Alabama A&M trio scores big at Rickwood Field tribute

BIRMINGHAM — Three Alabama A&M University students recently hit home runs in the world of sports marketing.

Senior Amirah Ali, MBA student Nevell Brown, and May 2024 graduate Jenee Whitt took center stage in Major League Baseball’s inaugural Marketing Bootcamp. Their mission: Promote the league’s inaugural tribute game to the Negro Leagues, held at the legendary Rickwood Field in Birmingham.

Last month’s historic event saw the St. Louis Cardinals defeat the San Francisco Giants, honoring the rich legacy of the Negro Leagues and celebrating, at its planning, its greatest living player, Birmingham native Willie Mays. The tribute carried a poignant note, as Mays passed away just two days before the game.

Rickwood Field, the oldest professional ballpark in America and former home of the Birmingham Black Barons, provided the perfect backdrop for this groundbreaking event. Ali, Brown, and Whitt discovered the bootcamp opportunity through AAMU’s Career Development Services.

The trio engaged in virtual brainstorming sessions with their MLB Marketing Department and Bootcamp mentors, Kaelan Ashford-Jones and Steven Tyler, crafting creative strategies to spotlight the Tribute Game.

When game day arrived, they joined their mentors on the ground at Rickwood Field. While they worked, the students also attended the unveiling of the Willie Mays Mural and the Celebrity Softball Game.

The highly anticipated game drew a television audience of 2.5 million viewers, marking the highest viewership for a Thursday night baseball game since 2022. One of the broadcast’s highlights included a special black-and-white segment, transporting viewers back to 1954, complete with period-accurate ball and strike counts and authentic sound.

The game itself was a thrilling contest. The Cardinals jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, only for the Giants to tie it in the second. The Cardinals then surged ahead, securing a 5-3 lead and ultimately winning 6-5.

Reflecting on the experience, all three students described it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I gained so much knowledge on the execution portion of an event of this caliber,” said Ali. “We spent months discussing the lead-up for activation ideas and the strategy behind the event as a whole.

“Seeing those activations and ballpark elements come to life was remarkable.  We learned ways to better engage fans, met the people and organizations partnering with MLB, and the ‘why’ behind game-day elements.”