A manual scoreboard, as seen on Monday, June 10, 2024, is one of the features at Rickwood Field, in Birmingham, Ala. That's where the rich history of the Negro Leagues and Willie Mays will be celebrated on Thursday as part of festivities that include a game between the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.
Note: Updated at 2 p.m. Thursday with Fox's pregame show plans.
It was supposed to be a night spent honoring the legacy of baseball’s Negro Leagues, in a festive atmosphere in the Deep South while also celebrating the career of exquisite alum Willie Mays — all on the field in Birmingham, Alabama, where his pro career began in 1948 with his hometown Black Barons.
Those activities were intended to punctuate the first big league regular-season game to be played in the state with the Cardinals facing the Giants, the team Mays represented on the field for 21 seasons in his Hall of Fame career, with the entire proceedings being showcased in a national telecast by Fox.
Mays, at 93 the oldest living MLB player, planned to attend but pulled out on Monday, saying he’d follow the game from his San Francisco-area home. But he died Tuesday, thus shifting the focus of the events.
Dr. Reverend Bill Greason, seated, speaks to Willie Mays Scholars and a contingent from the San Francisco Giants about his time playing baseball in the Negro Leagues as a teammate of Mays, at the 16th Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. That was where four little girls where killed by a bomb during the Civil Rights movement. Greason, 99, who was the Cardinals' first Black pitcher, is scheduled to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Cards play the Giants on Thursday at nearby Rickwood Field.
“Thursday’s game at historic Rickwood Field was designed to be a celebration of Willie Mays and his peers,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “With sadness in our hearts, it will now also serve as a national remembrance of an American who will forever remain on the short list of the most impactful individuals our great game has ever known.”
The setting will be Rickwood, which opened in 1910 and not only is the oldest facility still operating in baseball but has rich ties to the Negro Leagues as it was the home of the Black Barons.
“Willie Mays took his all-around brilliance from the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League to the historic Giants franchise,” Manfred added. “From coast to coast in New York and San Francisco, Willie inspired generations of players and fans as the game grew and truly earned its place as our National Pastime.”
The evening is being called “MLB at Rickwood Field: A tribute to the Negro Leagues,” and the coverage on Fox (KTVI, Channel 2 locally) begins at 4:30 p.m. with the first pitch scheduled for 6:15 p.m. The network plans to go all out with its telecast in focusing on the historical aspect of the event as well as the game itself.
Fox is treating the event like it would a World Series game, with its lead announcers set to call the game: Joe Davis (play-by-play) and John Smoltz (commentary). It also has its postseason pregame show crew on hand: Kevin Burkhardt as the host with commentary from Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz.
Oscar- and Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste is to present a pregame musical tribute to the Negro Leagues, in which approximately 60 of its former players are scheduled to be on the field at approximately 6 p.m. Then the ceremonial first pitch is to be delivered by Bill Greason, a 99-year-old Negro Leagues alumnus who in 1954 was the Cardinals’ first Black pitcher. He since has been a pastor in Birmingham.
Before that is Fox's pregame show and because of Mays' death plans for it were not finalized until a few hours before first pitch. They include a tribute to Mays at the 4:30 p.m. start, a piece at 5 o'clock presented by Emmy-award winning actor and native Ƶan Sterling K. Brown to set the scene at Rickwood, an interview with Greason at 5:21 followed by a segment at 5:47 with former big-league standout Barry Bonds reflecting on Mays, who was his godfather. (Times subject to change.)
On the field, the Cardinals and Giants will be wearing throwback uniforms representing Negro League teams that played in their cities — the Ƶ Stars and the San Francisco Sea Lions.
It sets up for a memorable night.
The Cardinals and Giants will play a game on Thursday at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., to honor the game's Negro League roots. The facility is seen when a minor-league contest was being played there on Wednesday, May 29, 2019.
‘Spectacular’ look
“It’s going to look spectacular” on TV, Fox Sports Vice President of Field Operations and Engineering Brad Cheney told the Post-Dispatch, adding that the network will unfurl “postseason technology” for the telecast.
To that end, more than 20 cameras and in excess of 45 microphones will be positioned throughout the ballpark that will have a seating capacity of about 8,300 for the contest.
“Small stadiums have different sound” than big league facilities, Cheney said, so Fox wants to relay that.
The production folks also are eager to show shots of players and plays that will be tighter in the quaint setting compared to an MLB stadium.
“We’ll be close to the players,” he said.
This event long has been on the drawing board, with talks beginning three years ago. Cheney said Fox officials made six trips to the facility from the start of the planning stages through the period when modifications were being made to the ballpark to accommodate the network’s production as well as a big league game. He estimates that more than 12,000 man-hours have been spread across 270 people “to bring this event to life.”
Fox and MLB have tried to not be too disruptive. Despite the construction, Cheney said people who attended a game at Rickwood before the updates began should not notice any difference when looking at the field on Thursday. There was a minor league game played there Tuesday, giving organizers a couple of days to take care of any unexpected problems that arose before the main event arrives.
“It’s been a very big undertaking,” Cheney said, adding that he has been on-site since Friday. “It’s a large departure from normal, creating an event from the ground up.”
Fox has had experience on the baseball front with starting from scratch, having televised games from the “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa, in 2021 and ’22. That was the setting of the 1989 film by that name.
That experience helps, but there also is a caveat.
“More challenging is that the stadium is here,” he said. “With the ‘Field of Dreams,’ we built the stadium from the ground up” to its own specifications.
Other coverage
MLB Network will be carrying shows from Rickwood throughout the day. At noon, “MLB Central” airs, followed at 1:30 by a celebrity softball game. At 3 o’clock is “MLB Tonight,” which is hosted by St. Charles native Greg Amsinger and has former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright among the analysts. “MLB Tonight” then returns after the game.
On radio, Cardinals broadcasters John Rooney, Ricky Horton and Mike Claiborne are to be on hand and pregame programming begins at 5:20 p.m. In addition to KMOX (1120 AM) and the team’s regular radio network, the contest will air locally on WFUN (96.3 FM), a rhythm and blues station owned by KMOX parent company Audacy.
Cardinals Spanish-language broadcasters Polo Ascencio and Bengie Molina also will call the game, albeit via monitors in Busch Stadium. That airs locally on WIJR (880 AM), the rest of the team’s Spanish network plus on Sirius XM Radio.
