Rickwood Field game a historic night for MLB, but will it return to schedule?

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Gerald Watkins seemed out at an empty Rickwood Subject and smiled. The person liable for pitching America’s oldest ballpark to MLB officers three years in the past had been working lengthy hours for weeks within the run-up to the sport, and although the sport had ended solely an hour earlier, he was in a position to provide an evaluation for the way it had all gone.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 20,” he mentioned.

In 2021, Watkins had cold-called MLB to recommend it come to Birmingham. (After some fruitless web looking out, he in the end discovered the correct connection.) He has spent the previous three years shepherding the 114-year-old ballpark by way of the method of changing into prepared for the Present.

“I didn’t spend anytime watching the sport,” he mentioned — hey, Gerald, the Cardinals gained a enjoyable one, 6-5 — “I ran round troubleshooting and there was nothing to troubleshoot.”

Having such a profitable evening naturally spurred speak of if and when MLB will return to Rickwood. Watkins, a retired banker who heads the Mates of Rickwood group that maintains the ballpark by way of its use with excessive colleges, schools and showcase occasions, mentioned he spent a part of Thursday evening planting a brand new seed with MLB executives. “I pitched the concept, let’s do it once more subsequent yr and name it the Willie Mays Basic. I mentioned you possibly can even say it was your thought.”

MLB Chief Operations and Technique Officer Chris Marinak, talking shortly after the ultimate out, famous that the subsequent yr’s schedule is normally launched in mid-summer and that such particular occasion video games can be part of the calendar. He wouldn’t specify the place they are going to be, nevertheless. “You need an ideal venue, an ideal fan expertise, and an ideal storyline. We actually lucked out with all of these issues,” mentioned Marinak.

Any location must verify another important bins. “What have been the weather that make [a place] genuine? What tells an ideal story about what baseball means to the nation? How will you recreate these commonalities?”

Cities are lining as much as be chosen to host future MLB video games, however none are public. Alaska has by no means hosted an MLB recreation. Neither have Oregon and Tennessee, two states that determine to be a outstanding bidders in MLB’s subsequent spherical of growth, every time that takes place.

Nonetheless, after the magic of the Subject of Desires Recreation in Iowa in 2021 and ’22 and the emotional significance of a recreation held on the residence of the Negro Leagues that honored Willie Mays the week he died, it’s clear the usual has been set very excessive.

Watkins actually felt that approach, at the same time as he known as the possibilities that Rickwood will host a recreation once more “very seemingly.” “Nothing will ever match what we did tonight.”