For the first time ever, MLB was hosting a regular season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the oldest professional ballpark in America.
The event was a meaningful tribute to the Negro Leagues and Rickwood was chosen because it had already seen a little bit of everything, including segregated baseball as home to the Black Barons, a women's suffrage event, a Klan rally, and eventually the first integrated sports team in Alabama.
It was a challenging and complicated story to tell. And unfortunately, very little of this history was captured on film. But we needed to promote the cultural relevancy of the game, while educating and entertaining our audience.
So we partnered with NPR and its local affiliates in New Orleans and Baton Rouge to create "Road to Rickwood," a four-part narrative podcast series that explores the intersection between baseball and the Civil Rights Movement, hosted by Alabama native Roy Wood Jr. The trailer is below.
Roy brought this story to life through his own commentary alongside interviews of historians, former Negro Leaguers, members of Birmingham's first integrated baseball team, MLB executives, and other key players.
The episodes were released each week leading up to the game, and the series was well received by both baseball fans and those who don't even follow the sport. It was featured in "New & Noteworthy" on Apple, it reached the top ten in the History category, and the supporting social content we created drove over 8 million impressions. Road to Rickwood also won two Silvers at the Signal Awards, which recognize the podcasts that define culture, and was selected by The Atlantic as one of the 20 Best Podcasts of 2024.
And as for the game itself, the St Louis Cardinals defeated the San Francisco Giants in front of the largest Thursday night televised baseball audience in two years.
The Road to Rickwood series is available on Apple, Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts.
