The Road to Rickwood

BY MICHAEL LORTZ

On June 20^th 2024, the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants played a regular season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. It was the first Major League game ever played at Rickwood Field and continued Major League Baseball’s growing tradition to play games at special locations. In 2016, the Marlins and Braves played at Fort Bragg, North Carolina and in 2021, the Yankees and the White Sox squared off at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.

While the game at Fort Bragg was a tribute to the military and the game in Iowa was a tribute to baseball fiction and mythology, the game at Rickwood was a tribute to the Negro Leagues and African-American baseball history. Many teams through the years have hosted their own local Negro League Night, commemorating their local Negro League residents or teams, but the game at Rickwood was Major League Baseball’s night to celebrate Black Baseball.

In the month leading up the game at Rickwood Field, Major League Baseball collaborated with National Public Radio (NPR) and Birmingham-raised comedian/actor Roy Wood, Jr. to create an episodic podcast called “Road to Rickwood”. The four 50-minute episodes of Road to Rickwood led listeners through Rickwood Field’s history, its cultural impact in Alabama and in the Negro Leagues, the stories of legends who took the field at Rickwood, and the current standing of African-Americans in baseball.

https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510382/the-road-to-rickwood

BallNine correspondent Michael Lortz had the pleasure of asking Road to Rickwood Creator and Executive Producer Alana Schreiber several questions about the podcast.

BallNine: First and foremost, how did the idea of Road to Rickwood come about?

Alana: The idea was inspired by my lifelong fascination with the Negro Leagues. I trace it all back to fourth grade, when my sister first asked my dad who the second Black player in baseball was. Until that point, I hadn’t really thought about the “before or after” to Jackie Robinson, it was just one isolated story.

After my dad explained to us the story of Larry Doby integrating the American League, I remember my mom telling me all about Buck O’Neil, the legendary Kansas City Monarchs player and later, first Black manager in the MLB. She told me how even though he didn’t make it into the Hall of Fame, he was so grateful that other former Negro Leaguers did. I had never thought about what it might be like for your league to somehow be more important than your own personal career.

When I became a journalist my fascination with Negro League baseball remained, and I would continue to find Negro League stories and connections from wherever I reported. I first learned about Rickwood Field from Sarah Langs, the incredible MLB writer and researcher, when I was editing her podcast about a year ago. She told me that MLB was set to host a game at a former Negro League stadium and I immediately had to look into it.

One Wikipedia search showed me so much. I had no idea the oldest baseball stadium in the country was in Birmingham, Alabama – just 5 hours from my home in New Orleans! I learned that Rickwood Field hosted everything from a women’s suffrage rally to a Klan rally, segregated baseball, and later the first integrated sports team and Alabama. The field was a space where the Black community often went straight from church every Sunday to watch in pride as their Black Barons took the field, but also where the ardent segregationist Bull Connor got his start as a stadium announcer. And not to mention all the legends that came through to play at Rickwood, like Shoeless Joe, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Reggie Jackson and so many more.

It became clear that Rickwood Field was full of paradoxes, and that its role in American history is about so much more than baseball. I quickly read two books on Rickwood, dug interviews at the Birmingham Public Library archives, had countless conversations with members of the Friends of Rickwood Field organization about the intimate details of the park and the stories it housed.

BallNine: What was the timeline of bringing it to life?

Alana: I had the idea sometime around last July, so it’s been about a year since then. I gave MLB a soft pitch of the idea last September and had a meeting in November. Once we got MLB and NPR on board by early January, we quickly assembled a team. I recruited three producers, two based in New York and one in Birmingham. Us non-Birminghamians spent almost two weeks in Birmingham in late February and early March conducting interviews. I went back to Birmingham two weeks later to do some follow-ups.

By March we were writing episodes, by April we were editing, and by late May they were coming out! It was a very quick turnaround and I’m so grateful for everyone who helped in getting this done.

BallNine: Who put the show together? Was it MLB, the local NPR stations, or a combined effort?

Alana: This involved a lot of different organizations coming together. Before the project, I was (and am) working full time as a radio producer for an NPR station in New Orleans. I knew some folks in the MLB podcast world because I had also started working part-time as a podcast editor for their show, Ballpark Dimensions with Mandy Bell and Sarah Langs.

