NASHVILLE, Tenn. — CC Sabathia is on the point of take the mound once more subsequent spring, 5 years after his retirement, to pitch in a tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game on the Hall of Fame’s Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.
“My career ended with me ripping my shoulder up and not being able to throw a baseball anymore, but I’m rehabbing myself to be able to come back and pitch an inning in this game,” the 43-year-old left-hander stated Tuesday throughout a information convention on the winter conferences.
Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith have agreed to handle or coach on the May 25 Hall of Fame East-West Classic. It shall be performed along with the opening of the Hall’s “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” exhibit.
The Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game started at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in September 1933, two months after MLB’s first All-Star Game on the identical ballpark, and was performed yearly via 1962.
Jerry and Scott Hairston, whose grandfather Sam performed for the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Clowns within the Negro American League, are among the many gamers who stated they’ll take part. Others embrace Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, David Price, B.J. and Justin Upton, Curtis Granderson, Dontrelle Willis, Adam Jones, Dexter Fowler, LaTroy Hawkins and Edwin Jackson.
Thirty-seven of 343 individuals within the corridor had careers principally or fully within the Negro Leagues, together with Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin and Cool Papa Bell.
“The stories have been told and we think we know the stories but the more we dig into the stories, we find out there’s something that hasn’t been told,” four-time 20-game winner Dave Stewart stated.
Major League Baseball has acknowledged seven Negro Leagues from 1920-48 as having huge league standing, however incorporating these numbers has not but been accomplished.
“As a kid growing up, I thought Negro League baseball was backyard, barnstorming baseball. These guys were the best athletes in the game and in the world at the time,” Sabathia stated. “These guys were the LeBron James of that time.”
In 1997, the corridor celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the foremost league shade barrier with “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience.”
“The way in which the world views baseball, Black baseball, race relations has changed in 25 years,” Hall president Josh Rawitch stated. “It’s also really important to the curatorial team and everybody else involved that it’s not just stories of struggle and challenges, it’s also a celebration.”
Sabathia, a six-time All-Star and 251-game winner, is eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame vote. He went to Cooperstown two years in the past with son Carter for a youth sport.
“That was the first time I really, really, really thought about it, and I was like, damn, I really want to be in the Hall of Fame. I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame when I was playing,” Sabathia stated. “Walking into the plaque room was like – for me was like walking into a church.”
