The Jackie Robinson Training Complex former Spring Training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Major League Baseball this week announced that the HBCU Baseball season opening event, the Andre Dawson Classic has officially shifted location to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, former preseason home of the Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers beginning in 2024. The Andre Dawson Classic will continue to stage Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) baseball showcasing the start of the HBCU Baseball season.
The Classic as it moves into its 16th season is the official season opening tournament that celebrates six NCAA Division I HBCU Baseball programs as the kick-off event at the start of the HBCU College Baseball Season.
Major League Baseball announced the six participating HBCUs in the 2024 Andre Dawson Classic annual round-robin field the weekend of February 23rd-25th. The last nine years the season opening Classic was held in New Orleans, La. The tournament will receive a national spotlight through a LIVE doubleheader feature broadcast by MLB Network and streamed on MLB.com. The past tournament was fielded at Maestri Field at the University of New Orleans with the New Orleans MLB Youth Academy. In celebration of Black History Month, the tournament launched in 2008 by MLB highlighted HBCU baseball programs.
The participating six teams in the 2024 event includes Alabama State, Florida A&M, Grambling State University, Prairie View A&M, Southern, and making its first-ever appearance North Carolina A&T.
Rumors of the Andre Dawson Classic moving became official after Major League Baseball assumed operations of the former Historic Dodgertown and renamed it to the Jackie Robinson Training Complex.
The Jackie Robinson Training Complex JRTC (formerly Historic Dodgertown) opened in 1948, and for 60 years was the Spring Training home of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Today, the facility is operated by Major League Baseball as a year-round sports complex and conference center, welcoming youth, amateur, national team, and professional athletes from around the world in the sports of baseball, softball, football, soccer, lacrosse, rugby, swimming, and rowing. The JRTC is the official training facility of the USA Softball national teams and home to many MLB youth baseball and softball development programs, including the Hank Aaron Invitational and RBI World Series.
Many of the players that will participate in the Andre Dawson Classic are alumni of both MLB Development Initiatives and RBI programs are included on every Andre Dawson Classic roster. Last year’s Classic notably included 42 players who have participated in MLB Development initiatives such as the Dream Series, Breakthrough Series, the Hank Aaron Invitational, and the Swingman’s Classic.
Last year’s Andre Dawson Classic had 44 alumni from Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), 10 players from the Houston Astros RBI and Youth Academy, 5 players from the Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson Baseball Foundation RBI program in Birmingham, AL, 5 players from Atlanta Braves RBI, 5 players from Puerto Rico RBI, 19 alumni of MLB Youth Academies, including 10 from Houston and six from New Orleans.
The tournament will continue with a corresponding 12u tournament consisting of teams from RBI and/or Youth Academy programs in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston will be held in celebration of the Andre Dawson Classic, with games played at the JRTC complex.