| Rickwood
Field |
 |
| Facility Statistics |
| Location |
1137 2nd Avenue West
Birmingham,
Alabama |
| Broke Ground |
Spring 1910 |
| Cost |
$75,000 |
| Opened |
August 18, 1910 |
| Surface |
Grass |
| Owner |
City of Birmingham |
| Tenants |
| Birmingham Barons
(Southern Association) |
1910-1961 |
| Birmingham Barons
(Southern League) |
1964-1965, 1981-1987 |
| Birmingham A's
(Southern League) |
1967-1975 |
| Birmingham
Black Barons (Negro Southern League) |
1920-1924, 1926, 1931-1936, 1938-1939 |
| Birmingham
Black Barons (Negro National League) |
1925-1926, 1927-1930, 1937, 1940-1948 |
| Birmingham
Black Barons (Negro American League) |
1949-1960 |
| Philadelphia
Phillies (Major League Baseball Spring Training) |
1911, 1920 |
| Pittsburgh
Pirates (Major League Baseball Spring Training) |
1919 |
| Seating Capacity |
| 2005 |
10,800 |
| Current Dimensions |
| Left field |
321 ft (96.3 m) |
| Left center |
399 ft (119.7 m) |
| Center field |
393 ft (117.9 m) |
| Right cemter |
392 ft (117.6 m) |
| Right field |
332 ft (99.6 m) |
Rickwood Field facade
Plan of the field
Field
Scoreboard
Rickwood Championships
Rickwood Field, located in
Birmingham,
Alabama, is the oldest surviving professional baseball park in the United States
. It was built for the
Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist
and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for
the
Birmingham Barons and the
Birmingham Black Barons of
the
Negro Leagues. Though the
Barons have moved their home games to the suburbs, Rickwood Field
has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a
"working
museum" where baseball's history can
be experienced. Rickwood Field is listed on the
National Register of
Historic Places.
History
The Birmingham Coal Barons baseball team began playing
professionally in 1887, with their home games at an informal park
called "Slag Pile Field" in West End. In 1901 they joined the
Southern Association.
A. H. "Rick" Woodward, chairman of Woodward Iron Company and
grandson of pioneer Birmingham industrialist Stimpson Harvey
Woodward, purchased a majority share of the Birmingham Coal Barons
baseball team from J. William McQueen in 1909 while he was still in
his 20s. Immediately he began planning a grand showplace for his
new team. He contacted
Connie
Mack for advice on the details, including the field dimensions.
He settled
on Forbes
Field
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and Shibe
Park
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(which was controlled by Mack's team and later
renamed Connie Mack Stadium) as the models for the new park.
He purchased land in the West End neighborhood of Birmingham from
the Alabama Central Railroad.
The $75,000 structure was designed by
Southeastern Engineering Company of Birmingham (a short-lived
subsidiary of Pittsburgh's General Fireproofing Company) and completed
during the summer of 1910. The 12.7
acre
(51,000 m²) park was flanked along the basepaths by concrete
and steel stands. A tile-roofed cupola on the roof behind home
plate provided space for the announcer and the press. Woodward
named the field after himself, using his nickname and the first
part of his last name.
Opening day on
August 18,
1910, was celebrated by businesses closing all over
town to allow fans to fill the park for the first pitch at 3:30
P.M. Over 10,000 people attended that first game in which the
Barons defeated the visiting Montgomery Climbers 3-2. Throughout
the first half of the 20th century Rickwood Field hosted sellout
crowds for the Barons and the Black Barons who played on alternate
weekends.
In 1912 a spring
tornado tore through the
field, pulling up the outfield fence. Two years later Woodward felt
the need to have electric fans installed in the grandstands for the
comfort of the crowd. The
Pittsburgh
Pirates also made Rickwood Field their
spring training home in
1919.
During the 1920s Rickwood Field also hosted
college football games. In 1921 the
outfield fence was damaged in a tornado and quickly rebuilt. In
1924-1927 the infield bleachers were covered with a steel-framed
roof designed by Denham, VanKeuren & Denham, Architects of
Birmingham. Shortly after, In 1928 a new
Mission style entry structure with offices was
built to the designs of Paul Wright & Co., Engineers of
Birmingham. A new concrete outfield wall replaced the original
fence.
