On August 18, 1910, all businesses in Birmingham, Alabama, were closed. Everyone was at the baseball game.
And this match was special, because it was the first played in Rickwood Fieldwhich is now the oldest active professional stadium in the United States.
What many may not know about this revered venue is how many legends of the baseball world played there. Perhaps the most famous of them is Willie Mays – who died Tuesday at age 93 – who began his professional career in Rickwood with the Birmingham Black Barons. But there is a long list of great players and managers, including 181 Hall of Famers, who stepped on the diamond in Rickwood over the past 114 years.
*Players who spent their entire career in the Negro Leagues:
**Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and Rube Foster.*
Gibson, who He became the leader of all time of the Majors in batting average (.373), slugging (.718) and OPS (1.176) with the new statistics incorporated, he played in Rickwood as a visitor with the Homestead Grays during the Negro Leagues World Series in 1943, 1944 and 1948.
One of the fastest players of all time, Bell also played against the Black Barons in Rickwood, primarily while with the St. Louis Stars. He led the league in steals for five consecutive years from 1925 to 1929 and during that period, he had an OPS of .874.
Charleston, one of the elite players in the Negro Leagues from 1921 to 1927, played with the Indianapolis ABCs, St. Louis Giants and Harrisburg Giants during that period. He led his league (the Negro National League from 1921 to 1923 and the Eastern Colored League from 1924 to 1927) in home runs five times.
Foster, a pioneer in black baseball league organizing, founded the Negro National League, of which the Birmingham Black Barons were a part, in 1920. He led the Chicago American Giants to their league championship in his first three years of operation. existence and continued to manage the team for three more seasons.
Players who started in the Negro Leagues and later played in the American League (AL) and/or the National League (NL):
Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and Roy Campanella.
Mays is the most famous and iconic player to wear the Barons uniformand when Negro Leagues statistics were added to the MLB record, 10 hits were added from when he was 17 years old to his previous total of 3,283. Mays had 10 hits in 43 at-bats with a pair of doubles and a triple in 13 games with Birmingham in 1948, helping the Black Barons reach the Negro Leagues World Series that year. He played two more summers with Birmingham before being signed by the Giants. The rest, as they say, is history.
Paige, a prodigy who eventually pitched for Cleveland, the St. Louis Carmelites and the Kansas City Athletics, began his professional career as a 20-year-old with the Black Barons in 1927. He pitched four years with Birmingham, posting a 2.93 ERA in 491 entries during that period.
Robinson and Doby, who were the first players to break the color barrier in the Major Leagues, played for Rickwood while in the Negro Leagues.
Robinson, who broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, played in Rickwood when the Dodgers visited in 1954. And Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League in 1948, saw action in Rickwood when visited with Cleveland.
Campanella, a Hall of Fame catcher whose career was cut short by a car accident in 1958 that left his legs paralyzed, also played in Rickwood with the Dodgers in 1954. He played in the Negro Leagues with the Washington/Baltimore Elite Giants of 1937 to 1942.
Players who spent their entire careers in the American League (AL) or National League (NL):
Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, Honus Wagner, Barefoot Joe Jackson, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Dizzy Dean, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Duke Snider, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, Rollie Fingers, Blue Moon Odom, Dagoberto Campaneris, Vida Blue.
Look at that list. It’s amazing how many legends who never played in the Negro Leagues nevertheless suited up at historic Rickwood Field over the years.
One reason for this is that Rickwood was located near a railroad hub, and Major League teams often stopped to watch games and play at the stadium on their way back from spring training in Florida to their headquarters cities.
Every member of the first Hall of Fame class (1936) played at Rickwood: Ruth, Cobb, Mathewson, Johnson and Wagner. In 1958, Mantle and his Yankees, as well as Musial and his Cardinals, visited Rickwood on their way back from Florida to New York and St. Louis, respectively.
From the late 1960s to early 1970s, Aaron – who would eclipse Ruth’s career home run record of 714 in 1974 – also visited Rickwood with the Braves.
Also in the 1960s, Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie O. Finley, a Birmingham native, located his Double-A affiliate in his hometown. In 1967, long before becoming “Mr. October,” Jackson spent part of the season with the Birmingham Athletics before being brought up to make his MLB debut. In 114 games with Birmingham, Jackson hit 17 home runs (and also had an impressive total of 17 triples) while maintaining a .934 OPS.
Other A’s legends, such as Fingers, Odom and Campaneris, also played for Rickwood during their minor league careers: Fingers with the Birmingham A’s as Jackson’s teammate in 1967, and both Odom and Campaneris with the Barons. of Birmingham (also an A’s affiliate at the time) in 1964.
