Birmingham’s Rickwood Field Has Been Billed as ‘The Finest Minor League Ballpark Ever.’ Here’s Why

By Bruce Markusen National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Negro Leagues baseball endured a serious decline in the 1950s and completely died out by the 1960s. Given the passage of time – more than 55 years – it’s not surprising that few of the Negro Leagues ballparks remain in existence. Of the ballparks that served as the primary home parks for Negro Leagues team, only five remain throughout the country. The short list includes Hamtramck Stadium in Hamtramck, Mich.; Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J.; J.P. Small Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla.; and League Park in Cleveland, Ohio. There is just one other Negro Leagues park that remains standing– and it happens to be the oldest of the five. More remarkably, it is the oldest ballpark in the United States. Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Ala., continues to serve as a playing field for high school and college teams. First utilized as a Negro Leagues park in 1920, Rickwood dates all the way back to 1910, making it older than such venerable ballparks as Boston’s Fenway Park and Chicago’s Wrigley Field. The ballpark will be in the national spotlight on June 20 when “MLB at Rickwood Field” takes place between the...