You're listening to DraftKings Network.

Today's episode is brought to you by The Bike Riders, a new film from Jeff Nichols, starring Jody Comer, Austin Butler, and Tom Hardy. Inspired by true events, The Bike Riders follows Benny, played by Austin Butler, the newest member of Midwest Motorcycle Club, The Vandals, led by the enigmatic Johnny, played by Tom Hardy. Critics are calling it Electrifying, Stunning, Exhilarating, Powerful, and the godfather of Biker Movies. Experience The Bike Writers on the big screen this summer, now playing only in theaters. Visit bike ridersmovie. Com to get tickets now.

I am proud to say that no show in America is bringing you Black Roy's the way today's show is. We got Roy Bellamy out at the elbow room near the Stanley Cup as it goes into the ocean, and Roy Wood Jr. Is with us. He's the host of a new four-part podcast with NPR. It's called Road to Rickwood. It's about the oldest professional baseball stadium in America. It's seen everything from a Klan rally to the first integrated sports team in Alabama. Rickwood Field in Birmingham was home. To more history. Last week, Major League Base was already planning a celebration there for both the Negro Leagues and Birmingham's own Willie Mays, when the Say Hey Kid passed away on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, during the Fox pregame show, Alex Rodriguez asked Reggie Jackson a question, and the answer was surprising to a whole lot of people, but shouldn't have been.

But I wouldn't wish it on anybody. People said to me today, I spoke and they said, You think you're a better person? You think you won when you played here in Concord? I said, I would never want to do it again. I walked into restaurants and they would point at me and said, No, you can't eat here. I would go to a hotel and they say, Then you 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. Had it not been for Raleigh Fingers, Johnny McNamara, Dave Duncan, Joe and Sharon Rudy. I slept on their couch three, four nights a week for about a month and a half. Finally, they were threatened that they would burn our apartment complex down unless I got out. I 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 Myers, I would have never made it. I was too physically violent. I was ready to physically fight some.

I'd have got killed here because I'd have beat someone's ass, and you'd have saw me in an oak tree somewhere.

People should watch the full clip because Fox Sports just let Reggie talk. I saw a quote from our friend Eli Mustal from the Nation said, This is why Republicans work so hard to keep history out of schools. They don't want white children to know what their parents and grandparents did. Roy, thank you for joining us. Thank you for your work this past week. What was the reaction like down there?

In the city of Birmingham, it was love and appreciation and reverence for all of the Negro League. It's not just Willie Mays. I think what Reggie Jackson said was relevant, it was poignant, but it was also starting to understand that's what we're trying to remember, but also, in a way, grow away from. And I think that the fact that you could have a game of that significance in a place where things that famous took place on a regular basis, I think is a testament to a lot of the growth that is happening in the state of Alabama. I just love the fact that the brickwood game happened because normally when you're talking about my hometown of Birmingham, it's dogs and fire hoses. So to be able to talk and at least be able to give those brothers a moment in the sun to tell them, Thank you, it's not going to fix everything that happened to them. But I think it's a very, very important part of growing past all of it. The one thing that was dope, I was in the stadium when they announced when Willie Mays had passed on Tuesday night, and you saw strangers crying and hugging, white, black, whatever.

And I think that's exactly the spirit of what Willie Mays was in using the sport of baseball to bring people together.

I will tell people again, new four-part podcast with NPR, Road to Rickwood. What were the highlights of doing it for you, Roy? You have any number of opportunities on things you can be doing. Why is this the important one for you?

But because you get to sit down with living grios. The whole podcast, we're talking to retired Negro leavers, former architects of the stadium, people who lived and played during that time, white and black. And they're just telling stories of how this stadium became the one place where you could figure out... The fact that you already said it at the top, the first integrated sports game happened there. Part of the reason for that is that the Birmingham Black Barons outsold the White Barons in tickets during the days of integrated baseball. White people would come to watch Black people play. So it became a place where there was a level of racial tolerance between both parties. So Rick Wood became the perfect test kitchen, if you will, for desegregation in the South. In the same way it was the first integrated sports game, that same game was also the first integrated crowd. So if it can happen there, then the idea of desegregation can tenacle off from Rickwood, and that's partly what happened. The one thing they messed up, and I found this out in the podcast, Charlie Finley, the owner of the Barons at the time, they did a giveaway at the first integrated game for the crowd, and it was Razorblades.

Now, I don't know if weaponry should be the thing you give to Black people and White people when they're sitting side by side for the first time. But old Gillette made a push for the sponsorship. So it's a lot of interesting facts just about how baseball intersects with our society and just silly fun stuff like that. We talk to retired Negro League as many told me stories of how they would send light skin players into white restaurants so that they could get food and then just pray that the player doesn't take his hat off and that Afro come jumping out from underneath the hat. But I think the thing that I left last week with was how much the retired Negro leavers, most of them that I talk to, I'd say 95 %, they look back at their time playing in the Negro Leagues with a level of reverence and happiness because they were around friends, and it was hard, but it was the one part of their life that wasn't completely crazy, and they still have an appreciation for those days.

