(bat smacking) - [Narrator] People love playing baseball in the spring and summer.

Running around the bases after hitting the ball, isn't that fun?

It is so much fun that people have been playing baseball in America for over 100 years.

There's a ballpark in Birmingham, Alabama where people have been playing games since 1910, making it the oldest baseball park to still host games.

People love it so much they have kept it going all these years.

What is so great about Rickwood Field?

When Rickwood Field was built back in 1910, there were no televisions, tablets, or smartphones.

If people wanted to watch a game, they had to buy a ticket and go to the park.

The steelworkers from Sloss Furnace in Birmingham would work six days a week making iron.

But on Sunday, they would get the day off and head over to Rickwood for a day of baseball.

(audience cheering) They would see so many great games and amazing plays and hits from two different teams that called Rickwood their home.

This is because during the period of segregation, baseball teams were also segregated.

And Rickwood was home to an all white team, the Birmingham Barons, and an all black team, the Birmingham Black Barons.

Because segregation kept black and white people separated, the teams were not allowed to play against each other.

(logo smashing) And white and black fans were kept separated at the ballpark.

If black fans wanted to watch the Barons play, they had to sit in a section of the park that was behind chicken wire to keep them away from the white fans.

The same was true if white fans wanted to watch the Black Barons game.

White fans had to sit behind the chicken wire.

But even though they were sitting apart, the fans were sharing their love of baseball.

(audience cheering) And there were some legendary baseball games played at Rickwood.

The greatest game ever was played at Rickwood.

The Birmingham Barons were part of what was known as the Southern League of Baseball.

To join the Barons, players first played in the Birmingham Industrial League, which was made up of teams sponsored by iron and steel factories in Birmingham.

Sloss Furnace in Birmingham had a team.

If a player was good enough, he could join the Barons.

In 1931, the Barons and the Buffaloes from Houston, Texas faced off in the Dixie Series, which was as popular then as the World Series is today.

The team that won four out of seven games would be crowned the greatest team in the South.

What made the series so great was that each team had one of the best pitchers in baseball.

The Buffaloes had Dizzy Dean.

He was nicknamed Dizzy because he pitched so fast, he made the hitter's head spin.

The Barons had Ray Caldwell.

He was so strong that once, (wind howling) when he was pitching during a storm, he was hit by lightning.

(thunder crashing) It knocked him out and set his jersey on fire.

He got up, put out the fire, and finished pitching the game.

(audience cheering) Dizzy was so sure he would win the first game that he said, "Beating those Barons will be just a breeze.

"Just a breeze."

That got the Barons fans mad.

The packed Rickwood Field watched to see if Ray Caldwell could beat Dizzy, (upbeat music) and he did.

The Barons won the first game by a score of one to nothing.

Dizzy and the Buffaloes won the next three games.

All the Buffaloes needed was to win one more game and they would be the series champions.

(audience cheering) Well, Ray Caldwell and the Barons won the next game and the next.

(bell dinging) The series was tied three to three.

It all came down to one last game.

Dizzy Dean was so confident in winning that he told his fans that they could sleep well before the big game, as he was sure to win.

Dizzy struck out the first three batters.

Everything seemed to be going his way until the last inning, when his throwing arm was too tired and he gave up four runs.

The Barons won the game and the Series.

(audience cheering) The Barons fans had seen one of the greatest baseball series ever.

And 14 year old Lorenzo Piper Davis, who had watched the games surrounded by chicken wire, would go on to become a baseball player and play for the Birmingham Black Barons.

One of the greatest pitchers played at Rickwood.

While the Birmingham Barons were part of the Southern League whose teams were entirely white players, the Birmingham Black Barons were part of the Negro Leagues, which were made up of entirely black players.

(wire scratching) Many white fans came to Rickwood for the Black Barons games and watched one of the greatest baseball pitchers of all time, Satchel Paige.

In 1929, Satchel Paige came to Rickwood to play for the Birmingham Black Barons.

(upbeat music) His fastball was so strong that sometimes he would tell the rest of his teammates to lie down on the field.

He would then use his fastball to strike out the other team.

Everyone wanted to see Satchel pitch.

Remember, before TV and smartphones, you had to go to a baseball park to watch a game.

When the Black Barons were playing, Rickwood Field became the center of the black community.

If it was a Sunday, everyone would come to the field after church dressed in their best clothes.

With Satchel Paige pitching, black fans dressed in their Sunday clothes and white fans watching from behind the chicken wire, Rickwood Field was as close as white and black people could come together in segregated Birmingham.

By 1961, the Civil Rights Movement was demanding an end to segregation in the South, and Major League Baseball was fully integrated.

But rather than allow black and white players to play together at Rickwood Field, the city of Birmingham closed the park.

Black and white athletes played together.

Rickwood Field had meant so much to so many people over the years that even though it was closed to prevent integrated games, people wanted it to reopen, which it did in 1964.

The chicken wire was removed and the black and white players came together.

Ever since Rickwood Field opened in 1910, it had been a place which brought people in Birmingham together.

(upbeat music continues) Segregation at Rickwood was gone forever, and some of baseball's greatest players like Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, and Rollie Fingers would play there.

Eventually, baseball became too big for Rickwood Field, and the Barons played their last game there in 1987.

But the community had such good memories of watching games there that they wanted to keep it open.

Luckily, Hollywood wanted to use the park to film movies about old time baseball.

The museum at the park has this 1940s style glove that was used in the movie "42" about Jackie Robinson, who became the first black baseball player in the Major Leagues when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

(happy music) Today, high school and college teams still play at Rickwood.

The ballpark hosts community events and Babe Ruth Little League games, and everyone plays on the same field as some of baseball's greatest players.

(bat smacking) That is what is so great about Rickwood Field.

For over 100 years, it has brought people together over a love of baseball.