Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images
Major League Baseball released a time-lapse video Friday that showed the transformation of Rickwood Field leading up to Thursday’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.
The MLB announced last year that a game would take place at the legendary Negro League ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama, and starting in October 2023, a $5 million renovation project was put into action:
MLB @MLB
Getting Rickwood Field ready for action. 😍 #MLBatRickwood pic.twitter.com/hdsJLMxicJ
Per Riley Conlon of WVTM 13, MLB provided Rickwood Field with “expanded dugouts, a digital scoreboard, a new and padded outfield wall, a modern batter’s eye in center field, netting along the foul lines, accessibility upgrades and more” to ensure it could accommodate a big-league baseball game.
Rickwood Field opened in 1910, making it the oldest professional baseball park still in existence today, just ahead of the Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park, which opened in 1912.
Originally built for the minor-league Birmingham Barons, Rickwood Field became best known as the home of the Negro League’s Birmingham Black Barons from 1920 until 1960.
The Black Barons were famously the first Major League team legendary Hall of Fame outfielder Willie Mays played for before he went on to star with the New York/San Francisco Giants and New York Mets for 22 seasons.
Mays appeared in 13 games for the Black Barons in 1948 and made his MLB debut with the Giants in 1951.
It was originally expected that Mays would attend Thursday’s game, but he tragically died Tuesday at the age of 93, making the game a celebration of both the Negro Leagues and Mays’ life.
Dozens of former Negro League players were on the field for a pre-game ceremony, adding to the importance of the first Major League Baseball regular-season game ever played at the ballpark.
The game turned out to be a tightly contested and entertaining affair, as the Cardinals outlasted the Giants 6-5 behind Alabama native Brendan Donovan’s stat line of 3-for-4 with one home run and three RBI.
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