The Negro Southern League has long been overshadowed by the Negro American and National Leagues when historians discuss Negro League baseball. This is partly true because the NAL and NNL included more northern franchises, which were located in larger cities. This meant they had more reliable newspaper coverage than their southern counterparts. Additionally, for most […]
1920 – 1951 The Negro Southern League Read More »
1964 marked a crossroads for the City of Birmingham. Its citizens witnessed unthinkable violence the previous fall, which had shocked the entire nation. Under the clouds of enduring sadness, the struggle for Civil Rights, and forces who stubbornly resisted change, Birmingham businessman Albert Belcher made a surprising decision. Partnering with Charlie O. Finley and the
1964 Barons First Integrated Team Read More »
December 2020 Jeb Stewart Great books often inspire sequels. For whatever reason, it is exceedingly rare for any sequel to live up to the billing of the original. However, Art Black’s Fame and Fortune in The Show: Baseball at Rickwood Field and Beyond in the Middle 1900s is the perfect follow up to Showdown at
THE RICKWOOD LIBRARY: Fame and Fortune in The Show Read More »
December 2020 Several years ago, the Friends of Rickwood purchased over 2,000 vintage baseball photographs from The Birmingham News. The pictures are truly remarkable, and many have not been seen in decades. The Friends are excited to begin unveiling many of the photographs in the newsletter as well as on our webite and social media
FROM THE RICKWOOD ARCHIVES Read More »
September 2020 From May 30 to June 21, the Rickwood Field SABR Chapter conducted a Facebook poll to determine the best team in Rickwood Field’s history (1910- 87). 16 teams were selected from the Barons, Black Barons, and A’s. Clubs were seeded based on record, winning percentage, regular season pennants, post season performance, statistical data,
THE ’67 A’S VOTED THE BEST TEAM IN THE HISTORY OF RICKWOOD FIELD, 1910-87 Read More »
The “Friends of Rickwood” is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation charged with preserving the park and restoring Rickwood Field to its former glory. In the 1980’s, founding member, Tom Cosby, went to Terry Slaughter, head of Slaughter Hanson Advertising and told him, ‘We let them tear down the Terminal Station, now are we going to stand
WHO ARE THE FRIENDS OF RICKWOOD? Read More »
June 2020 Jeb Stewart You know a ballpark has reached a vintage age when even the books chronicling its long history are themselves old. Such is the case with Tim Whitt’s 1995 book, Bases Loaded With History: The Story of Rickwood Field, America’s Oldest Ballpark, which was published just a year before the first Rickwood
THE RICKWOOD LIBRARY: Bases Loaded With History Read More »
June 2020 On August 18, 2020, Rickwood Field will celebrate its 110th anniversary as America’s oldest ballpark. As long as people care about keeping Rickwood alive, we believe the ballpark will last. But this got us thinking about the 10th anniversary of the ballpark back in 1920. That anniversary went unnoticed by The Birmingham News,
100 YEARS AGO AT RICKWOOD Read More »
March 2020 Jeb Stewart In Showdown at Rickwood: Ray Caldwell, Dizzy Dean, and the Early Years of America’s Oldest Ball Park, Art Black transports the reader to Birmingham, Alabama of the early 1900s, when the city began to grow into an industrial giant and the population soon increased by nearly 100,000 in only a decade.
THE RICKWOOD LIBRARY: Showdown at Rickwood Read More »
