5 Rattler baseball players participate in MLB's Swingman Classic

Five FAMU baseball players --- Ty Jackson , Hunter Viets, Ty Hanchey, Janmikell Bastardo, and Jalen Niles --- got to showcase their talents at the inaugural HBCU Swingman Classic,  a showcase event featuring players from 17 Historically Black Colleges and Universities, this past Friday night in Seattle, WA.

 

Ken Griffey Jr.

The idea for the event came from Ken Griffey Jr, who said inspiration for the event struck him in the middle of the night.   He was disturbed by the historic low representation of Black ballplayers represented on MLB rosters, currently about 6.2%. 

Griffey’s participation in the event is not passive. He’s seen firsthand some of the resource limitations facing HBCU schools, but from a slightly different perspective — his youngest son Tevin plays football at FAMU.

In the short term, Griffey hopes the Swingman Classic will provide a platform to showcase HBCU baseball players to be selected in the three-day, 20-round Major League Baseball draft that begins today (Sunday).  The long-term goal is that baseball will reclaim, at least partially, the hold it once had on the African American community.

 

The 2022 World Series was the first one since 1950 that didn’t include a U.S.-born Black player, according to a study by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida.  

 

Currently no there are no players from and HBCU on any MLB team roster.

 

“I just threw out a very big idea … but it was one of those things that needed to be done,” Griffey said.

 

He made a few phone calls, sent a couple emails, and soon the concept took root, with the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation working with him on logistics to make the event come to life.

 

In the end, the American team beat the National team 4-3 in front of announced crowd of approximately 10,000 fans.