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Captains CC Sabathia and Chris Young Select Rosters for May 25 Hall of Fame East-West Classic
(COOPERSTOWN, NY) – With players available who combined for 53 All-Star Game selections, Hall of Fame East-West Classic captains CC Sabathia and Chris Young were the envy of every general manager in baseball on Monday.
In front of a national audience on MLB Network’s MLB Tonight: Clubhouse Edition, Sabathia and Young drafted their teams for the May 25 Hall of Fame East-West Classic at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. Presented by Boeing and fueled by assistance from Major League Baseball, The Hall of Fame East-West Classic: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game will feature more than two dozen former big leaguers in a legends game at the home of baseball.
Selecting first, captain Young chose Edwin Jackson and then rounded out his first six picks with selections including Adam Jones, David Price, Ryan Howard, Tony Gwynn Jr. and brothers Jerry Hairston Jr. and Scott Hairston. Additional members of Team CY will include Josh Barfield, Mo’ne Davis, Doug Glanville, LaTroy Hawkins, Jeremy Jeffress, Russell Martin and Melvin Mora.
Captain Sabathia tabbed Dexter Fowler with his first pick, followed by Dee Strange-Gordon, José Contreras, Ian Desmond, Prince Fielder and brothers B.J. Upton and Justin Upton. Team CC’s roster will also feature Tim Beckham, Curtis Granderson, Matt Kemp, Darrell Miller, Tyson Ross and Tony Sipp.
Harold Reynolds of MLB Network and Mets’ World Series hero Mookie Wilson will join the rosters as honorary team members and former Kansas City Monarchs star Sam Allen joins Pedro Sierra as Negro Leaguers who will attend the East-West Classic.
Tickets for the Hall of Fame East-West Classic are on sale now at baseballhall.org/east-west or at 1-888-325-0470 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
MLB Network’s cameras will be on-hand to cover the entire Memorial Day weekend in Cooperstown celebrating Black baseball, with a 30-minute special to air across MLB Network, MLB.tv and the Hall of Fame’s platforms.
A dozen Hall of Famers whose careers cover the pre-expansion era to the present day will return to Cooperstown on Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate the history of Black baseball and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s groundbreaking new exhibit The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball. Hall of Famers scheduled to appear as managers and coaches for the East-West Classic teams include Harold Baines, Rollie Fingers, Ken Griffey Jr., Fergie Jenkins, Jim Kaat, Fred McGriff, Eddie Murray, Jim Rice, Lee Smith, Ozzie Smith, Joe Torre and Dave Winfield.
The weekend will also include a special unveiling of a Hank Aaron statue at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. The bronze representation of Aaron will be installed on the first floor of the Museum.
The Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game debuted in 1933 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park and was played annually through 1962, including several years that featured multiple games. Hall of Famer Bill Foster was the winning pitcher in the inaugural East-West All-Star Game and several future Hall of Famers starred in the game throughout the years, including Cool Papa Bell, Ray Brown, Andy Cooper, Leon Day, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson and Willie Wells.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum has teamed up with Sports Travel and Tours to offer baseball fans a one-stop opportunity to purchase Classic Weekend travel packages. For more information or to plan a trip to Cooperstown, please call 1-888-310-HALL (4255). Membership participants receive a 5% discount on all their baseball travel packages.
Located on the Museum’s second floor in the Yawkey Gallery, The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball will cover stories of early Black baseball, the Negro Leagues era, the complexities of reintegration, Jackie Robinson, post-reintegration progress and retrogress, and calls for change in today’s game while celebrating the newest superstars of the era. Meaningful stories from Black baseball are also being added to other exhibits throughout the Museum.
The exhibit is part of the Hall of Fame’s Black Baseball Initiative that includes additional outreach programs, educational materials and virtual programming and is made possible by the Yawkey Foundation with additional support from Bill Janetschek in honor of his siblings Robert and Ann, the Anthony A. Yoseloff Foundation and the Bisignano Family. The initiative will also enhance Black Baseball stories found throughout the Museum.
The Souls of the Game, a title that pays tribute to W.E.B. Du Bois’s seminal 1903 book “The Souls of Black Folk”, will explore the Black baseball experience of those men, women and children who were and are an integral part of our National Pastime.
Subtitled “Voices of Black Baseball”, the exhibit will highlight first-person accounts by the many individuals whose experiences shaped them, their community, baseball and America at large. Featuring historically significant artifacts, documents and photographs, and utilizing audio, video, and interactive elements, the exhibit will tell a more inclusive story of baseball, shine a light on and correct misconceptions about Black baseball.
For more information about the Museum’s Black Baseball Initiative, please visit baseballhall.org/BBI.