People who enjoy baseball, and especially Minor League Baseball, regularly plan their summer vacations around visiting ballparks. These trips are often based around individual goals, whether it’s to visit new states or new ballparks or to watch top prospects or even the most ambitious goal of seeing all 159 active, affiliated Minor League baseball stadiums.
With good timing, visiting all of the Minor League ballparks in Alabama can be done in a matter of four days. I undertook this adventure earlier this summer with my wife Katie.
The Basics
Currently, Alabama has three Minor League Baseball teams: the Birmingham Barons, the Mobile BayBears, and the Montgomery Biscuits. From north-to-south, the drive from Birmingham to Mobile is about four hours (266 miles). The drive between Mobile and Montgomery is about two-and-a-half hours (172 miles), and the drive from Montgomery to Birmingham is about one-and-a-half hours (90 miles). So for any baseball fan, this is an easy drive whether you start in Alabama or begin your trip in a neighboring state.
The Planning
Planning this trip is a bit more difficult because a few years ago the Southern League, the Double-A league all three Alabama teams play in, switched from the traditional structure of three-game series to five-game series. So when one of the Alabama teams hosts another team from the state it can be difficult to visit all three ballparks in quick succession. Everybody has their own method for organizing schedules to create travel plans. I am a BIG fan of putting everything into an Excel spreadsheet so I can look at what teams are at home side-by-side.
I was fortunate that my goal of seeing all three teams play at home came together over Memorial Day weekend. Once the dates were settled, I started working on booking hotels and looking up other sights to see along the way.
Play Ball!
As we lived in Tuscaloosa when planning the trip, we headed south to Mobile and worked our way north to see each of the teams. Due to the Southern League having an off-day on Monday, May 28 (Memorial Day), we were unable to see all three teams on consecutive nights. However, if schedules align it is quite feasible. So instead of trying to cram three ballparks into consecutive nights, we added a few extras days to our trip.
Game One: Mobile BayBears
We visited two breweries (Fairhope Brewing Co. and Serda Brewing Co.) and checked into our hotel in downtown Mobile before heading to Hank Aaron Stadium west of downtown near the junction of Interstate 10 and Interstate 65. I had previously attended a Mobile BayBears game in 2015, but this was Katie’s first visit to the stadium.
The stadium is located on reclaimed marsh land so there is plenty of parking at the ballpark. The stadium is named after Mobile-native and Hall of Famer Hank Aaron. In addition to Aaron, Mobile is the birthplace to four other Hall of Famers. A plaque outside the park notes that Satchel Paige (Class of 1971), Willie McCovey (Class of 1986), Billy Williams (Class of 1987), and Ozzie Smith (Class of 2002) are also enshrined at Cooperstown alongside Aaron (Class of 1982).
After walking under the gate that proclaims “Hank Aaron Stadium,” fans are immediately greeted with a dose of the team’s history. It is easy to overlook the BayBears Hall of Fame because it is on the left-hand side of the entrance, but it is worth checking out in addition to the banners highlighting former players who have achieved notable success in Major League Baseball.
The stadium has a unique design because the luxury suites are not elevated, as they are at most ballparks. Instead, the luxury boxes are on the field level and infield seating for the general public is elevated about 20 feet above the field. So the view for spectators is quite different from what fans experience at other ballparks. With luxury suites underneath the general seating area, concession stands face the luxury suites.
Each concession stand carries the same items, so fans don’t have search for specialty items available at only one stand. Fans will find all the typical ballpark items at the concession stands. The most unique items are a foot-long Conecuh sausage and Conecuh jambalaya. As I had eaten the Conecuh sausage on my previous visit, I opted for the jambalaya.
The best sight lines in the stadium are in Sections 106 or 107, which are immediately behind home plate in the seating bowl above the luxury suites. My seats down the first base line were enjoyable, but the view of home plate was cut off by the luxury suites. So my recommendation for buying seats would be to find something in either 106 or 107, assuming you actually want to watch the game.
There are a lot of reasons to attend a Minor League Baseball game. Attending a game at Hank Aaron Stadium offers fans the chance to tour the childhood home of a Hall of Famer.
