SEATTLE (AP) — Ken Griffey Jr. holds a plethora of titles, especially in this part of the country. Hall of Famer. Cultural icon. The guy who made baseball in the Pacific Northwest relevant. Arguably, the greatest of his generation.
He even holds a title in association with Major League Baseball as a special adviser to Commissioner Rob Manfred.
But what’s most meaningful to Griffey currently is his association with Friday’s HBCU Swingman All-Star Classic that serves as the first major event of All-Star Game festivities, featuring players from 17 Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The event was an idea generated by Griffey, fostered into reality with help from MLB and comes at a time when U.S.-born Black representation in the majors is at its lowest level since tracking began more than 30 years ago.
“It’s all about trying to get seen. I mean, if I can give an opportunity for a kid, one kid, two kids, three kids to be seen, how many kids can that be over the next five, 10, 15 years?” Griffey said. “How many lives will that one person change? That’s all we’re trying to do.”
Fifty players in total were selected to take part. For some, it may be the biggest stage they’ve ever played on and the best opportunity for scouts and executives to see that despite limited resources compared to others in Division I baseball, their talent deserves to be showcased.
“It’s huge. I think a lot more people see his name and they get drawn to it just because he’s Ken Griffey Jr.,” said Trey Paige, who played this past season at Delaware State. “Having his name on it draws attention from people who would have had no idea about it.”
That’s partly the goal, especially with how current numbers have tracked.
A recent study from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida found Black U.S. players represented just 6.2% of players on MLB opening day rosters, down from last year’s previous record low of 7.2%. There wasn’t a single HBCU alum on a major league roster on opening day this season, either.
That is why Griffey pushed for this event to be part of All-Star weekend rather than his original thought of having it take place during the Hank Aaron Invitational in Florida, an MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation sponsored event focused on youth players. It’s another title Griffey hopes can eventually be added to his career resume — someone who helped grow and create opportunities for under-recognized Black players.
“I would love to see the numbers to my dad’s when he played, but that’s so far from now,” said Griffey, whose father played from 1973-91, overlapping with the careers of HBCU standouts like Lou Brock and Andre Dawson. “I just want for these kids to have an opportunity to believe in themselves and go out and play.”
Griffey’s participation in the event is not passive. This isn’t simply his name and logo attached to the title for the sake of interest and attention. He’s seen firsthand some of the resource limitations facing HBCU schools, but from a slightly different perspective — his youngest son Tevin plays football at Florida A&M.
“I just threw out a very big idea … but it was one of those things that needed to be done,” Griffey said.
Griffey isn’t alone in this mission, or the first game. Jerry Manuel and Bo Porter are managers for the game. Others helping include Dawson, Marquis Grissom, Harold Reynolds, Rickie Weeks Jr. and Griffey’s dad — known at this point as Senior.
The elder Griffey, now 73, reminisced at a time during his playing career when demographic participation rates weren’t tracked, but anecdotally nearly 30% of the majors comprised of U.S.-born Black players.
