This year's Rickwood Classic is now in the books, as the 100th anniversary of the opening of Rickwood Field is commemorated by a Birmingham Barons game. Page 3: Rickwood Field history, conclusions.
HISTORY
Rickwood Field opened on August 18, 1910, as the home of the original Birmingham Barons Team owner Rick Woodward wanted an opulent home for his team and budgeted $25,000 for the project; Connie Mack helps him choose a site, lay out the diamond and specify a layout similar to that of Shibe Field, down to the field measurements. Opponents of public funding of ballparks will be happy to know that little has changed in the last 100 years: the final financial tally for the 7,00-seat ballpark was $75,000. In those days, that was real money.) A contest in the local newspaper yielded the name of Rickwood Field, a mashing of the owner’s name.
Changes were made to Rickwood Field in the 1920s, however, that yielded the ballpark we see today: the roof was extended to new seating in the right-field corner, while the Spanish Mission style front office was added in 1928.