Rickwood Field, Willie Mays’ first pro park and monument of opportunity and oppression, welcomes MLB

By Alanis Thames | The Associated Press A person drives a golf cart through a construction site at Rickwood Field, Monday, June 10, 2024, in Birmingham, Ala. Rickwood Field, known as one of the oldest professional ballpark in the United States and former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, will be the site of a special regular season game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants on June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Gerald Watkins watched Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and other New York Yankees wade through stalks of corn onto an Iowa field in 2021, near the filming site for the 1989 baseball movie “Field of Dreams.” Watkins thought about Rickwood Field, the 114-year-old ballpark in his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, where Willie Mays got his start, and he called Major League Baseball with a pitch. “The Field of Dreams is really cool,” Watkins, 68, said, “but we have a real Field of Dreams here. This is a place where Willie Mays, among others, was standing in the outfield dreaming about being in the big leagues.” The front entrance is seen at Rickwood Field, Monday, June 10, 2024, in...