When I first approached MLB about this idea, they were hesitant. They had never worked on a narrative podcast before and weren’t sure they had the guidelines in place to do that. When I suggested partnering with my NPR station, they were interested. By working together, we were able to expand our audiences. NPR could bring in folks who love podcasts and history, but maybe never considered a sports podcast before. And MLB, of course, could bring in baseball fans.

I think we found that there is more overlap than maybe we originally thought. After all, NPR listeners just love good stories, and baseball has no shortage of those.

BallNine: How did Roy Wood Jr join the project?

Alana: I knew I wanted Roy to host this project about 5 seconds after I had the idea for it. I knew he was from Alabama and a big baseball fan. I remembered him talking about the 2016 Cubs on the Daily Show and how he left work to go to game 7! Also, having listened to his podcast on the 2016 World Series, I love how he talked about baseball in such an engaging and hilarious way.

The only problem? How do I get in touch with a famous person? After I had a meeting at MLB offices in November where they told me that they felt unsure about working on this kind of a project, I was sitting across the street from the Manhattan office at a coffee shop when I had an idea. My old friend from childhood Jasper Davies knew Roy! Or at least, his dad Eric did, because he was a writer on the Daily Show. I texted Jasper and told him my idea. He immediately called his dad, who then reached out to me and said he’d pass this along to Roy.

By the time I got to LaGuardia Airport that night I had a text from Eric saying “Roy’s in.” This felt like the Michael Jordan “I’m back” moment, but on a much smaller scale haha. But I jumped up and down and couldn’t remember the last time I was so happy and giddy at an airport.

Roy and I spoke the next day. Then when I reached back out to MLB and told them Roy was game, I had their attention. To be clear, I don’t blame them for their initial hesitation, but I am forever grateful to Roy for believing in this project from the start.

BallNine: Did Roy Wood Jr do the interviews or were they done by local reporters?

Alana: It was a combination. Roy was with our production team in Birmingham for two days where he interviewed some former Negro Leaguers like Rev. Bill Greason, Al Holt and Chico Rutledge. He also interviewed Piper Davis’ daughter Faye, Rick Woodward’s grandsons Bob and Rick Woodward III, and a handful of others. The second time I came to Birmingham with Roy he did a few more interviews like Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Willie Mays’ son Michael.

When we didn’t have Roy our production team did the interviews. And we were pretty happy to interview some former players from the 1964 Barons team like Bert Campaneris and Blue Moon Odom. We also did a lot of the interviews that had to be done over zoom with guests from far away, like with baseball writer Shakeia Taylor, former manager Jerry Manuel, and director Ron Shelton. All in all it was a joint effort.

BallNine: How long did it take to get all the interviews?

Alana: We definitely crammed a lot into that two-week period in Birmingham and left with probably over 40 interviews. But in the following weeks we continued to add on, especially when it came to our fourth episode, which is less historical and focuses more on the state of baseball in the Black community today. So interviews spanned over about two months, but crunch time was early March.

We were able to get in contact with so many people for these interviews mainly thanks to two people: Dr. Layton Revel and Art Black. Dr. Revel runs the Southern Negro Leagues Museum in Birmingham and graciously provided me contact info with plenty of former Negro Leaguers. Art Black is a member of Friends of Rickwood Field and author of three books on the ballpark (all of which he mailed to me for free). He tracked down people connected to this park from all across the country who were willing to speak with us for this project.

BallNine: One of my favorite parts of the show was Roy Wood Jr’s intimate knowledge of Birmingham. Was he the first pick and did you know he had a Birmingham background when he started?

Alana: Yes! As I mentioned before, one of the main reasons I wanted Roy to host it is because I knew he was from Birmingham. But I also knew he was someone who hasn’t forgotten his roots and still cares deeply for his home state. I remembered an episode of the Daily Show when he went to Alabama and highlighted all the great parts about his state while the other correspondents made fun of it. His instagram bio says “BURY ME IN ALABAMA.” And almost everyone we met in Alabama knows him. He is still a big part of that community and was amazing to see how many of our interviewees are so proud of him and all he’s accomplished.

BallNine: As Creator and Executive Producer, what was your role in making the show happen?

Alana: This project definitely took a lot of work from a lot of people, but I was lucky enough to have the good idea to get us going! A lot of my job involved researching, connecting with interviewees, scheduling the trips to Birmingham, writing the interview scripts and conducting the interviews. But when it came to writing the episodes and coming up with a narrative story, that was a joint effort by all of the producers, Ben Dickstein, Jonah Buchanan and Cody Short.

