Greensboro Set to Host Youth Baseball Tournament

GREENSBORO - The Inner City Classic is coming back to the Gate City.

The Metropolitan Junior Baseball League announced Wednesday that Greensboro will host the organization 's 27th annual signature event at city Parks & Rec baseball diamonds July 14-18.

Greensboro last hosted the Inner City Classic in 2009 and 2010. The city was chosen this year over another finalist, Dodgertown at Vero Beach, Fla.

"I've traveled to these events all over the country," MJBL executive director Bill Forrester said Wednesday at the Leonard Rec Center. "I've been to places like Las Vegas, Dallas, Orlando, Chicago. Well, when I saw Barber Park, I've never seen anything that can duplicate that (venue) for 12-and-under baseball."

The MJBL was born in 1966 in Richmond, Va., during the segregation era in the South, when African-American children had limited access to organized baseball. It's grown over the years and now has chapters in 17 states, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas.

Participation in the annual Inner City Classic varies. The round-robin, pool-play tournaments in age groups for children 19 and younger have drawn as many as 80 teams and as few as 35.

Each team pays an entry fee of $400, a bargain by travel-ball standards.

Contact Jeff Mills at (336) 373-7024, and follow @JeffMillsNR on Twitter.

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