The life of George Hamilton: One person behind Rickwood Fields industrial league teams
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Rickwood Field's long baseball history is not just about the Birmingham Barons and the Birmingham Black Barons.
In the same era when those teams were drawing thousands of people to each game, other teams were calling "America's oldest ballpark" home.
Those teams were part of the Industrial Leagues. George Hamilton, one of the team's players, spent a decade of his life playing in the league all across Alabama.
"In the 40s and 50s, there were probably six to eight leagues with six to eight teams in Birmingham," Hamilton said.
Hamilton's career began in 1941, when he first picked up his glove to play for the city of Irondale.
His playing days were interrupted, however, after he joined the Navy from 1943 to 1945 as a radar man during World War II.
"They put me in the Aleutian Islands and forgot about me," Hamilton said.
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After the war, he'd return to Alabama and the baseball diamond, earning an invitation in 1947 to join spring training with the Class "D" Brewton Millers, a farm team for the Washington Senators.
Hamilton says during this time, he and several of his teammates lived in a nearby funeral home, oftentimes using a hearse to get to the field on game days.
His time with the team would end after he asked and was granted a release following his wife's illness. That's when he got a job with Birmingham Slag, which led to his first games in The Industrial Leagues, held at Rickwood Field.
"Nobody can get me out at Rickwood," he said, "I just loved to hit out there."
Over the next few years, Hamilton would play against major league teams who would come through on what was called "barnstorming tours."
These tours would also include former Baron player and Red Sox legend Walt Dropo.
"He hit a ball to left field for a double," Hamilton said, remembering one game they played together. "I caught it and turned around, and all I could see was that foot sticking out. That man had the biggest foot you ever saw."
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When he wasn't playing, Hamilton was still at Rickwood Field, watching the Barons and Black Barons. In 1948, he was there seeing a then-17-year-old rookie named Willie Mays.
"The best," he said. "He could cover more ground in the outfield than anybody I ever saw, and he was a good hitter."
Due to segregation laws at the time, Hamilton never got the chance to play with Mays. However, he says his earliest memories include playing with several kids, some white and some black.
"We were friends. We were buddies," he said. "That gave me a different view on segregation than most people would get."
As his baseball career continued, Hamilton would go on to play for teams in Trussville, Fairview, Leeds, and a team considered the "powerhouse" of the Industrial Leagues, the Alabama Cast Iron Pipe.
In 1950, he got one more minor league season under his belt, playing with the Opelika Owls.
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And while he'd call it a career in 1956, Hamilton would continue to play and coach recreationally. This, leading to a new love, for the game of softball.
"I was affiliated with baseball or softball, one of the two sports or both, for nine decades," he said. "I managed a team. When I was 93, I gave it up."
Off the field, Hamilton would continue working on several mission trips to Nicaragua, holding a unique record as part of those trips.
"When I was 93, I went on a 14-step zip line down there," Hamilton said. "No one older than me has ever done it."
Hamilton died earlier this year at 102. He's survived by three children, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
"The Lord blesses me every day," he previously told 米兰体育 13.
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