Just out the tunnel on the gravel beyond the first base dugout, Griffey himself held court with broadcaster and former teammate Harold Reynolds, World Series champion and Cy Young Award winner C.C. Sabathia, fellow Hall of Famer Andre Dawson, two-time All-Star Vince Coleman and others as the crowd competed for his attention. Major League Baseball Players Association executive director Tony Clark was in the mix, as were MLB and HBCU legends including Marquis Grissom, Rickie Weeks Jr., Marvin Freeman and Trenidad Hubbard—along with managers Jerry Manuel, Cito Gaston, Roger Cador and Bo Porter.
As ESPN’s Clinton Yates pointed out that night and in his postmortem for Andscape, Swingman was preceded by some debate about how it should be marketed. With Griffey teaming with MLB and HBCUs to make it happen, brands made a contribution without inserting themselves into the spotlight.
T-Mobile presented the game, but didn’t douse it in magenta. Before the game, T-Mobile’s Black Empowerment Network employee group hosted a discussion among baseball leaders about improving diversity within the sport. During the event itself, the company presented Alcorn State’s Kewan Braziel its impact award for his work on the field and in the community. In 2024, T-Mobile plans to circle back to Swingman players by hosting an HBCU Athlete Summit of talks and networking opportunities with T-Mobile HBCU alumni and executives.
“We were asked early on if we’d be interested in participating, and it was like an easy yes for us—we were really there ready to help however we could,” said Mike Katz, president of marketing, innovation and experience at T-Mobile. “They had a very specific vision for how they wanted this to be executed.”
Chevrolet also showed up for Swingman, but only as part of its Discover The Unexpected partnership with the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). With Chevy’s help, student journalists from HBCUs covered the game as interns for publications including the The Tennessee Tribune, The Washington Informer, Philadelphia Tribune, The Atlanta Voice, Houston Forward Time and The Dallas Examiner.
Instead of filling T-Mobile Park’s concourse with tables, tents and activations, brands largely ceded the space to HBCU and Divine Nine fraternity and sorority sign-up tables and Black-owned vendors including Chaztown Beef Jerky, Shikorina Pastries and Marjorie’s Steel Drum Plantain Chips.