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Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field is a ballpark located in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It is the oldest existing professional baseball stadium in the country, as it was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward. It has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
Though the Barons moved their home games to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after the 1988 season,[citation needed] Rickwood Field has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a "working museum" where baseball's history can be experienced. The Barons also play one regular season game a year at Rickwood Field.
Rickwood Field is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Birmingham chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research is named after the historic ballpark.
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.
Allen Harvey "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 Shibe Park in Philadelphia (which was controlled by Mack's team and later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh 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 ($2.53 million in 2024) 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. It was the first concrete-and-steel stadium in Minor League Baseball.
Woodward invited Alabama Governor Braxton Bragg Comer, Birmingham Mayor Culpepper Exum, civic leader, George B. Ward and Victor H. Hanson, publisher of The Birmingham News, for opening day on August 18, 1910. The day 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.
The new ballpark attracted the Philadelphia Phillies to Birmingham for spring training in 1911. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, "The players were agreeably surprised to find Rickwood field, for such it is named, one of the most complete and commodious minor league parks in the country. It lacks nothing either for the convenience of the player or the comfort of the spectator." After a week of intrasquad games, the Phillies opened against the Barons on Saturday, March 11, 1911.
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Rickwood Field
Rickwood Field is a ballpark located in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. It is the oldest existing professional baseball stadium in the country, as it was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward. It has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
Though the Barons moved their home games to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after the 1988 season,[citation needed] Rickwood Field has been preserved and is undergoing gradual restoration as a "working museum" where baseball's history can be experienced. The Barons also play one regular season game a year at Rickwood Field.
Rickwood Field is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Birmingham chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research is named after the historic ballpark.
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.
Allen Harvey "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 Shibe Park in Philadelphia (which was controlled by Mack's team and later renamed Connie Mack Stadium) and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh 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 ($2.53 million in 2024) 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. It was the first concrete-and-steel stadium in Minor League Baseball.
Woodward invited Alabama Governor Braxton Bragg Comer, Birmingham Mayor Culpepper Exum, civic leader, George B. Ward and Victor H. Hanson, publisher of The Birmingham News, for opening day on August 18, 1910. The day 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.
The new ballpark attracted the Philadelphia Phillies to Birmingham for spring training in 1911. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, "The players were agreeably surprised to find Rickwood field, for such it is named, one of the most complete and commodious minor league parks in the country. It lacks nothing either for the convenience of the player or the comfort of the spectator." After a week of intrasquad games, the Phillies opened against the Barons on Saturday, March 11, 1911.