From the well-aged visitors dugout, Christian Hernandez looked around with a gleam at the hallowed relic that is Rickwood Field.
About a half-hour before Wednesday’s game, the Blue Wahoos infielder reflected with excitement on the chance to play in the annual Rickwood Game against Birmingham with both teams wearing throwback uniforms with alter identity as former Negro League teams from their two cities.
“I’m thankful to be able to see and play in a stadium with such a tradition and history,” said Hernandez, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, speaking with Blue Wahoos team photographer Nino Mendez as translator. “It reflects on the past times and how it has transformed to now.
“It is a unique experience that I can share with fans who traveled here and myself being able to play here.”
Hernandez and the rest of his teammates in the starting lineup quickly created personal memories.
Playing as the Pensacola Seagulls, the Blue Wahoos made May 27, 2026 an indelible moment in franchise history. They played this game against the Birmingham Black Barons unlike any in team archives. It was as if they played here a 100 times.
The final box score was astounding.
A record 23 runs scored. A record 26 hits produced. A record seven home runs hit, including a grand slam by first baseman Jay Beshears that headlined an 8-run fifth inning in the Blue Wahoos 23-4 victory before a crowd of 4,248.
Part of the crowd included 75 Pensacola season-ticket holders, gameday staff and Blue Wahoos front office members, who drove that morning to visit Rickwood Field – the oldest existing ballpark in America – and experience its 116-year-old charm.
“It’s really special,” said Blue Wahoos manager Nelson Prada, who grew up in Venezuela and has traveled the globe as a baseball guy. “Not everybody has the opportunity to play here.”
Before the game, Prada had studied up on Rickwood’s history and knew Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig had played at Rickwood before the World War II era, then Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron – a Mobile native -- and Willie Mays, who grew up less than two miles away from the ballpark, were part of legends in former Negro Leagues who played at Rickwood.
“You walk in here and realize those guys were exactly in this dugout,” Prada said before the game. “You can see things here that were the same since back in 1910 when it opened. It is really cool.”
In a special moment, team members from the former Negro American League, the most renown and talent-filled part of the Negro Leagues, were honored. This included members from the Birmingham Black Barons, the Kansas City Monarchs, the Memphis Red Sox and other teams receiving applause during pregame activities.
Major League Baseball, which helped refurbish Rickwood Field in 2023, was represented with executives as well, including Ronnie Richardson, regional supervisor of MLB, who sat in the stands.
“The field is in really good shape, but you knew they were going to get this just right,” said Prada, referring to the annual event at Rickwood. “But everything around is old. It is back in time.
“You are looking at a manual box score (scoreboard display) You don’t know how many pitches a guy has thrown, you have to go to the (hand-held) clicker. You don’t know how fast they are throwing, because there is no radar. So it’s going to be different.”
The game itself became one-sided real quick. In the first inning, the Blue Wahoos’ Brendan Jones led off the game with a walk, then stole second and third. Aiva Arquette, the Miami Marlins No. 1 draft pick in 2025, playing in only his second Double-A level game, then signaled home the first of the 23 runs.
Arquette then stole second and scored on the first of Fenwick Trimble’s five hits. Arquette has collected four hits and three RBI in his first two games with the Blue Wahoos.
In Wednesday’s game, Trimble went 5-for-6 with three RBI and four runs scored, tying a franchise record for most hits in a game.
Hernandez then delivered a two-out single. He went 3-for-6 in the game.
The Blue Wahoos then went on a home-run binge the rest of the game to ignite big innings and inflate the score. Their previous team record for most runs was 22, ironically set against Birmingham in a May 11. 2023 game at Regions Field, where the rest of this week’s series will be played.
The previous, single-game hit record was 22, set on April 21, 2014 in a game at Jacksonville. The Blue Wahoos ecliplsed the single-game home run record of six, which was set last year at Chattanooga.
“It is a different experience being here,” said Blue Wahoos reliever Luis Moreno. a San Cristobal, Dominican Republic native, speaking through Nino Mendez. “What’s special is to be able to share this experience here with not only my teammates but the other team and family.
“We are going to enjoy this with a new generation.”