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Rickwood Field: A Century in America's Oldest Ballpark
Those fortunate fans who attended Opening Day on August 18, 1910 could not have had the slightest inkling that their brand new stadium would one day be the oldest active professional ballpark in America. Nor could they have possibly imagined how dramatically baseball would transform itself over the course of a century. Back then there were no high-powered agents, no steroids dominating the sports headlines, no gleaming, billion-dollar stadiums with corporate sky boxes that lit up the neon sky. There was only the wood and the raw hide, the mitt and the cap, and the game as it was played a few miles from downtown Birmingham, Alabama.
Allen Barra has journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling Rickwood Field’s history, he also tells of segregated baseball and the legendary Negro Leagues while summoning the ghosts of the players themselves —Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Ted Willians, and Willie Mays — who still haunt baseball’s oldest Cathedral. But Rickwood Field, a place where the Ku Klux Klan once held rallies, has now become a symbol of hope and triumph, a stadium that reflects the evolution of a city where baseball was, for decades, virtually the sole connecting point between blacks and whites.
While other fabled stadiums have yielded to the wrecker’s ball, baseball’s Garden of Eden seems increasingly invulnerable to the ravages of time. Indeed, the manually operated scoreboard still uses numbers painted on metal sheets, and on the right field wall, the Burma Shave sign hangs just as it did when the legendary Black Barons called the stadium their own. Not surprisingly, there is no slick or artificial turf here, only grass – and it’s been trodden by the cleats of greats from Shoeless Joe Jackson to Reggie Jackson. Drawing on extensive interviews, best-selling author Barra evokes a southern city once rife with racial tension where a tattered ballpark was, and resplendently still is, a rare beacon of hope. Both a relic of America’s past and a guidepost for baseball’s future, Rickwood Field follows the evolution of a nation and its pastime through our country’s oldest active ballpark.
Allen Barra has journeyed to his native Alabama to capture the glories of a century of baseball lore. In chronicling Rickwood Field’s history, he also tells of segregated baseball and the legendary Negro Leagues while summoning the ghosts of the players themselves —Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Babe Ruth, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Ted Willians, and Willie Mays — who still haunt baseball’s oldest Cathedral. But Rickwood Field, a place where the Ku Klux Klan once held rallies, has now become a symbol of hope and triumph, a stadium that reflects the evolution of a city where baseball was, for decades, virtually the sole connecting point between blacks and whites.
While other fabled stadiums have yielded to the wrecker’s ball, baseball’s Garden of Eden seems increasingly invulnerable to the ravages of time. Indeed, the manually operated scoreboard still uses numbers painted on metal sheets, and on the right field wall, the Burma Shave sign hangs just as it did when the legendary Black Barons called the stadium their own. Not surprisingly, there is no slick or artificial turf here, only grass – and it’s been trodden by the cleats of greats from Shoeless Joe Jackson to Reggie Jackson. Drawing on extensive interviews, best-selling author Barra evokes a southern city once rife with racial tension where a tattered ballpark was, and resplendently still is, a rare beacon of hope. Both a relic of America’s past and a guidepost for baseball’s future, Rickwood Field follows the evolution of a nation and its pastime through our country’s oldest active ballpark.
367 pages, Hardcover
First published June 29, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 30, 2019
"It was vivid and green in a particular hue, and it shows up in my dreams periodically." - Courtney Haden
This book is like coming home from church, eating fried chicken and potato salad, and strolling into the ballpark just in time for the first pitch on a lazy summer afternoon from the glory days of the national pastime. It’s time travel in 300 or so pages, taking the reader back to a simpler time when the game was still in its purest form, where legends played for the love of the game and where fans didn’t need constant entertainment between innings, walk-up songs for every hitter, and bobble-head giveaways to come out to the stadium.
With rich Alabama history woven into the fabric of the story, “Rickwood Field” is a page turner that is a worthy read for any baseball fan of the golden era and for those who enjoy traveling to visit unique or historical baseball stadiums across the country. With cameo appearances from the likes of icons such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Connie Mack, Mickey Mantle, and even Bear Bryant, this is a must-read book.
Even when you reach the end of the chapters, you’ll be delighted to read some nostalgic vignettes about Rickwood Field in the “Voices of Rickwood” appendix and hear from writers and former players such as Bob Veale, Jim Bouton, Ron Shelton, Jim Piersall, Alf Van Hoose, Walt Dropo, Ernie Banks, and Rollie Fingers. There’s also a “This is a Ballpark” appendix with biographical sketches of other classic stadiums from across the country, most of which also thrived during the glory days of Rickwood Field.
