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Nearly 200 Baseball Hall of Famers Have Played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham

BIRMINGHAM TIMES — Since opening, Rickwood Field has been home to the Minor League Birmingham Barons, the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons and the Birmingham A’s, which was in the farm system of the Oakland A’s. When UAB Baseball began under coach Harry “The Hat” Walker, the Blazers played at Rickwood.
The post Nearly 200 Baseball Hall of Famers Have Played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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By Solomon Crenshaw Jr. | The Birmingham Times

Generations of minor league baseball players have lived with the dream that they’ll get called up to the big leagues, playing in a Major League Baseball (MLB) game.

Even announcers like Curt Bloom, the radio voice of the Birmingham Barons, had that dream, which was fulfilled two seasons ago when he was part of the broadcast crew for the Chicago White Sox, the parent club of the Barons.

But Bloom admits that he couldn’t imagine that Birmingham’s Rickwood Field, the longtime home of the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues, would get the call to host an MLB game.

“I never thought that Rickwood would get the call to the big leagues,” Bloom said. “It was our city jewel, our city gem. If you want to come see a game where Willie Mays played, you come to Birmingham. Now, come June 20, if you want to see where Willie Mays played, turn on your TV.”

Mays is one of 182 Baseball Hall of Famers who have played at Rickwood. Those legends include Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Satchel Paige, Oscar Charleston, Mule Suttles, Josh Gibson, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roberto Clemente, Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson.

And while he’s not in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Bo Jackson played at Rickwood as a prep star for McAdory High School, a collegiate slugger for the Auburn Tigers and as a pro with the Memphis Chicks. Jackson was the 1989 MLB All Star Game MVP with a leadoff homerun.

Another football player, Auburn University’s and the New Orleans Saints’ Frank Warren, played a football game at Rickwood. His Phillips High School Red Raiders fell 7-3 to the West End Lions on Sept. 17, 1976.

While those legends all got a chance at the big league America’s oldest baseball park is indeed getting its chance as it hosts the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants on June 20 in the MLB Tribute to the Negro Leagues.

This is no preseason and it’s no exhibition. This is a real MLB game that is coming to Birmingham.

The game is part of a three-day baseball extravaganza where the real stars of the show are the ballpark that sits a block south of Third Avenue West and north of Lomb Avenue in the Fairview Neighborhood and the Negro League teams and players who applied their craft there.

Where Hall of Famers Played

Gerald Watkins is chairman of the Friends of Rickwood, the organization that has worked to maintain the baseball gem that is Rickwood.

Rickwood Field opened August 18, 1910, to a wildly enthusiastic crowd that saw their beloved Birmingham Barons beat the Montgomery Climbers, and unknowingly made history. Rickwood was the newest ballpark in the land that day, and 114 years later, stands as the oldest baseball park in America.

Industrialist A.H. “Rick” Woodward, for whom the ballpark was named, was not only the owner of the Barons. He never lost his passion for playing the game of his youth, inserting himself into the starting lineup on Rickwood’s opening day.

Woodward threw the first pitch ever in his new ballpark. It was not a ceremonial pitch, but it was a ball.

Since opening, Rickwood Field has been home to the Minor League Birmingham Barons, the Negro League Birmingham Black Barons and the Birmingham A’s, which was in the farm system of the Oakland A’s. When UAB Baseball began under coach Harry “The Hat” Walker, the Blazers played at Rickwood.

“Rickwood Field was a true Field of Dreams,” Watkins said, “where someone like Willie Mays dreamed of playing in the big leagues.”

The Birmingham Barons, a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, played their final season at Rickwood in 1987 before heading to the Hoover Met. The Barons moved to their current home – Birmingham’s Regions Field – in 2013, when the team won a league-best seventh Southern League championship.

“It’s a special place for baseball fans and history fans,” Watkins said. “Even folks who are on a Civil Rights trail will come here after they go to the (16th Street Baptist) Church and they go to the Civil Rights (Institute and) the Negro Southern League Museum.

“We’re a tourist spot. A lot of folks don’t see that but we really are,” he said. “Over the years, we’ve had as many as 38 states represented and eight foreign countries. If you look at our guest book today, you won’t see anybody from local places. You’re gonna see people from out of town or out of the country.”

