Qualla: Rickwood Field

Rickwood Field: Introduction

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User ₪ ÇP ₪ on Flickr, CC BY 2.0. On August 18, 1910, businesses across Birmingham, Alabama, shut their doors so the whole city could watch a baseball game. Over 10,000 people packed into a brand-new concrete-and-steel ballpark in the West End neighborhood to see the Birmingham Barons defeat the Montgomery Climbers, 3-2. The first pitch flew at 3:30 PM. Alabama Governor Braxton Bragg Comer was in the stands. So was the publisher of The Birmingham News. The man who built it all -- Allen Harvey 'Rick' Woodward, chairman of Woodward Iron Company, still in his twenties -- had named the field after himself, combining his nickname with the first syllable of his surname. More than a century later, Rickwood Field still stands. It is the oldest existing professional baseball stadium in the United States.

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Image: User ₪ ÇP ₪ on Flickr | CC BY 2.0

Rickwood Field: A Young Man's Grand Design

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit OpenStreetMap contributors, CC BY-SA 2.0. Rick Woodward was the grandson of pioneer Birmingham industrialist Stimpson Harvey Woodward, and when he purchased a majority share of the Birmingham Coal Barons from J. William McQueen in 1909, he immediately started planning a showplace. He contacted Connie Mack, the legendary ...

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Image: OpenStreetMap contributors | CC BY-SA 2.0

Rickwood Field: Where Legends Crossed Paths

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User ₪ ÇP ₪ on Flickr, CC BY 2.0. The roster of names that played at Rickwood reads like a Hall of Fame ballot. In 1931, Birmingham's 43-year-old Ray Caldwell outpitched 22-year-old Dizzy Dean in the opening game of the Dixie Series championship -- Dean had guaranteed a win. The Barons took the series, four games...

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Image: User ₪ ÇP ₪ on Flickr | CC BY 2.0

Rickwood Field: The Black Barons and Willie Mays

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NPS, Public domain. Rickwood Field was home not only to the Birmingham Barons but also to the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues. It was on this field that Willie Mays, growing up in nearby Fairfield, began his professional baseball career in 1948 as a teenager with the Black Barons. The p...

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Image: NPS | Public domain

Rickwood Field: A Working Museum

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit HABS - NPS, Public domain. The Barons left Rickwood for Hoover Metropolitan Stadium after the 1988 season, but the old park refused to fade. Since 1992, the Friends of Rickwood have poured roughly $2 million into restoring grandstands, the press box, locker rooms, and the main entrance. In 1964, General Ma...

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Image: HABS - NPS | Public domain