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For the Second Year in a row
The Alabama State University Hornets are poised to repeat as SWAC baseball champions and received an automatic bid to the NCAA Regional Playoffs. The East Alabama school rolls into the 2023 Southwest Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament as the number one seed from the Eastern Division, riding an impressive 39-16 overall record and a conference record of 24-7 into Russ Chandler Stadium, home of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
The Maroon Tigers of Morehouse College won their first game since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down baseball at the premiere all-male HBCU on Saturday, defeating Tuskegee University 8–4.
Saturday’s game was the prelude for a weekend series that will feature a display of the Atlanta Braves 2021 World Series Trophy before the start of the double hitter on Sunday. Morehouse Coach Antonio Grissom expects the Braves trophy tour to bring over 2000 fans out to see the World Series trophy and the Morehouse-Tuskegee clash on the diamond.
Growing up in College Park, Georgia, Marcus Smith enjoyed playing baseball. It was a sport he excelled in, playing out of Old National Park from age six to fourteen. He earned an athletic scholarship to Albany State University, his mom’s alma mater. Like anyone who has ever played baseball as a kid, the thoughts of a professional career floated through Smith’s head.
On this mid-July weekend, a beautiful ocean blue sky with a couple of white puffy clouds, painted, perhaps by the almighty, a fleeting summer breeze cooled the sun’s rays that beamed down on Black teenage baseball players showcasing their talent in the 15th annual Mentoring Viable Prospects (MVP) tournament.
When I was a high schooler in Macon, Georgia, I dreamed of playing collegiate baseball at Georgia Tech in Atlanta during the early days of school desegregation. In 1969, the year I graduated from the majority white high school that I had integrated four years earlier, there were no Black American baseball players on the Georgia Tech baseball team.
Lorenzo “Lo” Ogden Now Playing First Base With the Heavenly Host
When Lorenzo Ogden stepped on the Tuskegee Institute campus in1968, he was a tall, skinny kid off the sandlots of Birmingham, Alabama. He spent his summer days playing baseball during the week, but on Sundays, you could find him at old Rickwood Field watching the Birmingham Black Barons play the best competition in the Negro Leagues.
HBCU Alumni Proud of National Spotlight
HBCU Alumni Proud of National Spotlight
Marie Duval did not attend an HBCU; she received her educational experience at a predominately white institution, Mercer University, a private Baptist-supported school in Macon, Georgia, her hometown. The other half of the Duval family, Steve Duval, attended two HBCUs, Hampton University and Tuskegee University. The Duvals traveled 150 miles to witness a rare national spotlight shine on Black college baseball.
Why the Ralph Garr-Bill Lucas HBCU Baseball Classic Matters?
A faint breeze slightly chilled the night air, the sky tinted ocean blue, and patches of small fluffy clouds lingered in the afterglow of dusk, hinted at the artistry of the Divine.
Down below on a baseball diamond where Triple-A professionals dream of getting a call up to the big league are two historic Black universities, Florida A & M University and Grambling State University. Each is seeking their first win since the pandemic derailed their season a year ago, prepared to do battle in the first Ralph Garr-Bill Lucas HBCU Baseball Classic.
Many of the happiest days of my life are moments spent on a baseball diamond. Mostly sandlots: sometimes cow pastures turned into a ball field for Sunday baseball outings, some with meticulously kept lawns, and some in the oldest minor league ballpark in America, Luther Williams Field, in Macon, Georgia.