The Birmingham Barons have been a professional baseball presence in the city since 1885, with only three brief gaps of years they did not play. Since 1910 three stadiums have been home to the team: Rickwood Field, Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the current Regions Field downtown near Railroad Park. Numerous Major League and Negro League stars played on those fields, especially Rickwood, the first concrete and steel stadium in the minor leagues. Today the Barons are a Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox.
On Tuesday night, August 20, son Amos and I attended a game and watched the Barons defeat the Biloxi Shuckers in a comeback win 6-5. Some photos are below. This experience brought to mind some items of Barons' memorabilia that have been in the family since the mid-1990s. More on that and other goodies are also below.
I've previously written a blog piece on the Barons discussing a 1917 photo of the team.
You can find almost 600 digitized items related to the Barons' history at the Alabama Mosaic site.
Further Reading
Allen Barra, Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark. 2010
William J. Plott, Black Baseball's Last Team Standing: The Birmingham Black Barons, 1919-1962. 2019
Watkins, Clarence. Baseball in Birmingham. 2010
These Barons players appear on the "pog" board. I have included the states where they were born and the years they played in Birmingham. Since two of the players appeared on a Barons roster only in 1995, I'm assuming that's the year of this item. Several of these players had some time in the majors as well as other minor league teams. Search for them at the Baseball Reference site for more details.
Jimmy Hurst [Alabama, 1995-6]
Mike Cameron [Georgia, 1995-1996]
Jeff Abbott [Georgia, 1995]
Eddie Pearson [Alabama, 1995-7]
Greg Norton [California, 1995-1996]
Troy Fryman [Florida, 1994-6]
Glenn Disarcina [Massachusetts, 1993-6]
Scott Vollmer (California, 1995-6]
Scott Christman [Arizona, 1995]
Two of these players are Alabama natives. Jimmy Hurst was born in Tuscaloosa in 1972 and was a star high school player. He had a long career on various minor league teams and played briefly for the Detroit Tigers in 1997. Unfortunately, Hurst died of a brain bleed on July 6, 2024, age 52. You can see some of his baseball cards here.
Eddie Pearson, born in Mobile in 1974, also had an extensive minor league career. He played at Bishop State Community College in Mobile. You can see his Barons baseball card here.
This board was sponsored by radio station Magic96.FM and Galleria Fun Country, which was located near the Riverchase Galleria. We spent some time there with the kids in the mid-1990s. The place appealed to children in a way similar to Chucky Cheese and was a good venue for birthday parties. Originally known as Riverchase Golf and Games, the place apparently created fond memories in others, too. Earlier this year someone on Redditt was asking for photos and the responses were interesting.
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