First HBCU Play Ball Clinic excites at FAMU

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- To help cap off Black History Month, Major League Baseball and Florida A&M University hosted the first Historically Black College & Universities (HBCU) Play Ball Series event. There will be two more outings at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Ala. (March 30) and Claflin University in Orangeburg, S.C. (May 3).

Two former Rattlers were in attendance for the day of play at Moore-Kittles Field: Vince Coleman and Antonio Grissom. Coleman, who played in the Majors for 13 seasons, won the National League Rookie of the Year Award in 1985 and was named an All-Star in '88 and ‘89. Grissom played for six seasons in the Minor Leagues.

"FAMU is the best college, especially HBCU school; it gave me the opportunity to go out and play," Coleman said. "Such a family-oriented university that gives you the knowledge, the understanding of what it means to be a great leader, a great hard worker with great work ethics, and that's how you become a professional baseball player."

Children ages 3 to 13 participated in Saturday’s activities, which ranged from baserunning to agility to even a home run derby. The Play Ball Series aims to help kids become more engaged in baseball by showing them the more fun and casual aspects of the game.

"It reminds me a lot of myself, when I was a kid coming up in my neighborhood. You always had a bunch of kids together, you had organized games and a Little League program that catered to starting at 10 years old," Coleman said. "It gave me the foundation of how to go out and work on my skill set. What I would used to do is I would always go out and pick a Major League player and try to go out and duplicate the things that Willie Mays did, Pete Rose would do. Andre Dawson, he was a FAMU graduate. Those are things that inspired me and kept me interested in the game of baseball."

Not only were there a few former FAMU players in attendance for the day’s activities, but head baseball coach Jamey Shouppe and the rest of his team helped run various stations and drills on Saturday morning.

"This is the first time we've done this, and we're certainly excited about the turnout, to see so many young kids out here on a beautiful day in Florida playing baseball," Shouppe said. "We've tried to do these events on our own outside of Major League Baseball before and we'd get 15 to 20 kids, and to see 200 kids out here is overwhelming for our guys. It's not only good for the community, it's good for our players to be involved with these young kids and help mentor them a little bit.”

The clinics hosted at HBCUs are intended to highlight the schools as viable options for not only baseball, but also academics. The new series will build on MLB’s existing efforts, most notably the Andre Dawson Classic (formerly Urban Invitational) -- an annual tournament named after the Hall of Famer designed to highlight HBCUs and their baseball programs. Since its inception in 2008, dozens of HBCU athletes who have played in the tournament have been selected in the Draft.

"Well, you look at all the history of the guys that came through this area that have played at Florida A&M and where they are today," Coleman said. "You have so many great politicians and so many great professional athletes, and you look all over the world and you say, 'OK, you see that FAMU tag that's attached to them?' And you say, 'OK, that is a good university that I want to go ahead and follow the footsteps,' and it gives you all the blueprints to go out and go ahead and be successful."

Coleman hopes to continue the great traditions and legacy of HBCUs both on and off the field.

"I'm so happy to come back to see these kids out here," Coleman said. "You know, it brings tears to my eyes, because this is where it all starts. We have to give back in that neighborhood to give them the insight to know that there is a future out there for them at a HBCU school, and not thinking that they have to go somewhere else. So it takes myself to come in and show them that, 'Hey, I started here. I came through this program, and this is what it has done for me.'"