A Century of Baseball History

4A j The Birmingham News FROM PAGE ONE Wednesday, August 18, 2010 A CENTURY OF BASEBALL HISTORY In the century since turn-of-the-century days as In 2006, Willie RICKWOOD: Woodward built his ball- a booming steel town to the Mays, left, and park, Birmingham has torn racial unrest of the 1950s the Rev. From Page 1A down the Terminal Station and ’60s to the decline of the very steel industry upon William Rickwood, as time would and the old Tutwiler Hotel whose fortunes Rickwood Greason, prove, wasn’t just any ol’ and put up a parking lot was built. teammates on ballpark, but it came to be where the Empire Theatre once stood. “Rickwood,” as A.H. the the oldest baseball park in “Rick” Woodward III, the America — a distinction And while Vulcan may be Birmingham one of Birmingham’s oldest, grandson of the ballpark’s Black Barons in granted it by the National patriarch, puts it, “was a and certainly its most visi- 1948, got Park Service after Chicago’s part of the fabric of Bir- ble, icons — cast in 1904, old Comiskey Park, which mingham society.” together again opened just 48 days before the big iron man is six years Was, and still is. at Rickwood Rickwood, was demolished Rickwood’s senior — it has The Birmingham Barons for a vintage in 1991. been moved around, taken still come back once a year baseball game apart and put back together to play in the annual Rick- televised by again. wood Classic, and the ball- ESPN Classic. Rickwood has stayed put. park is the home field for A hundred years of Bir- Birmingham city schools, mingham history can be tra- Miles College and men’s NEWS FILE/TAMIKA MOORE ced along the old ballpark’s amateur-league teams. As trusted stewards of the basepaths — from the city’s “All of the sounds that HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RICKWOOD! y ballpark, the group has you associate with modern See more images from Rickwood Field through made, by its estimates, sports — you know, the the years at al.com/birmingham/, the online about $2 million worth of pounding disco music or home of The Birmingham News: renovations to Rickwood the pushy scoreboard telling videos.al.com/birmingham-news Wednesday, August 18, 2010 over the past two decades — you what to do and when to photos.al.com/birmingham-news from restoring the roof and Volume 123, Edition 158 clap — all of that is absent the locker rooms to install- from Rickwood,” author and DETAILS team to call its own until ing a vintage scoreboard 1981, when another colorful sports historian Allen Barra, y and old-timey outfield bill- who grew up going to Rick- What: 100th anniversary of character, Art Clarkson, with Rickwood Field boards. wood, says. “All you hear is the help of several local “We have a lot of different the crack of the bat and the y Where: 1137 Second Ave. businessmen, bought the people with different skills sounds of the players yelling North Montgomery Rebels, re- and contacts,” says Gerald to each other.” named them the Barons and y When: 3-6 p.m. today Watkins, a banker who two brought baseball back to years ago succeeded found- The ghosts y Admission: Free Birmingham. ing member Coke Matthews of baseball’s past It was a great marriage for III as the chairman of the the first few years, but frus- Friends of Rickwood board. Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb trated with parking prob- played here. So did Dizzy “We’ve got an electrician. days when the white Barons lems, security concerns and We’ve got some plumbers. Dean and Satchel Paige. weren’t in town, a future an aging ballpark in con- And Reggie Jackson and We’ve got lawyers. We’ve Hall-of-Famer named Willie stant need of repair, Clark- just got people who will Rollie Fingers. Mays made his professional son turned the lights out at In all, more than 100 come out there and do debut as a green but gifted Rickwood one last time in whatever is necessary for members of the National 16-year-old outfielder for 1987 and moved into new Baseball Hall of Fame came the good of the ballpark.” the Black Barons. digs at Hoover Metropolitan The volunteer group op- through Rickwood — either By 1957, near the end of Stadium, now known as Re- on barnstorming tours, erates on a budget of a little an era for the old Negro gions Park, in time to start more than $100,000 a year spring-training stopovers, Leagues, baseball was still the 1988 season. or on their way up to or — $67,500 of which, in re- being played in black and Although it’s been nearly cent years, has