Road to Rickwood: The Holy Grail of Baseball

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2024

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Birmingham, Alabama was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of the Civil Rights Movement. And in order to understand the struggle, you don't have to look any further than Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball stadium in the country. Over more than a century it's hosted Negro League baseball, a women's suffrage event, a Klan rally — and eventually, the first integrated sports team in Alabama.

Today on the show, we're joined by host Roy Wood, Jr., to bring you the first episode of Road to Rickwood, an original series from WWNO, WRKF, and NPR telling the story of America's oldest ballpark.

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On the inheriting podcast if you ask a Filipino American or Asian American who is Patrick
0:05.4	Salver they have no clue Pat Salver was a Filipino civil rights hero but his activism
0:12.1	came at a cost.
0:13.6	The FBI labeled me as a troublemaker.
0:16.8	Now his niece unearth's his legacy.
0:19.4	Listen to inheriting from LA's studios
0:21.6	and the NPR network network wherever you get your
0:23.8	podcasts. I'm Ram Tin Abh Louie. I'm a co-host of Thuleine from NPR.
0:29.6	And I'm Rundtte, and I'm the other co-host of Thru Line from NPR and Roy can you introduce yourself?
0:37.0	My name is Roy Wood Jr. I am a comedian and television writer.
0:42.0	Am I a television?
0:43.0	Yeah.
0:44.0	Yeah.
0:45.0	Yeah. And I'm from Birmingham Alabama.
0:47.0	I'm also the host of Road to Rickwood, a four-part NPR series about the story of America's oldest ballpark,
0:56.4	Rick Woodfield in Birmingham, Alabama, and the ties that this park has not only to
1:02.1	civil rights, but also to
1:04.4	baseball, Major League Baseball as a whole.
1:07.0	I gotta tell you, I, on the one hand growing up, found baseball incredibly boring my dad is an immigrant and he
1:15.7	would always put it on he'd have the Yankees games on yeah currently a Mets fan
1:19.7	oh well you all are doing okay right yeah Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.
1:22.7	It's actually a good year.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.