The Clubhouse Conversations Interview Series exists to celebrate and give more visibility to the professional Black baseball players in Minor League Baseball and Major League Baseball, Black coaches/scouts/managers/front office members, and the Black writers who cover professional baseball. These interviews will solely be featured on Unculture and conduct the…

Closely following the path taken by his hero C.C. Sabathia, Triston McKenzie is leading the revival of a legacy & culture that Satchel Paige brought to the Cleveland Guardians franchise in 1948 — When Satchel Paige became the first Black pitcher to record an appearance in a game in the AL as a swingman for Cleveland’s pitching staff in 1948, he joined a ball club that had already cultivated a reputation and history for finding great starters.

Background + Path to Professional Baseball Canaan Smith-Njigba is a 22-year-old outfielder of Sierra Leonean descent in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from Dallas, Texas. He comes from an athletic family, as his younger brother is a star wide receiver at The Ohio State University. A catcher while he was in high school, teams walked him so…

Background + Path To Professional Baseball Xavier Edwards is a 22-year-old middle infielder in the Tampa Bay Rays organization from Broward County, Florida. He was drafted out of North Broward Prep High School with the 38th overall pick of the 2018 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres as one of the top high school prospects…

Background + Path to Professional Baseball Royce Lewis is a twenty-two-year-old shortstop in the Minnesota Twins organization from Orange County, California. He attended JSerra High School, where he played second base, third base, shortstop, and centerfield during a career where he won the LA Times Player of the Year Award for high school baseball players in…

Simeon Woods Richardson is a 20-year-old pitcher in the Minnesota Twins organization from Sugar Land, Texas, a suburb of Houston, Texas. Kempner High School was where he started as a 5'6'’ second baseman who grew to be a two-way phenom as a 6'4'’ starting pitcher with four legit pitches…

Andre Jackson is a 25-year-old starting pitcher in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization from Tuscon, Arizona. Jackson was one of the top high school baseball players coming out of the state of Arizona, which is one of the hotbeds for top-tier high school baseball players in the Western hemisphere. A…