come from down from the big leagues. white at Rickwood when a quarter-century since the Besides baseball, Rick- the City of Birmingham. The Leeds native Joseph Mar- Barons made Rickwood rest comes from park rent- wood also hosted everything bury played his first game their home, the present-day from Klan rallies to a Kiss als, merchandise sales, do- there for the visiting India- Barons have a soft spot for nations, grants and pro- concert, from the Harlem napolis Clowns. the house that Rick Wood- Globetrotters to the Ringling ceeds from the Rickwood “Playing at Rickwood was ward built. Classic. Bros. and Barnum & Bailey something special to me, to “That ballpark meant so Circus. (This year, because of se- a lot of guys,” the much and connects so vere budget cuts, the It has starred in movies 71-year-old Marbury re- many different generations (“Cobb,” “Soul of the Friends of Rickwood, like members. “I felt the same on so many different levels,” many other nonprofit Game”), been the subject of way about playing at Rick- Barons general manager a half-dozen or so books groups, doesn’t expect to wood as I did when I played Jonathan Nelson says. “It’s get any financial support (Barra’s “Rickwood Field: A at Yankee Stadium in New one of the real gems not Century in America’s Oldest from the city, but the city York. only in baseball, but obvi- will continue to provide in- Ballpark” being the latest), “Segregation was a way of ously of Birmingham be- and made all sorts of sports kind services.) life in the South at that cause it meant so much to “We are very efficient bucket lists (including time,” Marbury adds. “We so many different people.” ESPN.com’s “101 Things All managers of our limited re- didn’t dwell on that. We just For the past 15 years, the sources,” says David Sports Fans Must Experi- went out and played. That’s Barons have packed their ence Before They Die.”) Brewer, executive director of the way things were back bats and balls and put on the Friends of Rickwood and And since the ballpark is then. You just had to make vintage uniforms to turn open most every weekday the group’s only paid em- the most of it and do the back time at the annual ployee. “So we are not in a for self-guided tours, visi- best you could.” Rickwood Classic. That first tors traveling through Bir- crisis situation at this In 1964, Rickwood was al- turn-back-the-clock game point.” mingham often drop in to ready more than a half-cen- in 1996 was a novelty; it has roam the grounds where the tury old when a righthander since become a tradition. Next generation ghosts of baseball’s past named Paul Seitz stepped This summer, more than once played. onto the mound for the Bir- 9,500 fans, the second larg- of Rickwood fans Rob Neyer of Portland, mingham Barons and est crowd in the classic’s So, after they blow out the Ore., who writes the base- pitched in the first inte- history and rivaling that candles on the birthday ball blog SweetSpot for grated professional baseball Opening Day crowd in 1910 cake today, what’s next for ESPN.com, did just that on a game in the ballpark’s his- — poured into Rickwood. America’s oldest ballpark? recent trip to Atlanta for a tory. This afternoon’s 100th This old house is 100 Society for American Base- “I didn’t think it was that birthday gathering will be years old, after all, and even ball Research convention big of a deal but when I got more low-key but no less though Rick Woodward with some of his buddies. out there, there was an elec- significant — a day for cele- built it to last, the concrete The first thing they did tricity,” Seitz recalls. “It was brating, commemorating, has begun to crumble and was have a catch. a full house, or close to a full dedicating and remem- the steel has started to rust. “It was sort of a tran- house, and it was pretty ex- bering when. It begins at 3 According to some esti- scendental experience for citing.” o’clock, a half-hour or so mates, it could cost as much me,” Neyer recalls. “I love Seitz, who grew up in Co- within the starting time for as $1.5 million to stabilize old grounds, knowing that lumbus, Ohio, played three that first game a century the grandstand for future I’m standing somewhere seasons and part of a fourth ago. generations of fans, but where baseball players have in Birmingham before ten- The Alabama Tourism Brewer says his group feels been doing amazing things dinitis persuaded him to Department will unveil a it can get it done for less.

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