For many of its “jewel” events in recent years, Major League Baseball has created temporary ballparks where none existed before. For its regular season game on June 20, 2024 in Birmingham, Alabama, MLB did the opposite. It worked with the city to modernize a ballpark that opened in 1910.
This was no easy task when you consider that Rickwood Field is on the National Register of Historic Places. In fact, it’s so old that the city’s Minor League team has moved twice since it last called the park its regular home in 1987.
I spent three days in Alabama to investigate and witness how all of this was accomplished, and see what kind of event was done by MLB. Here in one place are four different articles I produced to give you the full picture.
The first provides the rich history of Rickwood — some of it profoundly negative, due to the segregation in place for decades. It’s important for you to understand that the very reason MLB chose to bring a game here wasn’t because the ballpark is old. It’s because it was home to the Birmingham Black Barons, and honoring the Negro Leagues was the major motivation for this game.
The second article addresses how the aging facility was upgraded to accommodate a big-league game — without destroying it’s historic nature.
Next is a series of quotes from interesting people I encountered at Rickwood — from the two grandsons of the man who was responsible for the design and construction of the stadium in 1910 to a delightful U.S. Senator.
Fourth was a specific assignment given to me from USA TODAY headquarters. That was to record my biggest take-aways from the events … and I had a lot to say about everything.
So check out these two very special pages to learn all about the event called MLB at Rickwood.
When Maryland State Senator Paul Corderman was starting to tackle the process of obtaining money to build a new downtown ballpark in his native Hagerstown, he knew it would be a long, long uphill battle. And he figured that he probably wouldn’t be successful. He committed, though, to playing “the ultimate long game.”
As an assignment for USA TODAY, I spent a couple of days in Toronto to take a close look at the renovations completed over the past two offseasons. The results are phenomenal — including new concession items like the Hot Maple & Bacon Hot Dog and the Signature Poutine Hot Dog.
Before providing my own ranking, I decided to take a fresh look at how I felt about each of the 30. For instance, massive renovations on Rogers Centre caused me to move it up. The announcement that the Royals are looking to move to a brand new park in downtown KC (meaning Kauffman Stadium is no longer receiving improvements) prompted me to move it down.
Widely regarded as the best of MLB’s 23 spring-training complexes, Salt River Fields might never have been built if it weren’t for the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. They provided the land on their reservation, and paid for the construction. But how did the relationship between the tribal council and the two MLB teams (Rockies and Diamondbacks) come about? 