{"id":1170,"date":"2014-10-08T15:20:48","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T19:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/?p=1170"},"modified":"2014-10-08T16:23:52","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T20:23:52","slug":"rickwood-field-host-1st-annual-96er-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/?p=1170","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham Giants Ready for 2nd annual Giants Day at Historic Rickwood Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

Historic Rickwood field will again be the site for Giants \u00a0Day on October 12th at noon. The Birmingham Giants will host Grip and Rip, an organization\u00a0from North Alabama.
\n\"IMG_0372-e.jpg\"<\/a>Rickwood Field was the passionate pursuit of a young Birmingham, Alabama industrialist, Rick Woodward. While still in his 20s, Woodward bought controlling interest in the city\u2019s professional baseball beam, the Coal Barons. He then sought help from the legendary Connie Mack in designing \u201cThe Finest Minor League Ballpark Ever\u201d in this booming iron-and-steel town, the fastest growing city in the nation at that time. Woodward\u2019s passion was contagious and, fueled by fervent publicity, the entire city of Birmingham was baseball-wild by the park\u2019s opening day, August 18, 1910, closing for business in honor of the event.<\/p>\n

Modeled primarily after Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Rickwood Field lived up to its owner\u2019s wildest dreams. Over the years, this diamond dazzled with play by some of the greatest players in baseball history. The 1910s brought standing-room-only crowds and future hall of famers like Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Honus \u201cThe Flying Dutchman\u201d Wagner, and Birmingham\u2019s hometeam sensation Burleigh Grimes, the last legal spitball pitcher in the Big Leagues.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in an enterprising arrangement with Woodward, the newly formed Black Barons were also drawing overflow crowds to Rickwood Field. Alternating weekends with the Barons, the Black Barons provided a thrilling pastime for the thousands who came to watch Negro League immortals such as all-time Negro American League home run record holder George \u201cMule\u201d Suttles.<\/p>\n

The Yankees and Babe Ruth were frequent visitors here, the Bambino wooing crowds with towering home runs into the right-field stands.\"Copy<\/a> Other stars, such as Rogers Hornsby and \u201cShoeless\u201d Joe Jackson played here. Dizzy Dean pitched here \u2013 and lost 1-0 \u2013 in one of the most famous games in Rickwood history. Squaring off against the Barons\u2019 Ray Caldwell, a 43-year-old pitcher in the twilight of his career \u2013 the brash young phenom Dizzy Dean (who had guaranteed victory) struck out none to Caldwell\u2019s five, with the winning hit coming from Barons\u2019 second baseman and Alabama Hall of Famer Billy Bancroft.<\/p>\n

The Diamond kept shining with stars like the Barons\u2019 own Pie Traynor, a future Hall of Famer considered by many to be the best 3rd baseman ever, and Stan \u201cThe Man\u201d Musial, long remembered for the home run he hit clear over Rickwood\u2019s right-field bleachers. All the while, the Black Barons were also making history with legends like star pitcher Leroy \u201cSatchell\u201d Paige who won more games for the Black Barons than for any other professional team; playing manager Lorenzo \u201cPiper\u201d Davis; and future Hall of Famer Willie Mays who grew up just minutes from Rickwood Field and, as a 16-year-old high school junior, was starting centerfielder for the \u201948 championship Black Barons.<\/p>\n

Throughout those glorious early years, record-breaking crowds overflowed these stands. And, for everyone who walked through these gates, the experience was nothing short of magic. They experienced the innocence, the wonder, the romance of baseball. The way baseball was meant to be.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Birmingham Giants visit: \u00a0www.birminghamgiants.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Historic Rickwood field will again be the site for Giants \u00a0Day on October 12th at noon. The Birmingham Giants will host Grip and Rip, an organization\u00a0from North Alabama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[7,11,4,3,15,6,5],"class_list":["post-1170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","category-uncategorized","tag-alabama-baseball","tag-alabama-travel-baseball","tag-birmingham-giants","tag-fall-baseball","tag-lady-giants","tag-travel-baseball","tag-youth-baseball"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1170"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3237,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1170\/revisions\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.birminghamgiants.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}