ST. LOUIS – Baseball fans will have the opportunity to see a giant baseball card of Satchel Paige this weekend at Busch Stadium, a tribute to the Negro Leagues ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals game at Rickwood Field next month.

The baseball card is 24 feet tall, 16 feet wide, and 8,000 pounds. It’s one of six traveling trading cards that will tour the country leading up to next month’s Rickwood Field game.

Rickwood Field is America’s oldest-standing professional ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama. It was the former home of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons.

The Cardinals will host the San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field on June 20. The matchup will serve as a tribute to the Negro Leagues and its greatest living player, Willie Mays, who spent a few seasons with the Barons before his Hall-of-Fame MLB career with the Giants.

Cardinals have one empty rotation spot. What are their options?

The game, which comes one night after Juneteenth, will include a variety of activities that connect baseball with the observance, also celebrating the impact of the Negro Leagues and accomplishments of Black baseball players.

As for the giant Satchel Paige baseball card, it will be placed near the northwest entrance of Busch Stadium outside the main Cardinals team store on Friday. By 4:30 p.m., fans will have opportunities to take photos of and with the giant baseball card.

Paige is widely considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pitcher in Negro Leagues history. He pitched in parts of six Major League Baseball seasons after his run in the Negro Leagues, including three seasons with the St. Louis Browns from 1951-1953.

The six traveling trading cards are part of Topps’ “MLB at Rickwood Negro League Collection”, a six-card collection featuring Negro Leagues icons Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Larry Doby and Monte Irvin.

Close

Thanks for signing up!

Watch for us in your inbox.

Subscribe Now

Cardinals (Seasonal)

Former MLB player Micah Johnson sketched the player portraits that will appear on the cards, using only his fingers, charcoal sticks, an eraser, and a paint roller to bring the trading cards to life.

Baseball cards that are copies of the giant baseball cards are now available on Topps.com.

The Rickwood Field Game will be broadcast on FOX 2 at 7 p.m. CT. For more information on the game and events, click here.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 2.