Birmingham’s Rickwood Field is in the spotlight this year, as the location of a splashy Major League Baseball game on June 20, saluting the Negro Leagues and Willie Mays, an Alabama native and MLB Hall of Famer.

The historic stadium at 1137 Second Ave. West opened in 1910, and is famed as the oldest professional baseball park in the United States. From 1988 to 2019, Rickwood Field also hosted the Rickwood Classic, a “turn back the clock” game that typically featured the Birmingham Barons in retro uniforms, playing another team from Minor League Baseball. A June 18 game at Rickwood will revive that tradition this year, pitting the Birmingham Barons against the Montgomery Biscuits as part of the MLB/MiLB hoopla.

With such a rich past as its bedrock, Rickwood is a significant landmark on Birmingham’s landscape and a source of civic pride. The ballpark also has been used as a filming location for baseball movies such as “Cobb” and “42.”