By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com
Rickwood Field will host a free blues concert on Saturday, Oct. 7, and then a home run derby on Sunday, Oct. 15, before renovation of the stadium begins in earnest to prepare for next year’s Major League Baseball game.
Major League Baseball has announced it will play a game at Rickwood Field as a tribute to the Negro Leagues on June 20, 2024. It will feature the St. Louis Cardinals playing the San Francisco Giants.
Rickwood Field in Birmingham was built in 1910 and is the nation’s oldest surviving baseball park.
On Saturday, from 1 to 6:30 p.m., a free blues concert called Blues in the Ballpark will feature a variety of musicians performing on a stage in front of the third base stands. Food trucks will be on hand.
Performers include Ms. Johnnie and the Jammers, Charles “Sugar Harp” Burroughs, Jose Ramirez and “Hurricane Elaine” Hudson.
“There is nothing that’s uniquely American as Blues and Baseball and we wanted to take this opportunity to marry those two things together with this event,” said Birmingham City Council member Carol Clarke. “I think that Blues, which is one of our greatest contributions to the world, has been underrepresented here and I’m looking forward to everyone coming together and enjoying it in a very unique venue.”
Construction will include enlarging the dugouts, repairing rotting wooden louvers and installing new concrete ramps.
“We’re doing some minor work now,” said Gerald Watkins, Chairman of the Friends of Rickwood. “The big work will start on Oct. 23.”
On Sunday, Oct. 15, Rickwood will host a home run derby featuring former Atlanta Braves star Ryan Klesko, Barons Hall of Famer and former Chicago White Sox star Mike Cameron and former Oakland A and Houston Astro Chris Carter, who led the National League with 41 home runs in 2016 with the Milwaukee Brewers. Carter had 158 in an eight-year career. Klesko had 278 home runs in a 16-year Major League career. Cameron also hit 278, in a 17-year career.
Dan Oberst of the Savannah Bananas will also compete, along with college players Trey Rutledge from Miles College, which plays its home games at Rickwood, and Ian Hancock of Birmingham-Southern College.
The gates open at 1 p.m. on Oct. 15. Admission is $20 for adults and $10 for kids under 12.
An autograph session will be held from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and that requires a separate $50 ticket that includes signatures from all the participants. That includes home run derby participants, plus additional former Major League baseball players who will be there to meet fans and sign autographs. Fans can bring their own objects for players to sign.
The autograph session has a limited number of tickets. Those are available through Rickwood.com.
The home run derby competition starts at 3 p.m. on Oct. 15. Electronic scoreboards will be set up on the field to keep track of the homers.
“We copy what they do on the big leagues,” Watkins said. “Kids can come on the field and catch the balls that don’t go over. Once the guys start hitting the ball and it’s going over the fence, people really get into it.”
