(This Wednesday, the Rickwood Classic will be played at America’s oldest ballpark, Rickwood Field in Birmingham West End. The Barons will entertain the Mississippi Braves in exciting Southern League action at 12:35 p.m. Did you know that the Barons have the second best record in professional baseball right now?!?! But the overriding draw will be the backdrop this incredible shrine to baseball. Don’t miss this opportunity to see a game at one of ESPN’s 101 things every sportsperson must see before they die. I wrote this history of Rickwood for the Baseball History Podcast one year ago. Thanks to Tom Cosby of the Friends of Rickwood for checking my facts.)

Birmingham, Alabama is a young city. It sprang to life in 1871 at the junction of two rail lines. The real attraction was that all of the ingredients needed to make iron was available in great quantities in close proximity. Named for the industrial city in Britain, Birmingham’s growth was so rapid that its nickname became “The Magic City.” In 1910, the population was just over 132,000 and the city had become the “foundry iron capital of the world.” The population increase represented a jump of over 90,000 in just twenty years. The explosion came on the back of investments by industrialists like Joseph Henry Woodward, who created the Woodward Iron Works.

Mr. Woodward’s son took little interest in the iron business. His real love was baseball. Allen Harvey Woodward, known to his friends as Rick, was a real bon vivant. He was the first Birmingham resident to own an automobile. Rick tried his hand at running the family business, but the only thing that he cared about at Woodward Iron was the company baseball team. He longed to own a real professional baseball team, so in 1910, he acquired a controlling interest in the Birmingham Barons. Rick Woodward immediately announced plans to build one of the best parks in baseball. Cornelius McGillicuddy, better known as Connie Mack, brought his Philadelphia Athletics to Birmingham for an exhibition in March 1910 and helped Rick Woodward lay out the diamond. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between Philadelphia’s old Shibe Park and the stadium that Rick Woodward built. Birmingham’s ballpark became a favorite stopping place for major league teams headed north after spring training.

Concrete and steel parks were the new rage in 1910, with twelve of them being constructed between 1909 and 1915. Shibe Park, Forbes Field, League Park and Comiskey were already up and running when the new Birmingham baseball stadium, named Rickwood for its owner, hosted its first game on August 18, 1910. An enormous crowd of 10,000 fans filled the 9,000 seat stadium, with people overflowing into roped off areas in the outfield. Wrigley, Tiger and Fenway would come online in 1912 and 1913. With the demolition of the Chicago’s original Comiskey Park, the Historic American Engineering Record, a division of the U. S. Parks Service, authenticated Rickwood Field as officially the oldest baseball park in America.

Mr. Woodward planned to spend $25,000 on his project, but the budget tripled to $75,000. Many claimed that Rickwood was nicer than some major league parks. Through the boom years of the 1920s, baseball flourished in Birmingham with record attendance and successful teams. Perhaps Rickwood’s finest moment came in the 1931 Dixie Series, the championship of Southern baseball, which pitted the champions of the Southern Association and the Texas League. In game one, 43 year old Barons pitcher Ray Caldwell outdueled 21 year phenom Dizzy Dean, of the Houston Buffs, who had guaranteed a victory in the series. The Barons prevailed, four games to three.

Pie Tranor spent a special season in a Barons uniform in 1921 thanks to an arrangement that Rick Woodward had with the Pirates. Demoted from Pittsburgh, Tranor hit .336 with 48 stolen bases. He would be back in Pittsburgh the next season and work his way into the Hall of Fame.

Professional black baseball has a rich history in Birmingham. Rickwood was also home to the Black Barons, a member of the Negro American League. In 1927, all time great Satchel Paige pitched for the Birmingham Black Barons, carrying them to the league championship game. He would pitch for the Barons through 1931. Led by superstars like Lorenzo “Piper” Davis and Artie Wilson, the Black Barons battled the Homestead Grays in the Negro League World Series in 1943 and 1944, coming up short both times. Willie Howard Mays, Jr., the “Say Hey” kid, broke into professional baseball in 1948 with the Black Barons. Only 16 years old, he grew up in Fairfield, just a short distance from Rickwood. That year, Willie Mays helped the Black Barons win another Negro American League pennant. The integration of the major leagues led to the demise of the great Black Barons as its stars were picked off one by one.

For the first half of the 20th Century, Birmingham was a major railroad hub and major league teams would frequently stop in the Magic City en route to or from spring training in Florida. Here, they would play exhibition games, as part of their overall marketing strategy. Great major leaguers who played exhibition games in Birmingham included Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. Interestingly, the movie Cobb was filmed at Rickwood Field in 1994 (starring Tommy Lee Jones.) Rookie Grover Cleveland Alexander took the field at Rickwood in 1911. Other all time greats who played at Rickwood included Shoeless Joe Jackson and Christy Mathewson.

There was no baseball in Birmingham in 1962 or 1963 because of segregation and Jim Crow laws. Birmingham native Charles O. Finley brought baseball back in 1964 with a AA farm club of his Kansas City Athletics. The Birmingham A’s, as they were called, had an eleven year run at Rickwood, producing many future major league stars, such as Rollie Fingers, Reggie Jackson, Bert Campaneris, Vida Blue and Joe Rudi. The A’s left after the 1975 season and Rickwood was dark until a man named Art Clarkson revived the Barons in 1981 and Rickwood was back in business. He was able to keep professional baseball at Rickwood through the 1987 season before increasing upkeep expenses on the old stadium, and a reluctance from the City to help out, led him to move the team to a modern stadium in a Birmingham suburb.

Rickwood is not dead, thanks to the City of Birmingham and the Friends of Rickwood. America’s Oldest Ballpark has been carefully preserved and maintained for hundreds of high school, college and semi-pro games each year. The drop in scoreboard has been refurbished to its vintage 1948 look. Now there are impressive plans to establish a museum of the Negro Leagues as the historic shrine, thanks to Mayor Larry Langford and several enthusiastic folks.

In June, 2007, ESPN.com listed the Rickwood Classic at #78 on ESPN’s list of “101 Things All Sports Fans Must Experience Before They Die.” The article said “Birmingham proved that if you save it, they will come.

One of the most important sports events in the Magic City each year is Rickwood Classic. The Barons play a regular season game each year at Rickwood, complete with throw back uniforms and a theme from the park’s past. This year’s Classic is this Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 12:35 p.m. You have to go if you like baseball or Birmingham history. While you are sitting in the vintage grandstands, if you squint Wednesday, you can practically see Mays running down a fly ball.