With all of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) baseball prospects available attests to the amount of talent and the success of so many HBCU baseball programs. Yet, the decline in HBCU ball players being drafted by Major League Baseball and the lack of interest gives indication of how the MLB overlooks HBCU baseball. The signing of a player who has not donned a uniform in more than 10 years provides evidence of how Major League clubs ignore the HBCU baseball community.
Tim Tebow, the former National Football League quarterback who won the Heisman Trophy for the Florida Gators in 2007 and helped the team win two national championships, recently signed a baseball minor league contract with the New York Mets
Tebow hasn’t played organized baseball since his junior year in High School in 2005 will begin his professional baseball career in the fall instructional league in Port St. Lucie, Florida. The Mets organization agreed to a $100,000 signing bonus.
For younger, energetic prospects more deserving of a chance to advance their college baseball careers and dreams coming out of HBCU baseball programs, many MLB organizations continue to overlook talent at HBCUs.
This past 2016 baseball, two stout Historically Black College and University (HBCU) baseball programs from the same conference competed in it’s conference tournament. A dishonest deed was exhibited by its governing conference association. Part of this is due to the fact that there are a lot of very good HBCU baseball teams that can and will compete with top non-HBCU baseball programs and or will knock them off on any given game day.
I am not trying to draw generalizations here or make the claim that every HBCU games you see verses non-HBCU is unfairly played. I am merely trying to explore the reason why some HBCU games against non-HBCUs appears to be such a ground to gain advantage.
The tournament seeding was decided during the regular season long before the first pitch was thrown to start the tournament. This is not privy to the fans in the stands. Of course, this by no means applies to all college baseball games played by HBCU baseball programs.
So if you ask the question, Is it necessary for dishonesty in collegiate baseball?
The Podcast focus on the grind of HBCU baseball.
