Two nights before the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals meet for a National League game in “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” on June 20, the historic Birmingham ballpark will host a Southern League contest between the Montgomery Biscuits and the Birmingham Barons.

On Wednesday, the uniforms that the teams will wear for the minor-league game on Tuesday night were unveiled. Keeping with the theme for the Major League event, Birmingham and Montgomery will wear throwback uniforms from the days of segregated baseball, with the Barons playing as the Birmingham Black Barons and the Biscuits playing as the Montgomery Gray Sox.

The Black Barons were tenants of Rickwood Field with their white counterparts, the Birmingham Barons.

The ballpark was built for the Barons in 1910, and Birmingham defeated the Montgomery Climbers 3-2 in a Southern Association game in the first game at Rickwood on Aug. 18, 1910. The Barons remained tenants through the 1961 season.

The Black Barons played home games at Rickwood from their first season as members of the Negro Southern League in 1920 through the franchise’s demise in 1960.

The Gray Sox (sometimes spelled Grey Sox) also were charter members of the Negro Southern League in 1920 and remained in the league through 1932.

In December 2020, Major League Baseball recognized a selection of seasons from the Black leagues that existed during the game’s segregated era as having Major League status – the Negro National League of 1920 through 1931, Eastern Colored League of 1923 through 1928, American Negro League of 1929, East-West League of 1932, Negro Southern League of 1932, Negro National League of 1933 through 1948 and Negro American League of 1937 through 1948.

The Black Barons were members of MLB-equivalent leagues in the 1923 through 1925, 1927 through 1930, 1937, 1938 and 1940 through 1948 seasons. The 1932 season of the Gray Sox also has big-league status.

The Biscuits and Barons will square off at 6:15 p.m. CDT Tuesday at Rickwood Field to open a six-game Southern League series. The remainder of the series will be played at Regions Field in Birmingham.

Tickets remain available for Tuesday night’s game.

The game could match two first-place teams. After defeating the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 4-3 on Wednesday, Birmingham leads the Southern League North with a 38-21 record. Montgomery enters its Wednesday night road game against the Chattanooga Lookouts tied with the Blue Wahoos for the top spot in the Southern League South at 32-26.

The Barons are the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox. The Biscuits are the Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

1/117

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.