (excluding 2020), played one game at the home of the College World Series in 2019 and has played two Field of Dreams games in Dyersville, Iowa, in 2021 and 2022.
The Field of Dreams game isn’t happening in 2023 and reportedly won’t happen in 2024, either. But instead, MLB will honor the Negro Leagues by bringing the game to the 123-year-old Rickwood Field, with the league announcing they will work with the city of Birmingham and the Friends of Rickwood organization to help bring the stadium that was built in 1910 up to MLB standards.
“We are proud to bring Major League Baseball to historic Rickwood Field in 2024, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “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 Giants will be the road team for the game, which will air on Fox and start at 4 p.m. PT. Both the Giants and the Cardinals will wear Negro League uniforms.
