Former Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard and San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt announced their plans Thursday to join the Negro Leagues’ “Pitch for the Future” in bringing greater awareness to the legacy of the Negro Leagues with a museum expansion.

Duval County Public Schools rivals William M. Raines High School and Jean Ribault High School will play in an exhibition game on Friday at VyStar Ballpark.

Jacksonville and its surrounding areas are deeply rooted in rich Black history, leaving a lasting impact on the world we know today.

Fans came out to celebrate Willie Mays and other Negro Leaguers in several events and festivities around the historic Rickwood Field.

Baseball players and fans alike are learning more about the Negro Leagues after the statistics for more than 2,300 players — historic figures like Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Satchel Paige and Mule Suttles — were incorporated into the major league record book following a three-year research project.

Major League Baseball will stage a Negro Leagues tribute game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in June 2024 between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.

It’s an early season baseball game with only bragging rights on the line. But Raines and Ribault playing under the lights at 121 Financial Ballpark and donning the jerseys of a team from the long-gone Negro Leagues is a big story. The makeup game between the two Northwest Jacksonville rivals —which was originally scheduled for Feb. 12 as a preseason scrimmage — is now an actual regular season game. There’s been a renewed focus on the rich baseball history here. That was the same place where the Negro League Red Caps played for three years.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – As part of the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp’s salute to Black History Month, the club will be hosting the second annual High School Heritage Classic exhibition game between Raines and Ribault high schools at 121 Financial Ballpark. The Raines and Ribault players will wear custom Jacksonville Red Caps uniforms in a tribute to the Negro Leagues team from 1938 to 1942. Throughout the exhibition game, there will be historical references to Negro Leagues players and teams. “Personally, this is a dream come true,” said Andrea Williams, the Jumbo Shrimp’s director of community relations. The Raines Vikings defeated the Ribault Trojans 8-4 in the inaugural High School Heritage Classic in February 2020.

Major League Baseball has reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league and will count the statistics and records of its 3,400 players as part of its history. Josh Gibson, the greatest of all Negro League sluggers, might just wind up with a major league record, too. The statistics and records of greats like Gibson, Paige and roughly 3,400 other players are set to join Major League Baseball's books after MLB announced Wednesday it is reclassifying the Negro Leagues as a major league. “We couldn’t be more thrilled by this recognition of the significance of the Negro Leagues in Major League Baseball history,” said Edward Schauder, legal representative for Gibson’s estate and co-founder of the Negro Leagues Players Association. “Granting MLB status to the Negro Leagues a century after their founding is profoundly gratifying.”___More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Not long after, with many of its best players gradually following Robinsons path, the Negro Leagues ceased operations. President Clinton said he chose a Chicago Cubs cap in honor of Ernie Banks, the late Hall of Famer who got his start in the Negro Leagues. Long before that, the Negro Leagues made baseball better and America better.The celebration was moved online after a major league-wide tribute to baseballs Black pioneers scheduled for June 27 was shelved along with the games because of the coronavirus pandemic. So then I thought, How about a virtual tip of the cap?''' I always felt if there was going to be conversations about race in sports, the Negro Leagues should be at the center, because thats the story: They triumphed over adversity.