Greene County Democrat

Tag: Major League Baseball (MLB)

  • Newswire : Nearly 200 Baseball Hall of Famers have played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham

    Willie Mays in Birmingham Barons uniform, 1948

    By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | The Birmingham Times

    Generations of minor league baseball players have lived with the dream that they’ll get called up to the big leagues, playing in a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.
    Even announcers like Curt Bloom, the radio voice of the Birmingham Barons, had that dream, which was fulfilled two seasons ago when he was part of the broadcast crew for the Chicago White Sox, the parent club of the Barons.
    But Bloom admits that he couldn’t imagine that Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, the longtime home of the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, would get the call to host an MLB game.
    “I never thought that Rickwood would get the call to the big leagues,” Bloom said. “It was our city jewel, our city gem. If you want to come see a game where Willie Mays played, you come to Birmingham. Now, come June 20, if you want to see where Willie Mays played, turn on your TV.”
    Mays is one of 182 Baseball Hall of Famers who have played at Rickwood. Those legends include Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Mule Suttles, Josh Gibson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roberto Clemente, Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson.
    Willie Mays, died last week at 93, two days before the game to honor him and other Negro League players who got their start at Rickwood. Mays was revered for his hitting, fielding and base runni9ng abilities. He finished his career with 3286 hits, 660 home runs, 12 golden gloves, and a batting average of .302. Mays’ career spanned from 1951 to 1972 with the Giants, where he won a World Series in 1954, was a 24-time All-Star, and was a two-time National League MVP. 
    And while he’s not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Bo Jackson played at Rickwood as a prep star for McAdory High School, a collegiate slugger for the Auburn Tigers and as a pro with the Memphis Chicks. Jackson was the 1989 MLB All Star Game MVP with a leadoff homerun.
    Another football player, Auburn University’s and the New Orleans Saints’ Frank Warren, played a football game at Rickwood. His Phillips High School Red Raiders fell 7-3 to the West End Lions on Sept. 17, 1976.
    While those legends all got a chance at the big league America’s oldest baseball park is indeed getting its chance as it hosts the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants on June 20 in the MLB Tribute to the Negro Leagues.
    This is no preseason and it’s no exhibition. This is a real MLB game that has come to Birmingham. The game is part of a three-day baseball extravaganza where the real stars of the show are the ballpark that sits a block south of Third Avenue West and north of Lomb Avenue in the Fairview Neighborhood and the Negro League teams and players who applied their craft there.
    Where Hall of Famers Played
    Gerald Watkins is chairman of the Friends of Rickwood, the organization that has worked to maintain the baseball gem that is Rickwood.
    Rickwood Field opened August 18, 1910, to a wildly enthusiastic crowd that saw their beloved Birmingham Barons beat the Montgomery Climbers, and unknowingly made history. Rickwood was the newest ballpark in the land that day, and 114 years later, stands as the oldest baseball park in America.
    Industrialist A.H. “Rick” Woodward, for whom the ballpark was named, was not only the owner of the Barons. He never lost his passion for playing the game of his youth, inserting himself into the starting lineup on Rickwood’s opening day.
    Woodward threw the first pitch ever in his new ballpark. It was not a ceremonial pitch, but it was a ball.
    Since opening, Rickwood Field has been home to the Minor League Birmingham Barons, the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons and the Birmingham A’s, which was in the farm system of the Oakland A’s. When UAB Baseball began under coach Harry “The Hat” Walker, the Blazers played at Rickwood.
    “Rickwood Field was a true Field of Dreams,” Watkins said, “where someone like Willie Mays dreamed of playing in the big leagues.”
    The Birmingham Barons, a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, played their final season at Rickwood in 1987 before heading to the Hoover Met. The Barons moved to their current home – Birmingham’s Regions Field – in 2013, when the team won a league-best seventh Southern League championship.
    “It’s a special place for baseball fans and history fans,” Watkins said. “Even folks who are on a Civil Rights trail will come here after they go to the (16th Street Baptist) Church and they go to the Civil Rights (Institute and) the Negro Southern League Museum.
    “We’re a tourist spot. A lot of folks don’t see that but we really are,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve had as many as 38 states represented and eight foreign countries. If you look at our guest book today, you won’t see anybody from local places. You’re gonna see people from out of town or out of the country.”
    These days, the message on Watkins’ cellphone refers callers to Major League Baseball in their pursuit of tickets to the Giants-Cardinals game. Alabama residents entered a lottery to have a chance at buying tickets to that game. That allotment of tickets sold out in 45 minutes.
    “The teams (Cardinals and Giants) have an amount and Major League Baseball has an amount,” Watkins said. “Those numbers are not known but they come out of the total somewhere, some way. In the overall ticket numbers, those come out before the (public) tickets go on sale.”
    Television Experience
    Capacity at Rickwood Field will be approximately 8,100, down from about 9,500 before the renovations.
    “We have lost some seating capacity due to the improvements that we made, allowing better access for handicapped individuals,” the Friends of Rickwood chairman said. “We will have to have areas for more press and there’ll be some VIP areas that we’ve never had to deal with before. But, as MLB looks at it, they’re thinking about a television game.”
    That television experience will be enhanced by a Jumbotron that will be temporally installed in right centerfield.
    While access to the Major League game is limited, the MLB (Minor League Baseball) game between the Biscuits and Barons and the Barnstorm Birmingham softball contest will have greater access.
    Prices for Barnstorm Birmingham tickets are $24 in a nod to Birmingham’s own, the great Willie Mays, whose jersey number was 24. As with the other games, MLB will make a select number of tickets for Barnstorm Birmingham available for free to local youth and community groups.
    Watkins said he’s learned from his conversations with Major League Baseball that it is interested in coming back for a second game.
    “There’s no guarantees, but we have been told that the main thing we have to do is keep the field up at a Major League level,” he said. “That means we can’t overplay on it. That means we’ve got to make sure it’s cut properly, it’s watered properly, all the chemicals are applied properly.”
    Simply put, Birmingham must keep its gem polished.

