MLB to stage Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field next June honoring Willie Mays

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in June 2024 between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. The 10,800-seat stadium, opened in 1910, is the oldest professional ballpark in the U.S. and a National Historic Site. The stadium was home to the Birmingham Black Barons from 1924-60. The game will honor Hall of Famer Willie Mays, an Alabama native who began his professional career with the team in 1948. MLB is staging the game around the Juneteenth holiday, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in Texas.