Bradford Doolittle, ESPN Personnel Editor
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The standard layout of the Negro Leagues’ East-West All-Megastar Recreation can be revived within the spring when the Nationwide Baseball Corridor of Reputation hosts a tribute to the one-time fixture with a legends exhibition in Cooperstown, Fresh York.
The Memorial Week weekend duel, introduced right through the wintry weather conferences Tuesday, can be performed at Doubleday Grassland in Cooperstown on Would possibly 25, 2024, and can constituent quite a few eminent ex-big leaguers. Corridor of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith will support lead and schoolteacher the squads. Serving as workforce captains can be former All-Megastar pitcher CC Sabathia and outfielder Chris Younger.
“The East-West All-Star Game was the annual showcase for the Negro Leagues, and we are privileged to be able to honor the legacy of those stars over Memorial Day Weekend in Cooperstown as part of the Hall of Fame’s celebration of Black baseball,” Sabathia stated in a observation. “As players, we are indebted to the pioneers who came before us, and recognizing the All-Stars of the Negro Leagues pays tribute not only to their playing ability but also to their courage and devotion to the game.”
Alternative avid gamers scheduled to look come with Josh Barfield, Tim Beckham, Prince Fielder, Curtis Granderson, Adam Jones, Dontrelle Willis, Ryan Howard and Tony Gwynn Jr. Additionally showing can be brothers Scott Hairston and Jerry Hairston Jr., whose grandfather, Sam, performed within the Negro Leagues and gave the impression in an East-West All-Megastar duel.
The primary East-West All-Megastar Recreation used to be performed on Sept. 10, 1933, at Comiskey Terrain in Chicago, two months later the primary main league All-Megastar Recreation used to be performed at the identical ground. The competition used to be performed once a year till 1962, with some seasons that includes a couple of video games, all within the East-West layout.
The sport ended when the latter Negro League used to be disbanded later the 1962 season.
The sport would be the featured tournament within the Corridor’s annual Corridor of Reputation Vintage weekend and can coincide with the disclosing of the museum’s unused showcase commemorating the historical past of Dull baseball, “The Souls of the Game: Voice of Black Baseball.” The showcase is a part of the Corridor’s Dull Baseball Initiative searching for to inform a complete tale of its origins during the provide week.
“I think by seeing what we’re doing, you can recognize how much the Hall thinks that’s a significant part of the history of baseball in America,” Corridor of Reputation president Josh Rawitch advised ESPN. “One of the … misperceptions that we often are trying to change is the [lack of recognition] that Black people have been playing baseball since baseball started.
“This wasn’t a game that used to be began by way of white folk and Dull folk picked it. Perhaps it’s long past in ebbs and flows in recognition, and I feel that’ll be a part of the tales that we inform too. However I feel from our point of view, it’s crucial that we inform the historical past of all of baseball.”
The idea to revive the Negro League All-Star format was the brainchild of John Odell, the longtime head curator for the Hall of Fame who died in July. Rawitch said that once the idea was hatched, finding players to participate was an easy task.
“The important thing used to be actually getting CC Sabathia first to shop for into it,” Rawitch said. “And CC stated, ‘I’m all in.’ So he used to be going to start out striking the workforce in combination. He and Chris Younger stated, ‘Oh, we’ll haven’t any disease getting those guys.’ Later they simply began sending us names. It’s nearly like everyone needs to be part of this weekend.”
The Hall also will host the Jerry Malloy Negro League conference in June to promote scholarly and literary work around the subject. This occurs at a time when MLB’s work in integrating statistics from the Negro Leagues into the official major league record continues to advance.
Next summer, MLB will hold a regular-season game between the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, on June 20. The venue, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States, is the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.
The event will serve as a tribute to the Negro Leagues and Birmingham native Willie Mays, widely considered to be baseball’s greatest living player.
Finally, at the 2024 winter meetings, the Hall’s era committee selection process will consider the cases from the “vintage baseball date” that includes pre-1980 performers, together with Negro League avid gamers.
