FORBES: Ahead of MLB at Rickwood Field, Fanatics and Topps is Offering Special Negro League Cards

Major League Baseball will be hosting a new jewel event at America’s oldest professional ballpark, Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The ballpark was the former home to the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons. As part of the promotion, Topps and Fanatics are unveiling a special series of collectible trading cards featuring several Negro Leagues legends.

The custom trading cards will feature Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Willie Mays, Larry Doby and Monte Irvin. Mays played for the Black Barons and the game is nod to him given he is the greatest surviving Negro Leagues’ player.

"I can’t believe it. I never thought I’d see in my lifetime a Major League Baseball game being played on the very field where I played baseball as a teenager," Mays said to MLB.com. "It has been 75 years since I played for the Birmingham Black Barons at Rickwood Field, and to learn that my Giants and the Cardinals will play a game there and honor the legacy of the Negro Leagues and all those who came before them is really emotional for me. We can’t forget what got us here and that was the Negro Leagues for so many of us…"