This was a bit daunting to me at first because the longest narrative audio piece I’d ever worked on was only 10 minutes. But Ben and Jonah came in with a bunch of narrative podcast experience and deep love of sports storytelling. So I certainly learned a lot from them. And Cody, as a Birmingham native, was able to provide more context and insight into the setting of our story.

I also worked a lot on the marketing and distribution front, helping pitch this podcast to other NPR stations to air throughout the summer and coordinate cross-promotional interviews with outlets like ESPN.

BallNine: How is the storyline for a podcast like Road to Rickwood put together?

Alana: I had always envisioned four really packed episodes. In a coffee shop outside of Birmingham, Ben, Jonah and I came up with an outline to take listeners from the late 1800s up until today. We agreed to focus the first episode on the origins of the city of Birmingham and baseball in Alabama. The second episode picks up with the heyday of Black baseball in Birmingham and the rise of a high school star named Willie Mays, while ultimately ending with the collapse of the Negro Leagues and the outlawing of integrated sports in Alabama. The third episode, for which I was the head writer, begins the early 60s era of fear and violence throughout the city, and explores how baseball was used as an attempt at desegregation and restoring hope. The fourth episode begins by wrapping up some of the baseball history at Rickwood (how and why the team moved) but largely focuses on why interest in baseball has declined in the Black community and examines the efforts to change that.

We wanted to make sure we told this story in a way that was never too heavy on baseball or too heavy on history. Instead the two were woven together, because as we found, they’re inextricably linked.

BallNine: Were there any topics or discussions you wanted to have in the show that didn’t make it?

Alana: Oh my gosh there were so many gems on the cutting room floor! While I’m ultimately satisfied with the discussions and themes, there are definitely some anecdotes I wish had found a home. Here are a few:

Dick Sipek, one of a few deaf players to play professionally, played for the Barons. He actually played a game against one-handed Pete Grey of Memphis, which was likely the first time two players with different disabilities faced off in a professional game.

Famous Yankees announcer Mel Allen got his start calling football games (that’s right, football) at Rickwood. He would actually receive Morse code with information about the plays while sitting in a gymnasium miles away and announce that on the air. He would come back to Rickwood for “Mel Allen” days.

During a schizophrenic episode, Jim Piersall climbed the scoreboard and squirted a water gun at fans.

When the stadium was being refurbished in the 80s, some seats from the Polo Grounds that were lying around were sent to Rickwood. So Rickwood has a piece of Polo Ground history.

And my absolute favorite: when director Ron Shelter was filming the movie Cobb at Rickwood, he knew he could only have white people to play extras in the stands in order to be historically accurate about the segregated crowds during the time Ty Cobb played baseball. But this was the 90s in Birmingham and he wasn’t about to go around posting flyers looking for “Whites only” to play extras. So he got his friend Jimmy Buffett to agree to play a concert at Rickwood, knowing it would bring in all the White people. It worked! And when they showed up, he asked them to do some shots pretending to be watching a baseball game before the concert began. Crazy plan, but perfect execution.

BallNine: Had you visited Rickwood Field prior to the podcast?

Alana: Yes! Last summer, when the podcast was nothing but an idea, I was driving with my friends back from a frisbee tournament in Huntsville, Alabama. We were passing through Birmingham so I begged them to take a quick detour to Rickwood. They obliged and we drove by the stadium. I looked out and basically declared “I will make a podcast about you!” Glad it worked.

BallNine: Did you go to the MLB game last month? Thoughts on the game?

Alana: I was lucky enough to be able to attend and it was an extremely meaningful experience. But before we get to the Major League game, I should tell you about the minor league [game] two nights earlier.

I was actually there with my parents, and when I went to say hi to Gerald Watkins, president of the Rickwood Field organization, he told me that Willie Mays had just passed away. The news was devastating. I went to tell my parents, and not long after, the announcer came on to let everyone know of Mays’ death. I looked to mom, who started crying, and then to my dad, who also teared up. And then I looked at everyone around me, who was standing, applauding and crying.

They played a montage on the scoreboard of Mays’ life and career highlights while fans chanted “Willie.” As sad as the news was, it was very meaningful to hear about it at Rickwood Field, the place where Mays got his career start. We could look out into center field and imagine him standing there as a 17-year-old kid on the brink of the most incredible career.

