By Josh Jackson | MLB.com
Minor League Baseball is coming back to America’s oldest professional ballpark in 2025.
The Birmingham Barons, Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, will host the Rocket City Trash Pandas (Angels) at Rickwood Field in a tribute to the Negro Leagues on June 4, 2025, the team announced on Thursday.
Between 1996-2016 and 2018-19, the Barons played one game — the Rickwood Classic — at Rickwood Field each Minor League season.
As a ballpark that was the homefield of a Negro Leagues franchise that competed for several seasons on circuits now recognized as Major League level, Rickwood Field is a living monument to the thousands of Birmingham fans who filled its stands and the hundreds of Black baseball pioneers who competed between its lines — including Baseball Hall of Famers Satchel Paige, Willie Wells and Mule Suttles.
Willie Mays, who grew up about five miles away from Rickwood Field in Fairfield, Ala., also played his first games as a professional there. Mays joined the Birmingham Black Barons at age 17 in 1948.
Opened in 1910, Rickwood Field was the home of both the historical Birmingham Barons and, beginning in 1923, the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American, Negro Southern and Negro National Leagues. The beautiful concrete and steel ballyard remained the Black Barons’ home through 1960, and the Southern League’s Barons played there through 1987.
The venue became the center of the baseball world from June 18-20, 2024, for Major League Baseball’s Tribute to the Negro Leagues, during which the Barons hosted the Montgomery Biscuits (Rays) in MiLB at Rickwood and the Giants hosted the Cardinals in MLB at Rickwood.
Ahead of that celebration, Rickwood Field underwent a multimillion-dollar renovation that provided the playing surface an extensive makeover, added a new and padded outfield wall, installed new dugouts, upgraded accessibility features and more — all while maintaining the stadium’s classic feel and intimate setting.
In addition to hosting amateur tournaments over the years, the facility got use in — and considerable help from — Hollywood productions. Cobb (1994), 42 (2013) and Soul of the Game (1995) all shot scenes at the park.
The Barons’ season starts on April 4, as they host the Knoxville Smokies (Cubs) at Regions Field. The White Sox affiliate is the reigning Southern League champion.
