African Americans’ contribution to the sport of baseball has been a topic of this MLB season. This year, the league included the statistics of Negro League players into their record books after recognizing the Negro Leagues as the majors four years prior. Baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. believes that it’s important because “they didn’t have the opportunity to be in the league, but they still had enough [skill] that they should have played [in the MLB] because if you look at it, 11 out of 14 Hall of Famers came from the Negro League after [the league integrated].”
Fans even watched the Southern University baseball team beat the then national champion LSU Tigers in April. A few months later, Arlington, Texas would be the site for the second annual HBCU Swingman Classic, presented by T-Mobile, to kick off MLB All Star Week. The namesake of the event would add that he wants to showcase the talent of players from HBCUs because “there’s a lot of us that are not being seen. I think that’s the most important thing. It’s not about Ken Griffey Jr., it’s not about the coaching staff, it’s about these young kids that want to have an opportunity to play the game that they love. Give them an opportunity and a drive that, ‘hey, if I do well in this, I can be seen’.”
The day before the game, buses arrived to the Texas Rangers MLB Youth Academy in West Dallas with ball players representing historically Black colleges and universities. They took a knee as they listened to former big leaguers and HBCU alumnus like Andrew Dawson and Trenidad Hubbard as well as the managers of the National and American teams, Lloyd McClendon and Ken Griffey Sr. share their experiences on the field as they gave words of encouragement going into the upcoming game at Globe Life Field. Former Ranger Mark McLemore said that he loves the event for giving young Black players the “visibility that they deserve” and that Griffey Jr. came up with the game. “He’s the perfect guy to do it… and man, I’m so glad it’s here in Texas.”
The HBCU Swingman Classic drew 16,467 fans to Globe Life Field as Kirk Franklin and his choir opened the evening with the Black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as well as his rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. The Grandmother of Juneteenth, Dr. Opal Lee would also exclaim the most famous words in the sport, “Play Ball!” before the first pitch at 7:08 Friday evening. Black culture was beautifully meshed with the culture of ‘America’s pastime’ as the Divine Nine were all represented and as the Texas Southern University’s “Ocean of Soul” marching band played in the outfield.
The game was an exciting one as last year’s Swingman Classic MVP, Alabama State’s Randy Flores would put the National League team on the board before Florida A&M’s Ty Jackson helped the American League team make it an even game when he hit a double at the bottom of the third inning, giving foreshadow to how the rest of the game would go. Grambling State’s Tiger Borom would take home this year’s MVP honors after securing the American League’s victory with a two-run double in the ninth inning, rallying the team to defeat the National League, 5-4.
Dallas Weekly asked American League manager, and father of Ken Griffey Jr., Ken Griffey Sr. what was his greatest contribution to the sport and he replied that the “biggest thing I’ve given back to the game was when ‘Junior’ was born. He got an opportunity to do what he’s doing. He’s sponsoring [this event] and everything. I’m just proud of him.” He would add that his son has “been giving back to the game his whole life. This is big because he’s giving a lot of young Black players an opportunity to be seen and that’s the biggest thing. It was like 35 or 37% of Blacks in the big leagues. Now, it’s down to 6 or 7%. I hope this gets people to [get into playing baseball].”