BIRMINGHAM, Ala.  Mitch Earnest, an 18-year-old catcher from Decatur, Ga., was reaching for his bat to go out on deck at Rickwood Field when he was told Babe Ruth also reached for his bat in this same place during an exhibition game. Earnest paused for a moment to consider his next at-bat.

“I hit from the right side,” said Earnest, who was playing in a wood-bat tournament at the park. “Maybe I need to get in there lefty just so I can say I stood where Babe Ruth stood.”

Earnest does not have to explain his reverence. After all, lawyers from Chicago flew here one weekend and rented the field for a game. It is why Rickwood Field, which will be 100 years old on Wednesday, has been able to escape a wrecking ball and become a shrine as America’s oldest baseball park.

There is nothing that moves the thrill meter for a baseball fan the way walking the path trod by baseball gods does. Dizzy Dean pitched in Rickwood. Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron played there. Satchel Paige twirled from the mound.