At the HBCU Swingman Classic, pro baseball confronts its decline in Black players
Growing up in Queens, N.Y., Mike Dorcean would pick up a baseball bat and imitate Ken Griffey Jr.'s swing.
Last Friday, July 7, the 22-year old catcher for Coppin State University kicked up dirt in the same dugout with The Swingman himself.
Griffey hasn't returned from retirement, but last weekend, he was back on the field in Seattle – where he spent the bulk of his Hall of Fame career – with Dorcean and 49 other college baseball players. The occasion: the inaugural HBCU Swingman Classic, an exhibition game kicking off Major League Baseball's All-Star Week.
The event was Griffey's brainchild with support from the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation. The idea was to create a national stage where scouts and other power-players in the sport could watch promising young athletes from historically Black colleges and universities – like Dorcean.
"This is such a great stepping stone to get the minority community back into baseball,"
