MLB will honor Hall of Fame center fielder Willie Mays with a special game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham in 2024, the league office announced in a Tuesday morning release.
The game will feature the Giants, for whom Mays played from 1951–52 and 1954 to ’72, and the Cardinals. Scheduled to be played on June 20 to coincide with Juneteenth celebrations, it will be televised on Fox.
Rickwood Field is the oldest professional ballpark in the United States, having been constructed for the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association in 1910. The Barons—still active in the Southern League as the White Sox’s longtime Double-A affiliate—will play the Montgomery Biscuits at Rickwood Field two days before the big-league game.
It's official.
A Major League Baseball game is coming to Birmingham's Rickwood Field in 2024.
Also in the announcement: Double-A Birmingham and Montgomery will play at the historic park on June 18, two days before the MLB game. pic.twitter.com/XaFpCKeL6J
— Sam Dykstra (@SamDykstraMiLB) June 20, 2023
The historic venue was also home to the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons for decades. Mays—a native of Westfield, Ala.—was one of four Hall of Famers to spend time with the Black Barons, along with pitcher Satchel Paige, first baseman Mule Suttles and shortstop Willie Wells.
In addition to honoring Mays—billed in the release as baseball’s “greatest living player”—the game will also be notable as the first in MLB history to be played in Alabama.
