The Southwestern Athletic Conference announced Wednesday the league’s annual baseball tournament will move to historic Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., this season.
The SWAC tournament will be held May 21-25 and will feature the league’s top eight teams from the regular season.
This will be Birmingham’s third time hosting the tournament. It was held at Rickwood Field in 2005 and at Jerry D. Young Memorial Field in 2022. It had been in Atlanta the past two seasons.
Rickwood Field is the oldest existing professional baseball park in the United States, having opened in 1910. It once served as the home park for the Birmingham Barons and the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons.
SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland said in a statement the league is excited to return the baseball tournament to Birmingham, where its headquarters is located, and Rickwood Field.
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“Many of the all-time legends of the game of baseball played at historic Rickwood Field including Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Jackie Robinson and countless others,” McClelland said.
“The City of Birmingham in conjunction with Major League Baseball (MLB) has made significant upgrades and enhancements to the venue creating a unique opportunity for us to provide our fans, supporters and student-athletes with a first class one-of-a-kind experience at this truly historic venue.”
MLB hosted a regular season game between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field last year in a salute to the Negro Leagues and in observance of Juneteenth. The park underwent $5 million in renovations prior to the game.
The SWAC said ticket information will be released at a later date.