The 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
