Marcus Semien, Texas Rangers hope to grow the game with HBCU Classic during All-Star week
Texas Rangers World Series star Marcus Semien didn’t go to a Historically Black College
But the initiatives and goals of the 2024 HBCU Swingman Classic, sponsored by Major League Baseball as part of the All-Star Weekend festivities at Globe Life Field is near and dear to the Cal product.
The diminishing number of Blacks in baseball is hard is ignore for someone who grew up with the game and loves it so much.
So Semien is willing to do anything to help grow the game from a grassroots to help get more people who look like him in the Major Leagues.
“When you talk about this event, the HBCU Swing Man classic. It’s an opportunity for primarily black baseball teams,” Semien said at a press conference Tuesday at Globe Life Field. “We talked about HBCU teams to come out of here and play on TV and play in front of a lot of people in the big league stadium. Opportunities have not always been there. I think about it a lot. I look out there every single day. I look at the clubhouses that I am in. All you can do is hope that young kids are playing baseball and working hard to make their way up.
“That’s a lot that takes a lot of hard work and it takes a lot of opportunity and people giving you chances. So that’s something that I will always work extremely hard to, to help help the young players get that opportunity.”
An annual study from The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida found Black players represented just 6.2% of players on Opening Day in 2023, down from 2022’s previous record low of 7.2%. Both figures are the lowest recorded since the study began in 1991, when 18% of MLB players were Black.
Semien knows the numbers. He sees them every day. He still remains shocked because he grew up loving the game of baseball and it’s Black stars such as Barry Bonds.
“It’s a tough one to answer,” Semien said when asked why the numbers have dropped. “I turned on the TV and I saw Barry Bonds. I grew up in San Francisco Bay area. I said Wow. He’s the best player on the team. I want to be like him. So some of it has to do with our performance as Black players and how we can inspire young men to play. The NBA or NFL has LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes.
“We need to see more more black players at the top of those leagues. But I think it also takes guys getting out in the community, connecting personally with young men and women, showing them how to play a little bit. I think that it’s our duty to get out in there, get out into the community and do those things.”
The HBCU Swingman Classic, which will be held Friday, July 12, is an annual MLB All-Star Week experience for 50 student-athletes from Division 1 programs at Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) to compete on a national stage. The Rangers and the MLB-MLBPA Youth Development Foundation (YDF) will have several HBCU philanthropic and educational initiatives ahead of the All-Star Swingman Classic
The student-athletes will be selected by a committee that will include YDF Ambassador and Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. alongside representatives from MLB and MLBPA, as well as scouts.
Semien not worried about Rangers having expectations to repeat
After winning the World Series the first time in franchise history, the Texas Rangers will head into 2024 with championship expectations for the first time in franchise history.
Semien, however, said the team is worried any added pressure.
“We have good players,” Semien said. “We have World Series experience now. We learned a lot about ourselves. We know a lot about our opponents and how they attack us. We came into this year with the goal of winning the division and getting into the playoffs. We didn’t do that. And we still won the World Series. I think this the trajectory that this team is on. It’s still going up even from a World Series championship.”
Semien doesn’t anticipate any added distractions compared to any other team that has tried to repeat over the last 20 years.
The last team to do was the three-peat New York Yankees from 1998-2000.
“I’ve looked at the history of all the World Series champions,” Semien said. “The last back to back was the Yankees. We know that teams have struggled to repeat. We also know that our goals have shifted from winning the division to winning the World Series. We are a lot hungrier. We have played in some of the biggest games atmospheres that you can ever play in.
“For us, it’s about staying healthy, being out on the field, and improving on what we did last year. And I think if we do those things, whatever expectations people have of us will be fulfilled.”
