MLB confirms: 2024 ‘Field of Dreams’ game is coming to Rickwood Field in Birmingham

MLB confirms: 2024 ‘Field of Dreams’ game is coming to Rickwood Field in Birmingham

It’s confirmed. Major League Baseball is coming to Birmingham.

The San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals will play at historic Rickwood Field in the Field of Dream game on June 20, 2024, MLB announced Tuesday morning, according to The New York Times.

Rickwood is the oldest baseball park in America.

“I’m over the moon,” said Gerald Watkins, chairman of the Friends of Rickwood. “I started working on this in the early months of 2021. It took a while to get some traction but once I found the right people at MLB, things started rolling. It’s tremendous. tremendous for Birmingham—tremendous for Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball park in the country honoring Willie Mays and the Negro Leagues.”

Last week the Birmingham City Council approved a contract with Trawick Contractors, a Birmingham-based, women-owned construction firm. for $553,447 to renovate Rickwood.

Members of the Birmingham Barons enjoy the action from atop their dugout at the 2018 Rickwood Classic at Birmingham’s historic Rickwood Field on May 30, 2018.Josh Bean | [email protected]

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“We’ve got a long way to go but it seems all the steps are in place,” Watkins said.

The event represents a stunning turnaround in the city’s relationship with MLB.

In 2019, the sport abandoned plans for a $10 million youth baseball and softball academy at Birmingham’s George Ward Park after blowback from the surrounding community and numerous errors by city officials.

Two years later, though plans were in the works for constructing Protective Stadium and renovating of Legacy Arena—major events in the city’s emergence as a significant sports and entertainment destination—the pain still lingered.

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In an email obtained by AL.com following the decision, MLB representative Tony Reagins wrote: “We believe the youth of Birmingham would benefit from our programs, however, the timing is not right and quite frankly may never be.

Never, apparently, has arrived.

The first Field of Dreams game between the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees was played in August 2021 in Dyersville, Iowa, on the field featured in the popular baseball film Field of Dreams.

The following season the game featured the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs at the same field.

There is no Field of Dreams game scheduled for this season, reportedly due to an $80 million construction project at the Iowa field.

“I think it’ll go a long way towards, hopefully reimagining baseball for African American guy,” Watkins said of the 2024 game. “Right now, all they think about is football and basketball. But this will be such a broad audience, worldwide. Hopefully, a lot of young guys who are good athletes will look at baseball again. I think that’s wonderful.”