In 1931 in the first game of the Dixie Series championship,
Birmingham's 43-year-old
Ray Caldwell
outpitched 22-year-old
Dizzy Dean, who
had guaranteed a win. The Barons won the series 4 games to 3.
In 1936
four monumental steel-frame light towers designed and fabricated by
the Truscon Steel Company of Youngstown, Ohio
were erected, allowing for night games. In
1938, Woodward sold the park to Ed Norton, a local businessman. In
1940 Norton sold it to the Cincinnati Reds. At that time new
outfield fences were built inside the original walls to reduce the
field dimensions. G. J. Jebeles of Birmingham purchased the park in
1944. A ladies' rest room was added and the outfield fence reduced
again in 1948. In 1949 ownership changed hands again, going to a
partnership of Al DeMent, Al Belcher, and Rufus Lackey. They added
a small restaurant in the entrance building in 1950 and installed
additional box seats, necessitating the relocations of the dugouts
farther down the baselines. In 1958 Belcher gained a majority share
and control of the park.
In 1964 General Manager Glynn West purchased
1000 wooden seats from New York
's Polo Grounds
and installed them at the park. Belcher sold
Rickwood Field in 1966 to the City of Birmingham, but retained a
lease for the remainder of that year.
In 1966 the lease was transferred to
Charlie Finley, who brought the
Oakland Athletics AA farm team to
Birmingham for the 1967 season. That year is remembered for the day
that 14,000 disappointed fans were sent home early when the
Atlanta Braves vs. Southern League
All-Stars exhibition game was called "on account of tornado."
During this period, following a trend which swept
minor league baseball (and which has
since been largely reversed), the team took the name of the parent
major league club and was
known as the "Birmingham A's". Between 1979 and 1980 the wooden
seats were replaced with plastic seats in the box areas and metal
bleachers under the grandstands.
In 1981 Art Clarkson brought minor league baseball back to Rickwood
with the Detroit Tigers AA club, which resumed the Barons name. He
had a new electronic scoreboard installed at the park. In 1986, the
Barons became the Chicago White Sox AA club, an affiliation that
continues today.
In 1987
the Barons moved to a new facility, (Hoover
Metropolitan Stadium
) in the suburb of Hoover,
Alabama
.
Current status
Since 1992 the ballpark has been under the care of the
Friends of Rickwood
who are restoring the facility to its former glory. They also host
frequent amateur, police and semi-pro games and open the gates to
visitors who can walk in and explore the grandstands or run the
bases.
Since 1996, Rickwood Field has hosted the Barons for a throwback
game in which both teams wear period uniforms. Each match honors a
different era in Birmingham baseball history. Ballpark enthusiasts
from across North America migrate to Rickwood to attend this AA
regulation game, named the "Rickwood Classic," every season. Many
consider this game the best opportunity to experience a regulation
ballgame in an historic ballpark that remains true to its original
and traditional appearance. Those involved – the Barons franchise,
Friends of Rickwood, and fans – fully believe that this experience
in the sacred baseball cathedral is among the most underrated
baseball events.
Scenes from the
movies Cobb (1994) and
Soul of the Game
(1995) were filmed at Rickwood. Those productions contributed to
the recreation of the scoreboard and press-box and the addition of
1940s period style advertisements on the outfield fence. Some of
these retro-style ads have been sponsored by real Birmingham
businesses, including a section sponsored by the descendants of
Rick Woodward that advertises long-gone Woodward Iron Co.
The
outfield signs were designed by Ted Haigh, a Los Angeles
-based graphic designer and executed by Skidmore
Sign Company of Birmingham.
As of 2005, the Friends of Rickwood have spent around
$2 million refurbishing the grandstands, press-box, locker
rooms, roof and main entrance to the park. Future plans include
establishing a Museum of Southern Baseball.
ESPN Classic broadcast a re-enactment
of a
Negro League game played at
Rickwood on
February 26,
2006.
It featured teams wearing the uniforms of the
fictitious "Bristol Barnstormers" (named for ESPN's hometown of
Bristol,
Connecticut
) and the Birmingham Black
Barons.
References
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