{"id":622245,"date":"2026-04-21T22:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622245\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T22:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T22:08:10","slug":"mlbs-2026-all-star-week-to-open-with-hbcu-swingman-classic-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/622245\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB’s 2026 All-Star Week to open with HBCU Swingman Classic in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Major League Baseball has released the full schedule for 2026 All-Star Week<\/a> in Philadelphia, and for many involved, the event drawing the most attention is the HBCU Swingman Classic.<\/p>\n

The showcase honors the history and legacy of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, giving athletes from those institutions a national platform.<\/p>\n

RELATED: MLB, Phillies release 2026 All-Star week schedule of events in Philadelphia<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think it’s a great opportunity,” said former Phillies player Milt Thompson. “To be recognized, you know. HBCUs have been around forever, but we really don’t know a lot about them, I’ll put it to you that way.”<\/p>\n

Thompson, who attended Howard University, said HBCUs are “not really known for athletics.”<\/p>\n

“I went to Howard and only two of us played in the Major Leagues,” he said.<\/p>\n

Thompson will serve as one of the bench coaches for the classic.<\/p>\n

Co-created by baseball Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr., the Swingman Classic will kick off the week’s All-Star events in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Thompson said scouts selected players based on their performance this season.<\/p>\n

Beyond the game, the event incorporates HBCU culture, including entertainment, Greek fraternities and traditional ceremonies tied to those institutions.<\/p>\n

The HBCU Swingman Classic is scheduled for Friday, July 10, at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n

For the full lineup of All-Star Week events, CLICK HERE.<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Major League Baseball has released the full schedule for 2026 All-Star Week in Philadelphia, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[301584,64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-622245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-301584","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}