22nd annual Rickwood Classic takes Birmingham baseball back in time
Birmingham Barons players wearing vintage uniforms sit on top of the dugout during the 2018 Rickwood Classic at Birmingham's Rickwood Field, the nation's oldest ballpark. (Marc Rice/Alabama NewsCenter)
If you didn’t know better, you’d swear Jake Swain was being rude.
“The old lady still looks good,” he said as he walked into the stands along the third-base line at Rickwood Field. “I was talking about the old baseball field. It’s been here since 1910. I was referring to it being the oldest ballpark.”
An announced crowd of 6,028 braved threatening skies to be on hand for the 22nd annual Rickwood Classic. The Birmingham Barons’ once-a-year return to their former home was suspended last year as the city of Birmingham closed the ballpark for repairs.
It was a happy return Wednesday, punctuated by a 7-1 victory for the home team over the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Rain, including the remnants of subtropical storm Alberto, left some thinking that the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox would go another year without returning to the west side of town.
The skies parted over the Rising West-Princeton neighborhood around 11 a.m. Clouds gave way to bright sun, and high humidity left fans feeling like they were in a sauna.
But no one complained and few fans had left by the seventh-inning stretch. They were soaking up the ambiance that is only Rickwood.
Kellet May was back behind home plate with her daughters, Lucia and Lillian, and their friend, Scarlet Macon. Each was decked out in dresses of a bygone era, as they are every year for this game.
Ushers and umpires wore white shirts and bowties in the fashion of yesteryear. Barons players wore vintage uniforms that were cool in style but not in comfort.
Bucky Dent, the 1978 World Series MVP, was the guest of honor as the Barons celebrated the “Fabulous Fifties.” The Birmingham team was affiliated with the New York Yankees from 1953 until 1956.
Laura Rickman of Kimberly took in the game with her 5-year-old daughter, Mallie, at her side. Mallie is named partly for Jackie Robinson’s mother because Mallie’s brother, Tucker, was reading the biography of Jackie Robinson when his sister was born.
The Rickmans attended the past five Rickwood Classics. Despite threatening skies, they never considered missing this one.
“Oh, we knew (a rainout) wasn’t gonna happen,” the mother said. “We had faith. Too much work had gone in to make today happen. We knew the good Lord was going to make it happen for these good people out here.”
Barons owner Don Logan echoed that sentiment.
“This one just wasn’t going to be canceled,” he said. “We knew it was going to clear up some time. We might have to play at 3 o’clock this afternoon or at midnight, but we were going to be here. Too many people look forward to this game. We can’t cancel it.”
Robert Moore and the Wildcats were back in their regular spot, a makeshift band pit behind home plate. They performed the National Anthem and played some tunes between innings.
Before belting out a toe-tapping swing version of the anthem, Moore gave a shoutout to the ballpark. “Ain’t it great to be back at Rickwood Field?”
The crowd cheered its reply. “They’re all like, ‘We love this park,’” he said.
“These guys live here,” he said of band members Mark Kimbrell, Abe Becker and Elliott Ashley. “I used to live here. I have moved to the West Coast. I live in Portland, Oregon. Every year, the Barons fly me back for this game.”
Rickwood was Swain’s home field when he played Industrial League baseball in the 1990s. But he wasn’t the only one who was coming home. So, too, were about 35 former Negro League ballplayers who annually have their reunion around the Classic.
This year, plans were switched and then switched back when it became clear the city of Birmingham wouldn’t be involved in their reunion.
“The weather really determined how many we had to show up,” organizer Clayton Sherrod said. “Normally we’ll have 80 to 100. Then we also look at how many have died. We’ve had six to die just in the last year.”
Many of the Negro Leaguers plan to be at Regions Field on June 19 when the Barons host the Southern League All-Star Game.
Jefferson County Commissioner David Carrington took in the game with his chief of staff, Othell Phillips. The game rekindled the commissioner’s memories of bringing his son to games at Rickwood in the late 1970s.
“I was a big baseball fan of the Houston Colt 45s,” he said. “We would come out here in ’79 when my son was real young; he was 4 then. We would come out here and see the Detroit Tigers. They had a lot of great players back then. I love this park.”
