Significant upgrades are in store for Rickwood Field this fall in preparation for the Major League Baseball game scheduled for June 2024.

The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants are playing a regular-season game at Rickwood Field on June 20, 2024. The game will honor the history of Black baseball in America and will be called MLB at Rickwood: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.

Rickwood Field is the oldest ballpark in America. It was built in 1910 and has been renovated and maintained through the years, but in order to host an official Major League Baseball game the playing surface and stadium need official, modern-day pro ratings. It’s going to take a lot of work, and construction is set to begin the third week of October.

I first wrote about the changes coming to Rickwood in my column entitled, “Opportunity knocks for Rickwood Field groundskeeper.” For those seamheads searching for every detail about the facelifts coming to Birmingham’s national treasure of a ballpark, then this sidebar is for you.

GOODMAN: Opportunity knocks for Rickwood groundskeeper

GOODMAN: Dreams come true, MLB at Rickwood Field

GOODMAN: Formation of Negro Leagues spurred change in Birmingham

GOODMAN: Remembering Birmingham’s greatest shortstop

GOODMAN: The final childhood summer of the ‘Say Hey Kid’

First, the entire field will be rebuilt. The old-world graded slope on Rickwood is going away. The significant crown on the infield will be leveled. Before any sod is laid on the field, the entire field needs a new drainage system. Everything is getting ripped up and Rickwood is being transformed into an official MLB field.

After Rickwood is given a modern drainage system, the field is being shifted and enlarged. The entire playing surface is moving to the left five feet and the outfield walls are being extended by 10 feet. It’s going to take a little more power to poke out of the park. Traditionalists of the game should appreciate this alteration. The original dimensions of Rickwood Field were much larger than the field’s current configuration.

The new outfield walls for Rickwood Field will be padded. The padding will be feature screen prints of the classic-style advertisements that give Rickwood its timeless charm. According to an artist’s rendering of the new park, the large manual scoreboard will remain in left-centerfield. New additions to the outfield wall will be a prominent backdrop for hitters in straight-away center. A large videoboard beyond the right-centerfield wall is also featured on the official concept design of the new field.

Rickwood’s grandstand seats about 11,000 fans. The new capacity for MLB at Rickwood is unclear, but between 800 to 900 seats are being removed to bring the stadium up to date for current accessibility standards. Netting will also be added along the foul lines to protect fans from foul balls.

Perhaps the most exciting new feature of Rickwood Field will be new dugouts that meet the requirements of Major League Baseball. The classic dugouts of Rickwood are iconic for anyone who has ever played there, but they’re too small for MLB. The new MLB-style dugouts will extend two rows into the grandstand and then be stretched down foul territory.

No word yet on the trough-style bathrooms. Fear not, we’ll keep searching for every trickle of news out of Rickwood.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.