These days, the message on Watkins’ cellphone refers callers to Major League Baseball in their pursuit of tickets to the Giants-Cardinals game. Alabama residents entered a lottery to have a chance at buying tickets to that game. That allotment of tickets sold out in 45 minutes.

“The teams (Cardinals and Giants) have an amount and Major League Baseball has an amount,” Watkins said. “Those numbers are not known but they come out of the total somewhere, some way. In the overall ticket numbers, those come out before the (public) tickets go on sale.”

Television Experience

Capacity at Rickwood Field will be approximately 8,100, down from about 9,500 before the renovations.

“We have lost some seating capacity due to the improvements that we made, allowing better access for handicapped individuals,” the Friends of Rickwood chairman said. “We will have to have areas for more press and there’ll be some VIP areas that we’ve never had to deal with before. But, as MLB looks at it, they’re thinking about a television game.”

That television experience will be enhanced by a Jumbotron that will be temporally installed in right centerfield.

While access to the Major League game is limited, the MiLB (Minor League Baseball) game between the Biscuits and Barons and the Barnstorm Birmingham softball contest will have greater access.

Prices for Barnstorm Birmingham tickets are $24 in a nod to Birmingham’s own, the great Willie Mays, whose jersey number was 24. As with the other games, MLB will make a select number of tickets for Barnstorm Birmingham available for free to local youth and community groups.

Watkins said he’s learned from his conversations with Major League Baseball that it is interested in coming back for a second game.

“There’s no guarantees, but we have been told that the main thing we have to do is keep the field up at a Major League level,” he said. “That means we can’t overplay on it. That means we’ve got to make sure it’s cut properly, it’s watered properly, all the chemicals are applied properly.”

Simply put, Birmingham must keep its gem polished.

The post Nearly 200 Baseball Hall of Famers Have Played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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NAACP Sues Trump Administration Over Dismantling of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The lawsuit comes after a series of drastic actions following the ouster of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. President Trump replaced Chopra with Russell Vought, who immediately instructed staff not to perform any work tasks and ordered the closure of the agency’s headquarters, taking steps to cancel its lease.

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By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

The NAACP has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia challenging the legality of the Trump administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The civil rights organization argues that the move undermines protections for Black, elderly, and vulnerable consumers, leaving them exposed to financial exploitation. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson condemned the administration’s actions, calling them a reckless assault on consumer protections. “Once again, we are witnessing the dangerous impacts of an overreaching executive office. The Trump Administration’s decision to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opens the floodgates for unethical and predatory practices to run rampant,” Johnson stated. “We refuse to stand idly by as our most vulnerable communities are left unprotected due to irresponsible leaders. From seniors and retirees, disabled people, and victims of disaster to so many more, our nation stands to face immense financial hardship and adversity as a result of the elimination of the CFPB. If our President refuses to put people over profit, the NAACP will use every tool possible to put Americans first.”

The lawsuit comes after a series of drastic actions following the ouster of CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. President Trump replaced Chopra with Russell Vought, who immediately instructed staff not to perform any work tasks and ordered the closure of the agency’s headquarters, taking steps to cancel its lease. Vought also suspended all investigations, rulemaking, public communications, and enforcement actions. Keisha D. Bross, NAACP Director of Opportunity, Race, and Justice, said the organization maintains its commitment to restoring the bureau’s critical role in protecting consumers. “The CFPB is an agency of the people. From the protection from junk fees to fighting excessive overdraft fees, providing assistance to impacted victims of natural disasters, and holding predatory practices accountable, the NAACP stands firm in bringing back the CFPB,” Bross said. “The NAACP will fight to hold financial entities responsible for the years of inequitable practices from big banks and lenders.”

