| Advertisement |
June 14 (UPI) -- The San Francisco Giants will face the St. Louis Cardinals in a special event MLB game in 2024 at historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., a baseball source told UPI on Wednesday. Rickwood Field was built in 1910 and is considered the "oldest baseball park in the nation," according to the National Park Service. The former home of the Birmingham Black Barons is one of two original Negro League home fields still standing.
Advertisement
MLB's previous special event games recently included Field of Dreams Game matchups between the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs in 2022 and New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox in 2021.
Those games were held on the former set of the 1989 film, staged on a cornfield-flanked property in Dyersville, Iowa.
MLB did not use the Field of Dreams facility this season because of the construction on the site.
Giants legend Willie Mays played for the Black Barons in 1948 at Rickwood Field. He later left the Negro American League team and made his New York Giants debut in 1951.
Mays, 92, went on to become the Rookie of the Year, a 24-time All-Star, 12-time Gold Glove winner and a two-time MVP. The Hall of Famer played through the 1973 season.
Satchel Paige, Babe Ruth, 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson, Honus Wagner, Ty Cobb and Stan Musial are among other baseball legends who played at Rickwood Field, which previously closed for structural repairs.
Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., the only other original Negro League stadium in existence, reopened last month upon completion of a two-year, $103 million renovation.
Paterson Mayor Andre Sayegh told the New York Daily News that the city is "trying" to get MLB to host a special events game at that facility, which opened in 1932.
