Hall to have retired players in Negro Leagues tribute

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — CC Sabathia is getting ready to take the mound again next spring, five years after his retirement, to pitch in a tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game at 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 43year-old left-hander said Tuesday during a news conference at the winter meetings.

Ken Griffey Jr. and Ozzie Smith have agreed to manage or coach at the May 25 Hall of Fame East-West Classic. It will be played in conjunction with the opening of the Hall’s “Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” exhibit.

The Negro Leagues EastWest All-Star Game began at Chicago’s Comiskey Park in September 1933, two months after MLB’s first All-Star Game at the same ballpark, and was played annually through 1962.

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.