Andrew Buller-Russ
MLB did something a bit different on Thursday night, honoring the Negro Leagues by heading to Rickwood Field for a game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals. Everyone had different feelings about the nostalgia involved in returning to the oldest existing professional baseball park in America.
But none stuck out more than Reggie Jackson’s emotional response to returning to Birmingham, which stirred up memories of how spectators would shower him with racial epithets during his playing days.
Yet, recalling his difficult past wasn’t the lone objective on Jackson’s mind when he was asked to speak on the Fox Sports broadcast. The topic didn’t even come up until Alex Rodriguez asked Jackson to speak on the emotions he felt from returning to Rickwood Field, and that’s when the Hall of Famer really opened up about what he went through just to continue his historic baseball career.
“Alex, when people ask me a question like that, coming back here is not easy. The racism when I played here… the difficulty of going through different places, where we traveled… Fortunately I had a manager and I had players on the team that helped me get through it. But I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.
People said to me today, they said ‘You think you’re a better person, you think you won when you played here and conquered.’ I said, you know, I would never want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and say the n-word can’t eat here. I would go to a hotel and they said the n-word can’t stay here. We went to Charlie Finley’s country club for a welcome home dinner, and they pointed me out with the n-word, ‘He can’t come in here’. Finley marched the whole team out. Finally they let me in there, we said, we’re going to the diner and eat hamburgers. We’ll go where we’re wanted. Fortunately, I had a manager in Johnny McNamara, if I couldn’t eat in the place, nobody would eat. We’d get food to travel. If I couldn’t stay in a hotel, they’d drive to the next hotel and find a place where I could stay.
Had it not been for Rollie Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudy, I slept on their couch 3-4 nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally they were threatened that they would burn the apartment complex down unless I got out. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
The year I came here, Bo Connor was the sheriff the year before, and they took baseball out of here because in 1963 the Klan murdered four black girls, children (11-14 years old) in a church here and never got indicted. Life magazine did a story on them, like they were being honored. I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. At the same time, had it not been for my white friends. Had it not been for a white manager, and Rudy, Fingers, and Duncan, and Lee Miles, I would have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight, I would have got killed here cuz I would have beat someone’s ass.”
Reggie Jackson on his memories of Rickwood Field (Starts at 4:40 mark)
Credit to Jackson for wanting to return despite his challenging past at Rickwood Field and the surrounding area. While his former teammates and managers had an idea of what Jackson went through at the time, his experience has now been shared with millions who never understood what many Negro League and MLB ballplayers had to put up with during their playing careers.
Jackson enjoyed a long baseball career, playing in MLB from 1967 to 1987. His legacy includes winning five World Series titles, an MVP, and being named to 14 All-Star teams, which is a big reason why he now has a special place in Cooperstown with many other legends of the game.
Here’s the sensational clip where Jackson describes his emotional times in Birmingham.
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