ST. LOUIS — When the Giants and Cardinals take the field in Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday, a special chapter of MLB history will be written.
It's a game to honor the Negro Leagues, with both teams wearing throwback uniforms, and multiple Negro Leagues alumni. The event will also honor the late Willie Mays, who started his career with the Birmingham Black Barons in the Negro Leagues.
And the setting is as important as anything this week. Rickwood Field is called the oldest baseball stadium in America. And it is hallowed ground.
"It's a shrine. It is a baseball cathedral," Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick said. "So much baseball history has been made at that park, and a lot of it was associated with the Negro Leagues. One team in particular, the Birmingham Black Barons, who shared that stadium with their white counterparts, the Birmingham Barons. And in a deeply segregated Birmingham, a Bull Connor segregated Birmingham, the Black Barons were the toast of the town. They actually out-drew their white counterparts in their own ballpark."
The Cardinals will be wearing the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars. And some of the greatest Black players in baseball history have called our town home for a time.
"Still believed to be the fastest man to ever play this game, and the greatest nickname in baseball history," Kendricks said of Stars speedster and Baseball Hall of Famer James "Cool Papa" Bell.
"The great Mule Suttles, who believe it or not swung a 50-ounce bat," Kendrick said of Stars slugger Mule Suttles.
"They nicknamed him in Mexico, 'El Diablo', the devil. Because he could dig it out of the dirt. And for those who got to see the legendary Ozzie Smith perform his magic, that was Willie Wells. We say Willie Wells was Ozzie Smith before we ever knew who Ozzie Smith was," Kendrick said of Stars slick-fielder Willie Wells.
There will also be another St. Louis connection at Rickwood. The first Black pitcher in Cardinals history, Bill Greason, lives in Birmingham, and is expected to be honored this week.
"He will be 100 this year and he's still getting in the pulpit and bringing that fire and brimstone. He helped nurture and mentor a young Willie Mays. He's a war hero. A Marine. A purple heart recipient. He has a significant place not just from a baseball history perspective, but from an American history perspective. So I am thrilled he is still amongst us. And he is still as spry as ever," Kendrick said of Greason.
As for Negro Leagues history as a whole? It has been a pretty impressive stretch of popularity.
"We have been riding a tremendous wave of momentum. The rolling of the statistics into the records books of Major League Baseball, this game at Rickwood which will be a seminal moment for Black baseball history and the inclusion of the Negro Leagues in the video game, MLB The Show. Millions of young people are learning about the Negro Leagues, but not only are they learning about the Negro Leagues, they are falling in love with the Negro Leagues... I am so excited that the world seems to be excited and maybe more interested in Negro Leagues baseball history than ever before," Kendrick said.
The week will be a celebration of baseball history, and a celebration of many names and voices who haven't always been heard.
"I can tell you this. There is going to be some lying going on come this next week. And I'm going to be right in the middle of it, lying right there with 'em," Kendrick laughed when talking about getting the still-living Negro League players back together.
