Gerald Watkins is a retired banker who heads the Mates of Rickwood group that maintains the ballpark by its use with excessive colleges, schools and showcase occasionsCary Norton for The Washington Put up by way of Getty Pictures
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Gerald Watkins seemed out at an empty Rickwood Subject and smiled. The person chargeable 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 supply 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 finally discovered the correct connection.) He has spent the previous three years shepherding the 114-year-old ballpark by the method of changing into prepared for the Present.
“I didn’t spend anytime watching the sport,” he mentioned — hey, Gerald, the Cardinals received 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 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 thought, let’s do it once more subsequent 12 months and name it the Willie Mays Traditional. I mentioned you possibly can even say it was your concept.”
MLB Chief Operations and Technique Officer Chris Marinak, talking shortly after the ultimate out, famous that the subsequent 12 months’s schedule is often launched in mid-summer and that such particular occasion video games will probably be part of the calendar. He wouldn’t specify the place they are going to be, nonetheless. “You need an amazing venue, an amazing fan expertise, and an amazing storyline. We actually lucked out with all of these issues,” mentioned Marinak.
Any location must verify another important packing containers. “What have been the weather that make [a place] genuine? What tells an amazing 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 sport. Neither have Oregon and Tennessee, two states that determine to be a distinguished bidders in MLB’s subsequent spherical of enlargement, every time that takes place.
Nonetheless, after the magic of the Subject of Desires Sport in Iowa in 2021 and ’22 and the emotional significance of a sport held on the dwelling 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 method, at the same time as he referred to as the possibilities that Rickwood will host a sport once more “very doubtless.” “Nothing will ever match what we did tonight.”
Watkins referred to as the possibilities that Rickwood will host a sport once more “very doubtless”Russell Kilgore Jr./MLB Pictures by way of Getty Pictures