  • Newswire: MLB integrates Negro Leagues stats, elevating long-overlooked stars to Major League Status

     Negro League All-Stars

    By Stacy M. Brown
    NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

     

    Major League Baseball (MLB) has taken a historic step to rectify a long-standing oversight by officially incorporating Negro Leagues statistics into its historical record. Starting today, the achievements of approximately 2,300 Negro Leagues players will be recognized alongside those of MLB legends like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.

    For decades, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb were celebrated as the greatest figures in baseball, with Ruth hailed as the best player and Cobb as the premier hitter. However, these narratives often excluded African American athletes whose contributions were underreported or dismissed. This exclusion persisted despite the talents that led to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 as the first Black player in the modern Major Leagues.

    MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred announced this significant change three years ago, emphasizing the league’s commitment to correcting a historical wrong by elevating the Negro Leagues to “Major League” status. John Thorn, an MLB historian, and the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee have been responsible for the meticulous process of officially incorporating Negro Leagues stats into MLB records. The team has been reviewing thousands of box scores and other historical data to integrate the statistics of the seven Negro Leagues into MLB’s database.

    Josh Gibson, a standout in the Negro Leagues, will now lead multiple batting categories. His career batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS surpass those of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. While some of Gibson’s legendary feats, such as the nearly 800 home runs mentioned on his Hall of Fame plaque, will not be included, many of his official stats will now be recognized.

    Thorn hailed the decision as “not only righting a social, cultural, and historical wrong, it’s defining baseball as a game for Americans without exclusion.” He emphasized that baseball is a sport of tradition, but its capacity for profound change is equally significant.
    To honor the Negro Leagues, MLB will host a tribute game on June 20 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama—the oldest professional baseball park in the U.S. Players will don period uniforms and pay tribute to legendary center fielder Willie Mays, an Alabama native.

    With the integration of these statistics, players like Buck Leonard, Buck O’Neil, Cool Papa Bell, Doc Sykes, Monte Irvin, Leroy Satchel Paige, and Gibson will finally receive their due recognition. Fans will now appreciate the true scope of their talents and achievements.

    Sean Gibson, the great-grandson of Josh Gibson and executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, expressed the family’s excitement over this acknowledgment. “We always considered him a major league; he just didn’t play in the major leagues,” Sean Gibson told NBC Sports. He is eager to see how his great-grandfather’s stats compare to those of other MLB legends.

