MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues
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| Date | June 20, 2024 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | Rickwood Field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Birmingham, Alabama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 10,800 (expected) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Television | Fox | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Joe Davis (play-by-play) John Smoltz (analyst) Ken Rosenthal (reporter) Tom Verducci (reporter) |
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MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues is an upcoming professional baseball game to be played between the National League (NL) West's San Francisco Giants and the NL Central's St. Louis Cardinals on June 20, 2024. The game is set to be played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the former home of the Negro leagues' Birmingham Black Barons, just one day after Juneteenth. This will be the first regular-season Major League Baseball (MLB) game played in the state of Alabama.
Background
On June 13, 2023, initial reports revealed that the Giants would play in a Field of Dreams style game, celebrating Willie Mays in Alabama.[1] Due to construction at the MLB at Field of Dreams site, games in 2023 and 2024 were unable to happen. However, MLB decided to shift their marketing into a game to honor Willie Mays, the Negro Leagues, and Juneteenth.[2]
Preparatory renovations of the park are scheduled to begin in October 2023. Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post wrote, "MLB is tasked with performing tasteful cosmetic surgery on a ballpark known for its old and minimalist charm."[3] The official name for the game was unveiled as MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues on August 4, 2023.[4]
Uniforms
On February 28, 2024, MLB released a poster preview video for the game. The poster indicated the Giants are planning on wearing the San Francisco Sea Lions uniforms and the Cardinals to wear St. Louis Stars uniforms to pay homage cities histories of the Negro Leagues.[5]
Game
The game will be the first MLB game in the state of Alabama.[6] It will be played on a Thursday and will be the first game of a three-game series followed by an off-day and two games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Saturday and Sunday.[7]
See also
- List of neutral site regular season Major League Baseball games played in the United States and Canada
- San Francisco Sea Lions
- St. Louis Stars
Notes
- ↑ Playing as the San Francisco Sea Lions
- ↑ Playing as the St. Louis Stars
References
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