These pages will make you miss an era of sport that most readers never had the opportunity to live through.
This book is like coming home from church, eating fried chicken and potato salad, and strolling into the ballpark just in time for the first pitch on a lazy summer afternoon from the glory days of the national pastime. It’s time travel in 300 or so pages, taking the reader back to a simpler time when the game was still in its purest form, where legends played for the love of the game and where fans didn’t need constant entertainment between innings, walk-up songs for every hitter, and bobble-head giveaways to come out to the stadium.
With rich Alabama history woven into the fabric of the story, “Rickwood Field” is a page turner that is a worthy read for any baseball fan of the golden era and for those who enjoy traveling to visit unique or historical baseball stadiums across the country. With cameo appearances from the likes of icons such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Dizzy Dean, Satchel Paige, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Connie Mack, Mickey Mantle, and even Bear Bryant, this is a must-read book.
Even when you reach the end of the chapters, you’ll be delighted to read some nostalgic vignettes about Rickwood Field in the “Voices of Rickwood” appendix and hear from writers and former players such as Bob Veale, Jim Bouton, Ron Shelton, Jim Piersall, Alf Van Hoose, Walt Dropo, Ernie Banks, and Rollie Fingers. There’s also a “This is a Ballpark” appendix with biographical sketches of other classic stadiums from across the country, most of which also thrived during the glory days of Rickwood Field.
These pages will make you miss an era of sport that most readers never had the opportunity to live through.
October 11, 2020
Great history of the oldest ballpark in America. It is still there and still looks the same. I loved reading about the Black Barons and all the big name future MLB players that played there. The personal stories and remembrances at the end were the best part.
November 16, 2017
Really great story about a park in Alabama. So much history with players from Babe Ruth to Satchel Page to Frank Thomas playing here.
December 12, 2017
Enjoyable history of a baseball park in the deep south.
February 1, 2011
Rickwood Field is not only a history of the oldest ballpark in America, but it is a history of Birmingham, Alabama, and of baseball in the South. The story surrounding the baseball diamond housed within Rickwood Field is told on and off the field, and is drawn from the hearts and memories of the people that cheered there, played there, and lived there. Paramount throughout the story is the tragic history of segregation within baseball, the stories of the Birmingham Barons, the team that played at Rickwood Field, and their mirror image, the Black Barons of the Negro League. So many baseball legends passed through Rickwood Field that it is hard to keep track, but Allen Barra weaves their legacy into the fabric of the field.
Not only does Allen Barra present a memoir of the ballpark, but in the appendices, he allows those who knew Rickwood tell their story, unedited and unfiltered. Willy Mays and Rollie Fingers, and other greats on and off the diamond relate their memories of Rickwood.
In all, this is an excellent history of baseball in America, as told by Rickwood Field.
Today the ballpark is actively being restored and preserved for all who wish to see it and partake of the history that lingers over the grass and dirt of Rickwood.
Not only does Allen Barra present a memoir of the ballpark, but in the appendices, he allows those who knew Rickwood tell their story, unedited and unfiltered. Willy Mays and Rollie Fingers, and other greats on and off the diamond relate their memories of Rickwood.
In all, this is an excellent history of baseball in America, as told by Rickwood Field.
Today the ballpark is actively being restored and preserved for all who wish to see it and partake of the history that lingers over the grass and dirt of Rickwood.
March 30, 2012
This is a story worth hearing, written well by the standards of pop history. It's about baseball, of course, but you can't really tell the story of anything in Birmingham, much less baseball, without some significant insights into the history of race in America. As a fifteen-year resident of Birmingham who's already read the two small-press histories of Rickwood previously published, I won't say I learned much from this one, but I still enjoyed the ride through the main text, and I found the oral histories collected in the appendices wonderfully fun.
July 27, 2013
A great history of Rickwood Field. I would have like more information on the Birmingham A's, but that's a small complaint. A great history of the park and baseball's place in Birmingham in the first half of the 20th Century.
Little known fact: Coach Bryant actually played some minor league baseball along with Don Hutson
Little known fact: Coach Bryant actually played some minor league baseball along with Don Hutson
June 7, 2011
Very good coverage of the early history of the ballpark through the end of the Negro Leagues. After that Barra rushes about 30 years into only about 10 pages. Nice use of original writings and interviews in the appendix.
June 16, 2013
A great look at the history of baseball through the lens of the relationship between Birmingham, Alabama and its historical ballpark.
December 28, 2013
Nice history of an essential visit for any baseball fan.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews