SU baseball to play BCC, UCLA & USC in Urban Classic

Southern University baseball will make history playing in the first Urban Classic that will feature the Jaguars competing against Bethune-Cookman, UCLA and USC.
The event will take place Friday, February 29, 2008 and last through the weekend, ending March 2nd. Games will be played at the Major League Baseball Academy in Compton, Calif.
“I’m excited to make history,” said Southern head baseball coach Roger Cador. “This is the first time Major League Baseball has entered into any kind of agreement with any kind of college, in terms of baseball.”
The key to making this deal happen may have been Cador’s relationship with Jimmy Lee Solomon. Solomon is the executive vice president of baseball operations for MLB.
“All of this came about because of my relationship with Jimmy Lee Solomon,” Cador said. “Jimmy Lee is the third highest ranking official in baseball right now. You have Commissioner Bud Selig, Bob Dupay and then Jimmy Lee Solomon.”
Over the last four years Cador and Solomon have worked together doing baseball symposiums together, trying to get more African-Americans interested in the game. During that same time the pair also talked about what they could at the collegiate level. In fact they stayed in constant communication with each other trying to make their dream a success.
“After every symposium we talked about what we could do and Jimmy Lee told me to be proactive,” Cador said. “He told me to gather my ideas and call him, you know, bring them to me, and bounce them off my head. That’s what I did.”
But when asked who played the brains behind this operation, Cador credits Solomon.
“This is something he and I talked about over four or five years ago,” Cador said. “When we first met he had an idea to create something that would highlight a historically black college. And with Southern having recent success with some of our players going to the big leagues, it was a perfect fit.”
“I could have never dreamed of this one,” Cador said. “We talked about some other things, but the fact is this was his idea.”
Plus, along with the Urban Classic and all it has to offer, add to the list the Southern University “Human Jukebox” Marching Band. The band will travel along with the baseball team to participate in the weekend’s festivities, competing against the USC and UCLA bands.
“The other thing that’s going to make this Urban Classic extremely special is that we’re taking our band,” Cador said. “They are going to compete against USC’s band, and when you think of it, baseball has never had anything when you have two bands performing at a baseball game.”
“In my opinion this is as forward thinking as you can get,” Cador said. “It has a chance to be a huge success and it’s a major accomplishment for Southern University, especially baseball.”
Lagniappe
Solomon creates future games for MLB. In fact he creates events for the All-Star Game, which is played annually and came up with the Freedom Game, which was played in Memphis, Tenn. The game commemorates the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. being killed there. It was the first MLB game ever played in Memphis.
“With the Freedom Game and last years All-Star game Jimmy Lee has seen major success,” Cador said.
SU Big Leaguers
Former Southern baseball players now in the major league include second baseman Rickie Weeks (Milwaukee Brewers), outfielder Fred Lewis (San Francisco Giants) and pitcher Dewon Day (Chicago White Sox).
Also, on Friday, August 24th, third base umpire Damien Beal became the first umpire from an HBCU to officiate a MLB game. Beal is a 1995 graduate of Southern and was called up from the MLB Minor League Call-Up list, to work the Boston vs. Chicago doubleheader in Comiskey Park.
“Recently we have had a multitude of success with the baseball program here at Southern,” Cador said.