Some potential diamonds in the rough were revealed during the 2025 HBCU Swingman Classic

The first game of All-Star Week is in the books and it was a fun one, too!

The festivities surrounding the 2025 MLB All-Star Game officially got going at Truist Park on Friday night with the third-annual HBCU Swingman Classic. As you can guess from the name, Ken Griffey Jr. is heavily involved in this and was in the building on Friday night, as he served in an unofficial capacity as a dugout reporter and photographer — in addition to being on the committee that helped select the 50 HBCU baseball players who took part in this event.

The wife of late former Atlanta Braves General Manager (and the first Black GM in MLB history) Bill Lucas was in attendance, with Andre Dawson, Ralph Garr, and CC Sabathia also making appearances as well. Former players Brian Jordan and David Justice serving as managers for the two teams. The luminaries were on display for this one as the best HBCU talent across the country took part in the showcase event.

Representing the American League, North Carolina A&T State Redshirt Freshman JT Taylor delivered both the first hit and first stolen base of the game in the first inning but Bethune-Cookman pitcher Edwin Sanchez kept the AL from doing any damage to the scoreboard while he was out there. Sanchez pitched two scoreless innings, as the Junior hurler from Puerto Rico put on a creditable showing during this showcase with just one hit allowed and three strikeouts.

The first run of the game was scored by the squad repping the National League, as local product and Alabama State dual threat Kameron Douglas crushed one out to center field to break the scoreless deadlock. Douglas hit 17 home runs in 59 games, which tied him for third on the SWAC’s leaderboard for the season so it isn’t particularly surprising that he ended up going deep in this one.

JT Taylor wasn’t done wreaking havoc on the basepaths. Following a rain delay and in the third inning, Taylor hit an RBI double that plated both KJ White Jr. and Darryl Lee in order to put the AL on the board. Taylor then stole third with two outs and eventually made it home after Bethune-Cookman first baseman Andrey Martinez brought him in with an RBI single. The AL team ended the inning up 3-1 and suddenly Taylor became the early frontrunner to win the MVP award of this contest.

This is the portion of the article where I’ll tip my cap to whoever made two fantastic decisions when it came to the in-stadium entertainment for this one. The first good decision was bringing in an actual DJ (DJ P’Nut) for this game, who was busy holding it down on the wheels of steal on a balcony hanging above the Chop House. With all due respect to whoever is curating the normal in-game choice of music at Truist Park, I really do appreciate bringing in a DJ who has the instinct to play “Rain” by SWV during a rain delay. Fantastic.

The second good choice was having a marching band in attendance. Indeed, the Georgia Mass Band was in the building and I’ve got to say that despite having been to a countless amount of baseball games in my life, this was the first one to have a band on hand. This was another fun decision that helped to amplify what was already an exciting atmosphere at the ballpark (or at least on the lower level of the stadium) for this one. I’d imagine that each event that will happen during this weekend will have its own unique flavor but the atmosphere for this game was just really fun to experience and be a part of.

Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images

The scoring in this one didn’t resume until the sixth inning and by then, the game had taken on that usual air of an All-Star Game where there’s a lot of time in between innings due to all of the pitching changes and also a lot of work to be done on the scorecard due to all of the substitutions. By this point in the game, Joseph Eichelberger from Jackson State was the latest player to do some damage on the basepaths for the AL.

He got on with a productive out and then stole second base in the process. The throw to try to get him went into the outfield and then as it tends to happen in these types of games, the otufielder tried to do too much and threw it to third instead of just eating it. This ended up being a costly mistake, as the throw went into the dugout and Eichelberger made it 4-1. Prairie View’s Ahmar Donatto got the run back for his squad and so we went into the money innings with the game at 4-2 in favor of the “road” team.

Things got a bit spicier once the seventh inning rolled around and the NL squad responded. After Kelton Phillips from Texas Southern hit a one-out double, Redshirt Freshman Jay Campbell from Florida A&M got a curveball that he really liked from Mississippi Valley State’s Logan Darnell and sent it flying into the seats in left center in order to tie the game up at 4-4. Again, I have to mention that this was a Freshman who did this since it’s a pretty big deal for a kid that age to hit a home run in a big league ballpark like that.

The bottom of the eighth inning ended up being a major turning point in this one, as the NL put together a rally that saw the NL go ahead at a crucial moment in the contest. In this matchup pitting two players from rival schools, Nick Luckett from the Southern Jaguars walked Trey Bridges from Grambling in order to give Bridges the brief bragging rights in this very small skirmish of this rivalry. Ahmar Donatto blooped one out to right field in order to move Bridges over to third and then Bridges scored while there was an extremely close play at second base in order to break the tie. The NL added a pair of runs in order to make it a comfortable 7-4 lead once the ninth inning rolled around.

After hitting a home run earlier on in the game as an outfielder, Kameron Douglas returned to the game as a pitcher in the ninth inning in order to help close things out for the NL squad. Douglas got the first two outs of the ninth before passing the baton to FAMU’s Jay Campbell (another dual threat), who got the final out in order to make it a win for Brian Jordan’s NL squad. Campbell ended up getting the MVP nod as well, as 0.1 innings of work was clearly enough to put him over the top for the MVP Award — on top of the home run that put the NL right back into the fray.

Meanwhile, Elijah Pinckney from Atlanta’s Morehouse College became the first player in the history of the event to represent a Division-II school while also being recognized for his off-the-field work as well.

Following the game, Brian Jordan and David Justice spoke with the media and I highly recommend that y’all watch this entire press conference as it was very illuminating to hear the two former players’ thoughts on the entire experience and what it means to participate in such an event.

We’ll have more coverage of the All-Star Game festivities through the weekend and all the way up through the actual Midsummer Classic, itself, The Futures Game starts at 4:00 p.m. today and will be followed by the Celebrity Softball Game, so this figures to be a full day of action here on Saturday after the HBCU Swingman Classic got things started on the right foot on Friday.