In 2010, the City of Mobile relocated the childhood home of Hall of Famer Hank Aaron to the ballpark and restored it as a museum (read more here). Visiting Aaron’s childhood home and museum should be on the must-see list for any baseball fan. The museum is open to visitors Monday through Friday on non-gamedays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission costs $5 for adults, and $2 for children under 12. However, the museum is open during ALL games when admission is free as part of your game ticket.
Final: Biloxi 3, Mobile 11
Box Score
Game Two: Montgomery Biscuits
After some sightseeing in Mobile, Katie and I headed to Montgomery for the second game of our road trip. Due to the Southern League’s schedule, we did not get to watch a baseball game until Tuesday evening. So we enjoyed a couple of days in town seeing the sights.
Montgomery had a long history of supporting Minor League teams before the Biscuits arrived. However, the last affiliated team to call the city home, the Southern League’s Montgomery Rebels, left in 1980. So the community welcomed a downtown ballpark that incorporated part of an old train shed when the Biscuits arrived in 2004.
Riverwalk Stadium’s downtown locations means there is limited parking. However, the ballpark is a five- to ten-minute walk from several nearby hotels. If you aren’t staying in downtown there is parking on streets around the stadium with a few parking lots explicitly for events at the stadium.
When Katie and I arrived the team’s mascot, Big Mo, was just inside the gate greeting fans. So we quickly stopped and got our photo with him.
Big Mo may look like an aardvark or anteater or some other real or imagined animal, but he is NONE of these. The Biscuits call him, “A Biscuit Lovin’ Beast.”
Speaking of biscuits, there is NEVER a problem finding them at the park because there is a portable concession stand right behind home plate that sells biscuits, of course!
Maybe if for some unbelievable reason a fan doesn’t like eating biscuits, but instead wants to wear some biscuit paraphernalia then the team store is the place to go.
On the night we visited, I found some special “Greenbow Biscuits” gear for sale. The team did a special promotion and renamed themselves the “Greenbow Biscuits” in honor of the fictional hometown of Forrest Gump. However, I was more interested in the biscuit-shaped “hat” for sale. Naturally, there is a LOT of other items available in the store, too.
Like most Minor League ballparks built since 2000, visitors to Riverwalk Stadium enter on the main level and walk down to the seating bowl. The concourse also wraps around the ballpark. The concession stands offer a variety of options from the common ballpark fare like hot dogs and chicken tenders to the more unique like chicken wings (a special on Tuesday nights) and, of course, biscuits.
The ballpark also has a great craft beer selection. Down the right field line, the Club Car Bar is a full-service bar that offers liquor drinks and wine in addition to beer. There are over a dozen beers on draft in addition to several in cans and bottles. There is a solid representation of Alabama craft beers in bottles and cans, too. Brews from Fairhope Brewing, Ghost Train Brewing, Back Forty Beer, and Goat Island Brewing were on draft when we visited. A portable stand by home plate also had a solid selection of Alabama craft beers with offerings from Back Forty, Fairhope, Folklore Brewing, Ghost Train, and Goat Island.
After picking up a beer at the Club Car Bar, Katie and I took our seats behind home plate and settled in to watch the game.
The stadium has great sight lines, but it is particularly enjoyable watching the trains pass by the left field wall. The luxury suites are elevated above the seating bowl with six built into the old train shed and the remainder in a newer structure down the third base line.
Like my previous visit to Riverwalk Stadium in 2012 (read it here), it was a great time at the park. The stadium is beautiful with a great downtown location that makes it easily accessible to local fans and visitors alike. The promotions are unique and fun. The food and beverage choices are diverse, and most importantly reflect location connections and options.
Final: Jackson 6, Montgomery 3
Box Score
Game Three: Birmingham Barons
Many baseball fans think the oldest stadium in America is either Fenway Park in Boston or Wrigley Field in Chicago. However, both answers are wrong. The oldest professional ballpark in the country is Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. It opened in 1910, two years before Fenway and four years before Wrigley.
Despite being the old professional baseball stadium in America, Rickwood Field hasn’t hosted a regular tenant since 1987 when the Birmingham Barons moved to suburban Hoover. However, since 1996 the Barons and Friends of Rickwood have hosted a throwback game at the ballpark. The game usually takes place during the Barons’ first homestand in late May or early June immediately after Memorial Day weekend. I previously attended the 20th Rickwood Classic in 2015, but Katie really wanted to attend the game so it was incorporated into our road trip plans.