Of course, that changed the tone a bit for the game two nights later. But in many ways, his death reminded people of how Rickwood Field has touched the lives of so many. I spent the hours leading up to the game on the field, and I’ll never forget as I headed out through the tunnel, I bumped into a sea of Negro Leaguers. Many were beaming, wearing new jerseys with their names sewn on the back and their old team logos patched into their sleeves. It was an incredible moment.

BallNine: I thought Reggie Jackson’s interview before the TV broadcast were similar to his comments and discussion on the podcast. What did you think about his comments on national television?

Alana: When Reggie Jackson first came to Birmingham in the late 60s, the city was proud of how far they’d come since the days of outright violence and racism. They celebrated the end of an era of bombings. But “bombings” is a pretty low bar and segregation was still rampant. It was especially shocking to Jackson as a college kid from Philadelphia.

So when Jackson showed up, he was admittedly scared. He wasn’t let into restaurants, he couldn’t find places to live, and was forced to sleep on teammates couches.

I think it was important for him to express how dark and difficult Birmingham was for him in the 60s. The game at Rickwood was meant to be a celebration of the Negro League Baseball players and the icons who took the field, but that doesn’t mean every memory of the players is a good one. I’m glad he was given the platform to speak honestly about his experiences and acknowledge that being back at Rickwood was triggering for him.

Reggie Jackson also came to play baseball in Birmingham at a time when the Jackie Robinson model of “Don’t Fight Back” was still imposed on Black players. But that’s not who Reggie Jackson was. He’s always stood up against racism and the stifling expectations placed on Black athletes.

BallNine: What was your favorite interview of Road to Rickwood?

Oh man there are just so many to choose from! One that stands out is Reverend Bill Greason. He’s now the last surviving member of the legendary 1948 Birmingham Black Barons. He was also the first Black pitcher signed to the Cardinals, he grew up across the street from Dr. Martin Luther King, he served in WWII in the battle of Iwo Jima, attended the 16th Street Baptist Church, and has been a Reverend for over 50 years! His stories were innumerable and I think it’s time Hollywood steps in with a movie already.

Another one that really sticks out is Blue Moon Odom. He talked to us remotely from California, but was such an incredible story teller. He told us about joining the first integrated sports team in Alabama with the largest signing bonus in history, but how Black and white players still couldn’t stay together when they traveled. He told us about the time he was denied service at a restaurant and demanded that no one else on the team eat there. This was during the time that many Black athletes, specifically in the South were instructed to be like Jackie Robinson and “not fight back.” But Odom did fight ways to fight back, and often his teammates seemed to respect him for it.

A final one I will mention is Faye Davis, the daughter of Piper Davis, because that was the first one we did with Roy. She was a little apprehensive about speaking with us, but she welcomed us into her home and Roy put her right at ease. I loved watching the two of them riff and how he was able to draw these amazing stories out of her. Plus her home was filled with really cool baseball memorabilia from her father’s days.

BallNine: What were you most surprised to learn in making Road to Rickwood?

Alana: One thing I found really interesting is that Negro Leaguers had varying opinions as the MLB game at Rickwood approached. Some were incredibly touched that the Negro Leagues were finally getting more of the recognition they deserved, and they were honored to be a part of that history. Others felt like it was too late and too many teammates have passed away for this to be meaningful. Recognizing the differences in opinions was very important, and I hope that’s something that came across in our final episode of the podcast.

BallNine: So what’s next for you? Any upcoming baseball-themed projects?

Alana: Oh man I hope so! I’m always bursting at the seams with baseball ideas. I’d love to do a project exploring the history of baseball players with disabilities. I recently read a book on the history of deaf baseball players and their contributions to the ways signing is incorporated into the game and there seems to be so much more to explore. Did you know that in 1901 the New York Giants had three deaf pitchers? I’d love to explore what it is about baseball that makes it more disability-friendly than other sports.

I’d also be interested to explore more about baseball in Latin American and the Caribbean, specifically the history of non-White men playing there. Plenty of Negro Leaguers spent winters there, with many saying they were treated much better in places like Venezuela and Cuba than in the United States. Bill Greason actually played in Cuba, and said he was on the field when the revolution was announced. He said his Cuban teammates grabbed their guns and started shooting into the sky…and he walked back to the dugout.

And there were even women’s teams that played in Cuba – so maybe what I really need is a trip to Cuba!