You played in the celebrity softball game. Anything of note to report from that? Never again.

Never again. What? I will never. I've done it. I don't need to play in no celebrity, nothing, no more, never again. I will be the hype man on the side, like that dude in those and one mixtape. I will attend a celebrity game and just be there in the dugout. But the idea of being on the field... Here's the problem with every celebrity athletic You have people who want to win, and then you have people who just say to have fun. I'm just here to have fun. I'm not trying to win. I don't care about winning. And they get these athletes who are just 10 years or less since their retirement. So they're still strong. They're still able-bodied. Steven Jackson, and this is the play that we'll talk to. Steven Jackson, before we even get to me and him almost colliding in left field. Steven Jackson, Matt Barnes, who I was the MVP of the softball game. Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes took this game so seriously, and I have nothing but the highest of respect for them. I knew from the locker room, I wasn't going to do nothing. Steven Jackson was stretching. His Jordans matched his outfit.

They may need the Jordans they gave us. They gave us free sneakers that match the uniform. And Steven Jackson was like, No, I got this. We start losing. We start losing. We're getting to ask for the whole game, our team. And There is an intensity with professional athletes, even if they're not suited up anymore, that unless you've done it, I just don't think you can plug into it. I couldn't plug into it. There's a play where there's a fly ball to left field. It's my ball. It is clearly my ball. I'm coming in and I'm looking up, and I can hear Steven Jackson, and I can hear him just. And I don't know if that's how he calls for fly balls, but in my brain, My brain is telling me, he's not going to stop. He's Steven Jackson. He's locked in. Maybe you should get out of the way. And I get out of the way at the last second. Steven Jackson catches this fly ball, turns around, and runs back towards the infield and mumbles, and I quote, I got this. This is what I do. And I'm like, Who the fuck are you talking to?

It's just you and me out here. I don't have that gear. Neither do I. Whatever that gear is,Neither do I.for you to talk to yourself? No. So never again, man. Respect to Steven Jackson, man, but I can't play softball like that. That man was talking trash like he was going back up to court in transition on a baseball field.

Just to be clear, so the audience understands if they just got audio here because we played the video. That was a fly ball to left field. Roy Wood was the left fielder. That fly ball was caught by the shortstop, Steven Jackson.

He came out like Jeter and just catches it and goes, I got this. This is what I do. Clearly, this is what you do, sir. You can have the ball. I'm not trying to collide with nobody at no celebrity softball game to tribute the Negro Leagues. I'm good. Roy, did you feel confident? I'm good. Did you feel confident, though, that you were going to catch that ball? Yeah, I thought so. But if I hadn't caught the ball, now I'm face to face with Steven Jackson. So it's probably better to just get out of this man's way. It's just these celebrity games, man. It's just people trying to prove they still got it, or it's a rapper trying to take over. You all got it, man. You all got it. And shout out to LeBron's company, Spring Hill, who helped organize it in Cee C. C. Sabathia with the Players Alliance. They send a questionnaire, and they ask you, What position do you like to play? What's your skill level? What's your ability at this sport? Because they can decide how to roster The only question they should ask is whether or not you got this.

Do you got this or not? Were you at the-How serious will you take this game?

Because I would have said three, and then you'd have put me over there, maybe with Robin Thede or Kael Mitchell from Kenan & Kael. Kael was playing at a three.

At a three? Yeah, a three or a two. Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes were both on 12, and it's just Jamies Winston was locked in.

Des Bryant was locked in. Terrell Owens was locked in. There is a level that every athlete accesses, whether it is for pay or for exhibition that I do not possess. And I just don't know if I belong out there.

Were you at the ceremony at Wrigley Field for Ryan Sandberg?

No, I missed Reino by a day. I was there the day before where they paid tribute to the '84 team that won the NL East. So Cliff was there, Sandberg was there, a whole gang of the guys from '84. And that was a great time. I mean, dude, I had a hell of a week, man. I met Reggie Jackson. I had an opportunity to sit down with a 98-year-old Negro leagre, and I got Ryan Sandberg's autograph. In terms of baseball weeks, probably better than me seeing the Cubs win at all in Cleveland.

Wow, that is high praise. We're going to celebrate both you and your athleticism here by taking the opportunity to show everybody a clip from a couple of summers ago when you threw out the first pitch here at Wrigley Field. We're going to all get to it.

So you're going to show the bad one.

Enjoy this together.

Yeah, that's not a great- You're going to show the bad one.

That's not a great throw there by you. Was there a good one?

All them producers there. All the producers there. You couldn't find the one from last week, though. I have 44 miles an hour over the plate last week. You can't find that. None of your producers. Brought the heat, huh? All them computers. Look at all them computers in there. Look at all them.

You bounced it. It seems like you bounced one in the corner.

I'll say a great five. Look at all them people there. Can't none of them find shit.

See you later, Roy. Good talking to you.