East-West Classic honor Negro leagues
This past Saturday, there was a special baseball game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The 2024 Hall of Fame East-West Classic featured 30 former Black Major League Baseball players honoring the history and legacy of the Negro Leagues, representing the long and deep tradition of the American cultural institution by wearing the jerseys of Negro Leagues teams. More than 5,700 fans came out to watch former All-Star and Hall of Fame players.
The East defeated the West 5-4 in six innings.
Philadelphia Phillies legend Ryan Howard, the 2005 National League Rookie of the Year, 2006 National League MVP, and 2008 World Series champion, was named the Classic’s MVP after hitting a go-ahead three-run homer in the fifth inning to give the East the lead.
“It’s always been a fraternity,” Howard said after the game. “The cool part about it is you have your teammates that you play with coming up in the Minor Leagues, and a lot of the guys you play against at each level in the Minor Leagues, so in a sense, you’re coming up together with them, as well…And just to have this kind of brotherhood and continue to have it is special.”
Curtis Granderson, a 16-year MLB veteran from 2004–19, during which he was a three-time All-Star, hit the first home run of the 2024 game, wearing a Newark Eagles jersey.
“It’s cool,” he said. “Anytime I got a chance to play in these [Negro League throwbacks] throughout the course of a season, I always looked forward to it and loved it, so I’m happy to get a chance to put it back on again today.”
Edwin Jackson, who pitched for more than a dozen MLB teams from 2003–19, registering 1,508 career strikeouts, took the mound to start the game. The home run derby contest preceded the game as Adam Jones, who is most remembered for his years (2008–18) with the Baltimore Orioles in a career that spanned from 2006–21, defeated Prince Fielder.
The son of Cecil Fielder (1985–98), a two-time AL home run leader and 1996 World Series champion with the New York Yankees, Prince Fielder had a notable career. He played in MLB from 2005–16 and was a six-time All-Star.
One player who received a lot of recognition from the crowd was Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., widely considered one of the greatest players in baseball history.
Along with the game, the weekend featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the “Souls of the Game” exhibit. Rowan Ricardo Phillips, an award-winning poet, was one of the consultants who was included in the development of the project, and he was pleased to see the support.
“The fact that people really want to start and think about the roots of the story, the voices, from the beginning, people we don’t often think about—Bud Fowler, Octavius Catto, those types of players—it really excites me,” he said.
“I think what’s really wonderful about the exhibit is, we can rethink the story of baseball that we want to tell to ourselves and to our future selves, instead of thinking, ‘Well, let’s pick this up from 2020 or 2024 or whatever.’”
For more about the East-West Classic, visit MLBbro.com.
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