The lawsuit, filed alongside the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the National Consumer Law Center, the Virginia Poverty Law Center, and the CFPB Employee Association, argues that the administration’s actions violate the Constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act. According to the complaint, the Trump administration has taken deliberate steps to dismantle the CFPB, including firing 70 employees via form email, canceling over $100 million in vendor contracts, and shutting down the agency’s consumer complaint system, which processes hundreds of thousands of cases monthly. The plaintiffs warn that these actions will leave millions of Americans defenseless against financial fraud and predatory lending practices. The lawsuit details the harm already inflicted by the agency’s closure. Among those affected is Rev. Eva Steege, an 83-year-old pastor with a terminal illness who was seeking student loan forgiveness through a CFPB-facilitated program. Her meeting with CFPB staff was abruptly canceled, leaving her without recourse to resolve her debt before passing.

The NAACP and other plaintiffs seek an immediate injunction to halt the administration’s actions and restore the CFPB’s operations. The legal challenge argues that the President has no unilateral authority to dismantle an agency created by Congress and that Vought’s appointment as acting director is unlawful. President Trump has made no secret of his desire to eliminate the CFPB, confirming last week that his administration was working to “totally eliminate” the agency. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key player in Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” celebrated the move with a social media post reading “CFPB RIP.”

If successful, the lawsuit could force the administration to reinstate the agency and resume its enforcement actions against financial institutions accused of predatory practices. “Neither the President nor the head of the CFPB has the power to dismantle an agency that Congress established,” the plaintiffs argue. “With each day the agency remains shut down, financial institutions that seek to prey on consumers are emboldened—harming their law-abiding competitors and the consumers who fall victim to them.”

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Robert Kennedy and Healthcare. Is There Trust?

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer is the new face of healthcare in America. He was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote split along party lines, 52-48. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats opposing the nomination.

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By April Ryan

“When you erode trust you lose your democracy because it is based on trust,” according to Black Obama Administration Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. She is responding to the United States Senate’s confirmation of Robert Kennedy Jr. as the new Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy, an anti-vaxxer is the new face of healthcare in America. He was confirmed by the US Senate in a vote split along party lines, 52-48. Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell voted with Democrats opposing the nomination. The Alabama-based former Surgeon General declares, “We’ve had anti-vaxxers for years, but they became prominent during COVID,” creating “new” trust issues.

From Benjamin’s professional understanding, “that’s when we started to see people not trust science,” loudly. Her position is that as health matters changed over time so did the medical responses. Controversy swirls around Kennedy’s anti-vaccination stance, however, he is lauded for his posture on preventative medicine. Benjamin is hopeful Kennedy will focus on prevention as she denotes it is “the key to solving many problems in our healthcare system.” When Benjamin was the nation’s top doctor from 2009 to 2013, the Obama administration released a national prevention strategy, which she deemed “a roadmap.” During that job, she worked to move Americans “from sickness and disease to one of health and wellness.”  Benjamin is hopeful that this new administration will “focus more on prevention.”

One of the pressing issues Secretary Kennedy will face is the shortage of healthcare professionals.  “We’ve had workforce issues for a long time. The number of doctors, the number of nurses and we don’t have enough to cover everyone.” Benjamin points out there are regional issues with a lack of healthcare professionals. “You see those decreases particularly in rural areas.”  There is a short-term fix according to Benjamin, “We have to turn to telemedicine because we don’t have [enough] doctors.” She cautions, ” It will get worse before it gets better.” With February being American Heart Month, Benjamin recommends particularly for those in the Black community to “be as healthy as you can…so you can be resilient and respond to things.”  She acknowledges that overall when it comes to our health and wellbeing, “we have to train ourselves where to go for trusted information.”

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American Heart Association Partners with the Black Press for Groundbreaking Black Health Symposium

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The event brought together leaders in healthcare and media, emphasizing the critical need for collaboration in addressing health disparities impacting Black Americans.

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By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia

For the first time, a major corporation has chosen to broadcast a significant health initiative exclusively through the Black Press of America. The American Heart Association (AHA) partnered with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) to present “Changing the Future of Health for Black Communities: Public Health and Media Symposium,” a virtual event streamed live on NNPA’s YouTube channel as part of Black History Month. The NNPA is the trade association representing the more than 200 African-American-owned newspapers and media companies in the United States, which only known as are commonly known as the Black Press of America.

