Home ACC to make history with all-Black umpire crew for UVA-UNC series this weekend
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ACC to make history with all-Black umpire crew for UVA-UNC series this weekend

Chris Graham

acc baseballThe Atlantic Coast Conference will make history this weekend with an all-Black umpire crew for the Virginia-North Carolina baseball series.

It will mark the first time an all-Black crew has worked a game for a Power 5 conference or in Major League Baseball.

Veteran ACC umpires Linus Baker, Damien Beal, Greg Street and Randy Watkins have been assigned to work the series.

“I approached Kris Pierce [Senior Associate Commissioner, Championships & Senior Woman Administrator] in the winter and asked permission to have an all-Black crew and without hesitation, she gave me the go-ahead,” ACC Supervisor of Umpires Troy Fullwood said. “These guys are ACC umpires, veteran guys that have been umpiring a long time and they deserve this opportunity to be a part of history. Hopefully we’ll get to the point where this is not a first, but this is the norm.”

The series gets underway Thursday, Feb. 25 at 4 p.m., followed by game two on for Friday at 3:30 p.m. and the series finale is slated for Saturday at 2 p.m.

All three games will be held at Boshamer Stadium on UNC’s campus and each game will air live on ACC Network Extra.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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