A TRIBUTE TAKING SHAPE
Sabathia among big names on board for all-star expo celebrating Negro Leagues
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Negro Leagues East-West All-Star Game, which debuted at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in 1933, is making a comeback — this time at the Hall of Fame’s Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York.
The Memorial Day weekend game, which was announced Tuesday at baseball’s winter meetings, will be played May 25, 2024, and will feature several prominent former big-leaguers. Hall of Famers Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith will help manage or coach. Former AllStar pitcher CC Sabathia and outfielder Chris Young will serve as team captains.
Sabathia is getting ready to take the mound again, five years after his retirement, to pitch in the tribute game.
“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 said.
The game will be played in conjunction with the opening of the Hall’s “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” exhibit.
Jerry and Scott Hairston, whose grandfather Sam played for the Cincinnati and Indianapolis Clowns in the Negro American League, are among the players who said they will participate. Others include 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 people in the Hall had careers mostly or entirely in the Negro Leagues, including 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 said.
The first East-West All-Star Game was played Sept. 10, 1933, at Comiskey, two months after the first major-league All-Star Game was played on the same field. The contest was played annually until 1962, with some seasons featuring multiple games, all in the East-West format. The games ended when the last Negro League was disbanded in 1962.
MLB has recognized seven Negro Leagues as having big-league status, but incorporating those numbers has not yet been completed.
“As a kid growing up, I thought Negro League baseball was backyard, barnstorming baseball,” Sabathia said. “[But] these guys were the best athletes in the game and in the world at the time. These guys were the LeBron James of that time.”
In 1997, the Hall celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the major-league color 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 said. “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 winner of 251 games, is eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame vote. He went to Cooperstown two years ago with son Carter for a youth game.
“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.’” he said. “I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame when I was playing. Walking into the plaque room . . . was like walking into a church.”