MLB at Rickwood Field

MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues was a Major League Baseball (MLB) specialty game played between the National League (NL) West's San Francisco Giants and the NL Central's St. Louis Cardinals on June 20, 2024. The game was played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the former home of the Negro leagues' Birmingham Black Barons, one day after Juneteenth. This was the first regular-season Major League Baseball (MLB) game played in the state of Alabama. The Cardinals won 6–5.

Background
On June 13, 2023, initial reports revealed that the Giants would play in a Field of Dreams style game, celebrating Willie Mays in Alabama. Due to construction at the MLB at Field of Dreams site, games in 2023 and 2024 were unable to happen. However, MLB decided to shift their marketing into a game to honor Willie Mays, the Negro Leagues, and Juneteenth. The official name for the game was unveiled as MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues on August 4, 2023. All living Negro League players were invited to the game (157 total), and 60 were confirmed to attend.

Uniforms
On June 20, 2023, MLB released a statement indicating that "On-field personnel for both teams will wear period uniforms highlighting the Negro Leagues histories of both St. Louis and San Francisco."

On February 28, 2024, MLB released a teaser poster preview video for the Rickwood Field game. The poster specified the Giants are planning on wearing the San Francisco Sea Lions uniforms and the Cardinals to wear St. Louis Stars uniforms to pay homage to the cities histories of the Negro Leagues.

On June 12, 2024, despite San Francisco being the designated away team and St. Louis being the designated home team, MLB revealed that the Giants will wear their cream home Sea Lions uniform while St. Louis will wear their road grays. The Giants and Cardinals both wore a "Mays 24" memorial patch on their uniforms during the game. The Giants' uniforms included a "throwback" logo for Chevrolet, the team's uniform advertising sponsor, on the sleeve.

Renovations to Rickwood Field
In October 2022, MLB executives met with Rickwood Field Chairman and Executive Director, Gerald Watkins to discuss mock-up designs of how to set the ballpark up, how to reconfigure the clubhouses and dugouts, where to put medical areas, how to revamp the concessions and where to build the broadcast center.

Preparatory renovations of the park were scheduled to begin in 2023. Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post wrote, "MLB is tasked with performing tasteful cosmetic surgery on a ballpark known for its old and minimalist charm."

By 2024, Rickwood Field underwent $5 million in renovations which included a new playing surface, a new padded wall that is 10 ft deeper than the original, and shifting the entire field to the left by 5 ft to make the field more symmetrical. Other renovations include new dugouts, a modern batter's eye in center field, a digital scoreboard, netting along the foul lines and accessibility upgrades. Tahoma 31 bermuda grass, and temporary light towers were also installed during the renovation.

Willie Mays' death
On June 17, 2024, Willie Mays made a public statement to the San Francisco Chronicle that he would not be able to attend the game later that week on June 20. Mays died the following day, at the age of 93 of heart failure. MLB commissioner, Rob Manfred released a statement after Mays' death: "Thursday's game at historic Rickwood Field was designed to be a celebration of Willie Mays and his peers. With sadness in our hearts, it will now also serve as a national remembrance of an American who will forever remain on the short list of the most impactful individuals our great game has ever known." On the day of the game, the ballpark groundskeepers painted the number 24 behind home plate, paying homage to Mays.

LaMonte Wade Jr. appeal
On June 18, Giants first baseman and leadoff hitter, LaMonte Wade Jr.'s appeal to play in the June 20th game was denied by MLB. Wade strained his hamstring on May 27th in a game against the Phillies and was scheduled to miss at least 4 weeks. Since Wade is one of the prominent Black players in MLB and one of three in the Giants' clubhouse, along with pitchers Spencer Bivens and Jordan Hicks, he made it his goal to return for the Rickwood Field game. Giants manager, Bob Melvin indicated the Giants tried to get MLB to reverse its decision, but ultimately was unsuccessful. Melvin said the Giants would prioritize adding him to the roster, even if he were only cleared to be the designated hitter. With the San Francisco Giants able to add a player and carry 27 players on the active roster for Thursday’s Rickwood Field game, the team added utility player Tyler Fitzgerald. That move confirmed the fact that Wade would not play in the Rickwood game. Instead Wade, one of three African American players on the Giants’ roster, remained on the injured list with a hamstring strain. Wade instead brought out the lineup card during the pregame home plate meeting.

Umpires
Thursday's game at Rickwood was umpired by an all-Black crew for the first time in MLB history. Adrian Johnson served as the crew chief and first-base ump, while Alan Porter called balls and strikes. Malachi Moore oversaw second base and C.B. Bucknor was in charge of third base. Jeremie Rehak managed the replays. MLB has employed just 11 Black umpires in AL/NL history; the five that worked Thursday's game were the only black umpires active that day.

