The oldest professional ballpark in the country will host the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2024 Field of Dreams Game, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Athletic reported Tuesday.
Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., which opened in 1910, will be the site of the annual game, the San Francisco Chronicle first reported. MLB has not made any comment about the game as of Tuesday. The Athletic reported that an official announcement would be coming within the next few days.
“I would love (wearing throwbacks), that would be really cool,” Giants first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr. told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It’ll definitely give you the full effect of the game. I hope it is us who wears the jerseys for sure. That would be something to remember forever.”
Hall of Famer Willie Mays, a Giants legend in New York and San Francisco, played at Rickwood Field when he was in the Negro Leagues as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons.
The first two Field of Dreams games were played in Dyersville, Iowa, on the site of the popular movie with the same name, complete with the cornfield beyond the outfield. The Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees played in the inaugural game in 2021, and the Chicago Cubs faced the Cincinnati Reds last year. Both games were on the second Thursday of August of each year.
The Iowa site is currently under construction and no game is slated for this season.
Rickwood Field also has served as a location for films such as “Cobb” (1994), “Soul of the Game” (1996) and “42” (2013). It is one of two Negro League ballparks still standing along with Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J.
Rickwood Field is the home field for Miles College, a Historically Black College and University in Fairfield, Ala.
–Field Level Media