Initially planned as a hybrid event in Washington, D.C., the symposium transitioned to a fully virtual format due to inclement weather. The event brought together leaders in healthcare and media, emphasizing the critical need for collaboration in addressing health disparities impacting Black Americans. The panel featured distinguished health professionals, including Dr. Regina Benjamin, the 18th U.S. Surgeon General and founder of the Bayou Clinic; Dr. Keith Churchwell, president of the American Heart Association; and Katrina McGhee, AHA’s chief marketing officer. Media figures included Sharí Nycole, co-host at Reach Media; Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr., NNPA president and CEO; and April Ryan, senior White House correspondent and Washington Bureau Chief for BlackPressUSA.com. Sybil Wilkes, the veteran journalist known for her role on The Tom Joyner Morning Show, moderated the discussion.

Black Health in Crisis

Dr. Churchwell laid out stark statistics highlighting the disproportionate impact of cardiovascular disease on Black Americans. “Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the Black community,” Churchwell said. “Between 2017 and 2020, nearly 59 percent of Black men and women over the age of 20 had some form of cardiovascular disease, including coronary disease, stroke, and hypertension. In 2022 alone, almost 65,000 Black men and 59,000 Black women died from cardiovascular disease.” Hypertension remains one of the most prevalent health concerns. “The incidence of hypertension in the general population is 47 percent, but among Black men, it’s 57 percent, and among Black women, it’s 58 percent,” Churchwell said. “That’s the leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke.”

Dr. Benjamin emphasized that addressing these health disparities requires more than just medical intervention. “We’ve learned that to truly reduce and ultimately eliminate health disparities, we must address social determinants of health, such as poverty, education, and access to care,” Benjamin said. “Studies show that poverty and dropout rates are as important a health risk factor as smoking.” She stressed the necessity of prevention, adding, “Quality health outcomes depend on access to the right information, tools, and technology. But it also depends on communication—our patients understanding us, and us understanding them.”

Media’s Role in Shaping Black Health Outcomes

NNPA President Dr. Chavis underscored the Black Press’ role in disseminating accurate health information and combating misinformation. “We must recognize that Black media has the power to inform, educate, and sustain critical messaging about health,” Chavis said. “One-shot messaging doesn’t work. We must repeat these messages consistently to keep them in the consciousness of our community.” April Ryan pointed out how urgent the matter is in Black communities. “We are still the community with the highest number of negative health outcomes in almost every category,” Ryan said. “We need to continue this conversation beyond today. This isn’t about a news cycle—it’s about life and death.”

Sharí Nycole stressed that the media must inform and lead by example. “We can’t just tell people what to do—we have to model it,” Nycole said. “We need to be visible examples of prioritizing our health, whether through social media, community events, or personal engagement.”

CPR: Creating a “Nation of Lifesavers”

The symposium spotlighted the AHA’s Nation of Lifesavers campaign to ensure more Black families are equipped with CPR knowledge. The initiative gained national attention following Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin’s on-field cardiac arrest, which immediate CPR mitigated. “Nearly three out of four cardiac arrests that happen outside a hospital occur in the home,” McGhee said. “This means the life you save is likely someone you love. Yet Black people are the least likely to receive bystander CPR. That must change.” Churchwell pointed to a recent AHA study revealing that while bystander CPR rates have improved nationwide, Black women are the least likely to receive immediate CPR assistance. “This presents a massive opportunity for intervention,” Churchwell said. “More people need to be trained, and we need to break down whatever barriers are preventing Black women from receiving life-saving care when they need it most.”

A Call to Action

Chavis announced that the NNPA will make Black health a top editorial priority and extend coverage beyond Black History Month. “We cannot afford to lose a single day without focusing on healthcare,” Chavis said. “Health is not just an issue for February. It’s an issue for all 12 months, every single year.” Ryan asserted that it’s crucial to make health a communal effort. “We have to hold each other accountable,” she said. “Host CPR nights with your girlfriends, bring healthcare conversations to the barbershop, get cholesterol checks at your church health fair. These small changes can save lives.”

McGhee also urged action. “We need to move from awareness to action,” she said. “One person in every household should know CPR. If you don’t, today is the day to start. Visit heart.org/nation to learn more.”

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