    Reflecting on this milestone, he added, “If Josh Gibson was alive right now, he’d be honored. He’ll probably wonder why it took so long. He’ll be happy for all the other baseball players, and more importantly he’ll be excited for his family to carry on his legacy.”
     

  • Newswire : Sam Pollard’s documentary shines light on the rich legacy of the Negro Baseball Leagues

     

    Negro Leagues baseball team in doughout

    
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent

    On the Black Press of America’s “Let It Be Known” show, renowned filmmaker Sam Pollard took center stage in an exclusive interview about his new film that shines a spotlight on the fabled Negro Leagues.
Pollard’s latest documentary, “The League,” will make its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival before a theatrical release in July.
Based on the book “The Negro Baseball Leagues” by Bob Motley and Byron Motley, the film counts as another triumph for Pollard, whose past directorial works include the critically acclaimed “Mr. Soul!”, “Sammy Davis, Jr: I’ve Got to Be Me,” and “MLK/FBI.”
The documentary also boasts Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, the executive producer responsible for the Oscar-winning “Summer of Soul.”
The film illuminates that the sport was integrated in its earliest days, albeit with Black players forming only a minority of team members.
That changed in the late 1800s, as racist white players like Pop Anson of the Chicago White Stockings, who infamously refused to take the field with Black athletes, sparked a shift.
However, as Jim Crow laws engulfed the nation, Black players were banned from the game.
In 1920, Rube Foster, a trailblazing Black baseball pioneer who excelled as a pitcher, manager, and owner, founded the Negro National League. Inspired by Frederick Douglass’ words, the league adopted the motto “We Are the Ship, All Else the Sea.”
Three years later, the Eastern Colored League emerged as a competitor, culminating in the inaugural Colored World Series in 1924.
Foster, hailed as the “father of black baseball,” serves as one of the documentary’s most compelling subjects.
Noteworthy for pitching seven no-hitters and inventing the screwball, Foster even taught the pitch to white player Christy Mathewson of the New York Giants, who popularized it.
Tragically, Foster met a grim fate, succumbing to the effects of a gas leak in a hotel room. He suffered from delusions and spent several years institutionalized in an asylum before passing away at 51 in 1930.
Although the Negro National League eventually succumbed to the economic pressures of the Great Depression, other leagues emerged, serving as a springboard for numerous Black players who would later achieve legendary status.
Several of these players, including Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Satchel Paige, would eventually join Major League Baseball (MLB).
The documentary features captivating archival interviews with these players and more.
The film poignantly chronicles the immense challenges faced by Black players as they traversed the country, often denied accommodation in hotels and meals in restaurants.
Additionally, the Negro Leagues provided a home for many talented Latino players from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and other parts of Latin America.
Following World War II, with many Black service members having bravely fought for their country, pressure began mounting for the integration of MLB.
Notably, Paul Robeson became a prominent advocate for this cause. Despite years of resistance from MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who evoked comparisons to a character from “Birth of a Nation,” progress emerged.
Landis died in 1944, and three years later, Branch Rickey recruited Jackie Robinson as the first Black player to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. Robinson’s entry opened the door for other Black players such as Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe, and Jim Gilliam, all of whom had roots in the Negro leagues.
Effa Manley, a formidable businesswoman, also features prominently in the documentary. Known as the “First Lady of Negro Baseball,” she co-owned the Newark Eagles and became the only woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall Hall of Fame.
Manley fiercely advocated for fair compensation for Negro league teams when MLB began recruiting their players. The integration of baseball eventually led to the decline of the Negro Leagues, which ceased operations by the late 1940s.
Through masterful use of vintage footage, interviews, oral histories, and contributions from modern-day historians and scholars, the documentary makes a case for the enduring significance of the Negro Baseball Leagues.
Reflecting on his connection to the project, Pollard said, “I grew up in the 1960s being a huge baseball fan… But what I did not know much about… was that [Jackie] Robinson had come out of the Negro Leagues and that the Negro Leagues had been home to Black and Latino ballplayers who had to play segregated baseball during the height of the Jim Crow era.”