Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest existing professional baseball park in the United States. It was built for the Birmingham Barons in 1910 by industrialist and team-owner Rick Woodward and has served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro leagues.
The following are the baseball events of the year 2002 throughout the world.
The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960, including 18 seasons recognized as Major League by Major League Baseball. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal press.
Robert Andrew Veale is an American former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher from 1962 through 1974 for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Red Sox.
James Timothy "Mudcat" Grant Jr. was an American baseball pitcher who played 14 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for the Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Montreal Expos, St. Louis Cardinals, Oakland Athletics, and Pittsburgh Pirates from 1958 to 1971. He was a two-time All-Star.
The following are the baseball events of the year 1982 throughout the world.
Samuel "Toothpick" Jones was an American Major League Baseball pitcher with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers and the Baltimore Orioles between 1951 and 1964. He batted and threw right-handed.
Daniel Robert Bankhead was the first African American pitcher in Major League Baseball. He played in the Negro leagues for the Birmingham Black Barons and the Memphis Red Sox from 1940 to 1947, then played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1951.
Ramón Arturo Peña Padilla is a Dominican former professional baseball relief pitcher who played one season for the Detroit Tigers of the Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the brother of former MLB catcher Tony Peña and the uncle of former pitcher Tony Peña Jr.
Patricio Athelstan Scantlebury was a Panamanian professional baseball pitcher whose 16-season career included six games pitched for the 1956 Cincinnati Redlegs of Major League Baseball. Born in Gatun Lake, Panama, Scantlebury threw and batted left-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 180 pounds (82 kg).
Arthur Lee Wilson was an American professional baseball player. He was an all-star for the Birmingham Black Barons of Negro league baseball before playing part of one season in Major League Baseball for the New York Giants in 1951. He was born in Springville, Alabama. Wilson is recognized as the last player in the Negro leagues to hit .400, having batted .435 in 1948, albeit in only 28 games played that season.
Below is a partial list of minor league baseball players in the Chicago White Sox organizations and rosters of their affiliates:
Raymond Austin Aloysius Yochim was an American professional baseball pitcher who appeared in four games over parts of two seasons in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals—one game in 1948 and three during 1949. A native and lifelong resident of New Orleans, he threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
Jehosie "Jay" Heard was an American professional baseball player. A native of Athens, Georgia, he was a left-handed pitcher who stood 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m) tall and weighed 155 pounds (70 kg). He pitched two games in Major League Baseball for the 1954 Baltimore Orioles, becoming the franchise's first African American player in Baltimore.
Alonzo Thomas Perry was a professional baseball first baseman and pitcher in the Negro leagues and in the Mexican League. He played from 1940 to 1963 with several teams.
The 1948 Negro World Series was the championship tournament for the 1948 season of Negro league baseball. It was the seventh edition of the second incarnation of the Negro World Series and the eleventh overall played. It was a best-of-seven playoff played between the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League and the Birmingham Black Barons, champions of the Negro American League. The Homestead Grays played home games in both Washington, D.C., and Pittsburgh. It was the fifth appearance for the Grays in the Series, the most for any team; Birmingham made their third appearance in the Series, with each being against the Grays. The Grays won the series in five games. The Black Barons featured the 17-year-old Willie Mays in his first professional season.
The Memphis Red Sox were an American Negro league baseball team that was active from 1920 to 1959. Originally named the Barber College Baseball Club, the team was initially owned and operated by Arthur P. Martin, a local Memphis barber. In the late 1920s the Martin brothers, all three Memphis doctors and businessmen, purchased the Red Sox. J. B. Martin, W. S. Martin, and B. B. Martin, would retain control of the club till its dissolution in 1959. The Red Sox played as members, at various times, of the Negro Southern League, Negro National League, and Negro American League. The team was never a titan of the Negro leagues like wealthier teams in northern cities of the United States, but sound management led to a continuous thirty-nine years of operation, a span that was exceeded by very few other teams. Following integration the team had five players that would eventually make the rosters of Major League Baseball teams and two players that were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Walter Loreo McCoy was an American Negro league baseball and Minor League Baseball pitcher. Listed at 5' 11" (1.80 m), 172 lbs (78 kg), he batted and threw right handed.
William Henry Powell was an American Negro league pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons between 1946 and 1948.
MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues was a Major League Baseball (MLB) specialty game played between the National League (NL) West's San Francisco Giants and the NL Central's St. Louis Cardinals on June 20, 2024. The game was played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the former home of the Negro leagues' Birmingham Black Barons, one day after Juneteenth. This was the first regular-season Major League Baseball (MLB) game played in the state of Alabama. The Cardinals won 6–5.