Jon Batiste
Musical artist Jon Batiste strummed a guitar while dancing on a wooden stage near home plate to kick off the pregame ceremonies with his band which included Brittney Spencer, Willie Jones, and C.S. Armstrong. They sang the national anthem and played a mix of instruments to pay homage to the period. Four F-35A fighter jets from the Alabama National Guard's 187th Fighter Wing performed a flyover during the anthem.

Negro League' Players Ceremony
Fans stood as the Cardinals and Giants led former Negro Leaguers were helped to the field for a pregame ceremony. They sat along the first and third base lines as Batiste and company finished their performance. Next, a video of the late, great Willie Mays played on the video board. Then Mays' son, Michael, came out onto the field alongside Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. Mays, shouted to the Rickwood Field crowd, "Birmingham, I've been telling y'all if there's any way on earth my father could come down here, that he would," Mays said in a short speech. "Well he found another way. He already stands at your feet. Let him hear you, he's listening." The crowd then erupted in a standing ovation and began to chant "Will-ie! Will-ie!" Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field PA announcer Jeremiah Paprocki was the PA announcer for the game.

Ceremonial first pitch
99-year old WWII veteran, former Black Baron and Cardinal, Bill Greason threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Greason played with Mays on the Black Barons and lived across the street from Martin Luther King Jr. and is the oldest living Negro league ballplayer.

Scheduling
The game was the first MLB regular season game in the state of Alabama. It was played on a Thursday and was the first game of a three-game series followed by an off-day and two games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday.

Recap
In the first inning, San Francisco batter Matt Chapman grounded out to Brandon Crawford, a longtime Giants shortstop who was playing his first game of his professional career at third base for the Cardinals, with whom he had signed before the season. In the bottom half of the first, The Cardinals kicked off the scoring when Nolan Gorman hit a sacrifice fly to plate Masyn Winn. The next batter, Brendan Donovan, hit a two run homer to right field.

In the top of the third, Giants center fielder Heliot Ramos responded with a three run opposite field home run just over the right field wall. In the bottom half of the inning, Gorman hit another sac–fly to score Winn, then Alec Burleson scored on a wild pitch from Giants reliever Randy Rodríguez.

In the top of the fifth inning, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of 'The Catch', Fox replicated a 1954 broadcast by making the video feed black and white, making the microphone audio scratchy, adding a projector sound in the background, and using identical angles to the 1954 World Series broadcast. The inning showed a split screen of the pitcher and runner at first, as well as 1950s-style camera angles for a ground ball Heliot Ramos hit that resulted in a double play. In the bottom half of the fifth, Brendan Donovan singled to center to score Alec Burleson.

In between the fifth and the sixth innings, MLB held a brief ceremony for their Stand Up to Cancer program, aimed to raise awareness and find cures for cancer patients. In the top half of the sixth inning, Wilmer Flores singled to center to score Matt Chapman and move Jorge Soler to third. Two batters later, Nick Ahmed hit a sac-fly to left to score Soler to make the score 6–5. The bullpens dealt throughout the rest of the game, including Adam Kloffenstein making his Major League Baseball debut, and Ryan Helsley shut the door on the Giants to earn the save. Cardinals left fielder Brendan Donovan, who grew up in Enterprise, Alabama, led the Cardinals offense, going three-for-four with a home run and three RBIs. Andre Pallante earned himself the win, and Keaton Winn was credited with the loss.

Box score
Pitching

Pitching

MiLB at Rickwood Field
Along with the June 20 game between the Giants and Cardinals, the Montgomery Biscuits (Tampa Bay Rays affiliate) and the Birmingham Barons (Chicago White Sox affiliate) of Minor League Baseball's Double-A Southern League played a game at Rickwood Field on June 18.The visiting Biscuits wore Montgomery Gray Sox road uniforms while the home Barons wore Birmingham Black Barons home uniforms.

In the top of the 7th inning, Rich Waltz passed along the news that all-time great Willie Mays passed away at the age of 93. The fans in the stadium found out about Mays' passing as the Rickwood Field PA announcer addressed the crowd in between the 7th and 8th inning. The fans gave Mays a standing ovation shortly after to honor his life and legacy.

African-American Rays top 10 prospect and Biscuits center fielder, Chandler Simpson tweaked his calf trying to make a play in the bottom of the seventh inning and had exited the game with the team trainer. He then found out about the passing of Mays. Postgame, Simpson stated, “He was definitely here in spirit throughout the whole game... But everybody gave thanks, and then everybody was appreciative of him and all the greats that came before me.” The Grey Sox beat the Black Barons by a score of 6–5.