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Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute sport at Rickwood Discipline in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, 2024, between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.
The ten,800-seat stadium, opened in 1910, is the oldest skilled ballpark within the U.S. and a Nationwide Historic Website. The stadium was house to the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-60.
“It’s an honor. Any time I get to characterize my tradition like that, particularly on the MLB degree, it’s all the time a pleasure,” mentioned Cardinals rookie Jordan Walker, who’s Black. “All I acquired to do is keep wholesome and prepared and I wish to play in that sport, for positive.”
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The minor league Birmingham Barons and the Montgomery Biscuits play a sport in Rickwood Discipline in Birmingham, Ala., Wednesday, Might 29, 2019. Main League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute sport at Rickwood Discipline in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20, 2024, between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. The sport will honor Corridor of Famer Willie Mays, a Birmingham native who started his skilled profession with the workforce in 1948. (AP Picture/Jay Reeves, File)
The sport will honor Corridor of Famer Willie Mays, an Alabama native who started his skilled profession with the workforce in 1948.
“Willie performed there, oldest ballpark within the nation,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler mentioned. “Actually unimaginable alternative for our group. Actually enthusiastic about it.”
MLB mentioned Tuesday it’s staging the sport across the Juneteenth vacation, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African People in Texas in 1865. There additionally might be a Double-A sport on the ballpark between the Birmingham Barons and Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League on June 18.
St. Louis would be the house workforce for the June 20 sport, scheduled to begin shortly after 7 p.m. EDT and to be televised nationally on Fox. Interval uniforms might be used regarding the Negro Leagues historical past of San Francisco and St. Louis.
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A view of the ribbon board displaying “Salute to the Negro Leagues Day” earlier than the sport between the Seattle Mariners and the Chicago White Sox at T-Cell Park on June 17, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Alika Jenner/Getty Photographs)
“The legacy of the Negro Leagues and its biggest residing participant, Willie Mays, is one in all excellence and perseverance,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred mentioned in an announcement. “We sit up for sharing the tales of the Negro Leagues all through this occasion subsequent 12 months.”
Mays, 92, is mostly thought-about baseball’s biggest residing participant. After enjoying with Birmingham, he signed with the New York Giants and was voted the 1951 Nationwide League Rookie of the Yr because the Giants gained the NL pennant.
A World Collection champion with the Giants in 1954, Mays was a 24-time All-Star, tied with Stan Musial for second-most behind Hank Aaron’s 25. Mays gained the 1954 main league batting title and was voted NL MVP in 1954 and 1965.
“I can’t consider it. I by no means thought I’d see in my lifetime a Main League Baseball sport being performed on the very subject the place I performed baseball as a youngster,” Mays mentioned in an announcement. “It has been 75 years since I performed for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Discipline, and to be taught that my Giants and the Cardinals will play a sport there and honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues and all those that got here earlier than them is admittedly emotional for me. We will’t overlook what acquired us right here and that was the Negro Leagues for thus many people.”
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A message in regards to the Juneteenth vacation is displayed on the videoboard throughout a baseball sport between the San Francisco Giants and the San Diego Padres in San Francisco, Monday, June 19, 2023. (AP Picture/Jeff Chiu)
MLB will work with the Metropolis of Birmingham and Pals of Rickwood to renovate the ballpark, the house of the minor league Barons from 1910-1961, 1964-65, 1981-87. The Barons have performed since 2013 at Areas Discipline, about 3 miles away, and shift one sport yearly to Rickwood in a tribute to the workforce’s historical past.
Walker mentioned it was essential for baseball to honor the historical past of the Negro Leagues.
“It actually was an introduction to Black folks in baseball. I do know Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier. Earlier than that, that was all we had,” he mentioned. “So all people popping out, representing our tradition and the sport of baseball, it’s really particular. That’s actually the principle motive I’m right here in the present day is all that assist.”
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