Really ambitious baseball fans can attend a Barons’ game at Regions Field, which opened in 2013, in downtown Birmingham, and the Rickwood Classic on consecutive days. Usually the Barons’ schedule has them hosting a game at Regions Field the day before and after the Rickwood Classic, so fans can visit two great ballparks in Birmingham. The schedule also makes it possible to see all four Minor League ballparks in Alabama over just a few days.
Stories say that Rick Woodward, who owned the Birmingham Coal Barons in the early 1900s, used Philadelphia’s Shibe Park and Pittsburgh’s Forbes Fields as the models for his new ballpark.
Attending the Rickwood Classic is like attending a game from another era. It begins with the starting lineups written on a chalkboard near the turnstiles after fans enter the park.
Beyond the chalk-written lineups, the game lacks many of the elements of a modern Minor League game. There are no promotional contests between innings and no walk-up music for batters or music between innings. A live band setup behind home plate plays the only music during the game. The music varies each year according to the theme of the Classic. The 2018 Classic celebrated the “Fabulous Fifties” when the Barons were affiliated with the New York Yankees (1953-56).
The game usually starts at 12:30 p.m. with gates opening at eleven o’clock, so visitors can explore the ballpark. It has been painstakingly restored, including the manually-operated scoreboard in left field and advertisements on the outfield walls that feature vintage-style ads of current companies. Descendants of Rick Woodward also paid for an ad dedicated to Woodward Iron Company.
After exploring the park, Katie and I settled into our general admission seats near home plate under the roof that was added to the ballpark in the 1920s.
One possible short-coming of attending the Rickwood Classic is the lack of unique food items at the game. The most “unique” items available would be the Polish or Italian sausage available at a tent outside the seating bowl. That’s not to say the food is bad because it is quite delicious, but fans will not find as many options at the Rickwood Classic as they would at Regions Field. One modern food item that fans can find is Papa John’s personal-sized pizzas. Beer choices are limited to either Miller Lite or Yuengling, so none of Birmingham’s delicious craft beers are available at the game either.
None of these limitations should affect the enjoyment of the game. Attending the Rickwood Classic is about basking in the essence of “old timey” baseball before technology became integrated into our enjoyment of the contest. Watching a game at America’s oldest professional ballpark is about watching the sport in virtually its purest form.
Perhaps the coolest aspect of attending the Rickwood Classic is that fans are allowed onto the field after the game. At many Minor League stadiums only kids are allowed onto the field to run the bases after certain games. As part of being a “living museum,” fans are allowed onto the field to play catch, run the bases, or just lay down in the grass and reflect on the history that has occurred at the ballpark.
Final: Chattanooga 1, Birmingham 7
Box Score
Wrap-Up
So after an extended weekend, Katie and I got to see all three of Alabama’s Minor League Baseball teams play at home. It took us five days to see all three teams, but the additional days allowed us to see and experience a bit more in each city. Whether you’re from Alabama or visiting from out-of-state there is a lot to see and do in each city. There are several craft breweries and award-winning restaurants in Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham, along with a bevy of historic sights and contemporary museums to keep baseball fans of all ages engaged on a road trip to see Alabama’s Minor League teams.
5 Comments
Obligatory Traveler
I have to check these stadiums out at some point, especially the one with biscuits…mmmm. Sometimes I think the Minor League stadiums are more fun. They are usually less crowded and people usually aren’t as intense. It’s a fun, chill, time.
Steven On The Move
I am biased because I interned with a Minor League team years ago, but I definitely prefer attending a MiLB game over an MLB game for the reasons you listed. Plus usually MUCH more affordable!
Pola | Jetting Around
This is way cool!! I miss baseball, now that I live in Europe. I used to have this plan to visit every MLB stadium, but I think minor lrague games can be fun. Next time I’m in the US, I’ll have to look into it.
Steven On The Move
There are professional baseball leagues in Europe you could check out. There are leagues in Italy and The Netherlands, but sadly I don’t think France has a professional league.
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