Jacksonville may be hub for urban baseball renaissance

The benefit of investing in urban baseball may be highlighted in Atlanta this week, but it might be most apparent in Jacksonville.

Sunday evening, Kyson and Malachi Witherspoon were both selected in the 2025 Major League Baseball Draft. This weekend, 10-year-old L.J. Highsmith will compete in a national showcase in Viera.

Their accomplishments highlight the effort that has been invested in pockets of Jacksonville where interest in the sport has waned.

The Boston Red Sox selected Kyson, a pitcher with a fastball that has touched 99 mph, with the 15^th overall selection in the first round. The Detroit Tigers selected Malachi with the No. 62 overall selection in the second round.

“He’s meant everything to me,” Kyson said of his twin during an interview with MLB.com earlier this summer. “It’s been my whole life. I’ve had my built-in catch play partner. He’s the one that’s pushing me. He’s like my second coach.”

The Witherspoon twins lived all around Jacksonville and played together at Fletcher High School. They both played at Northwest Florida State College in the 2023 season, then at the University of Oklahoma for the last two seasons.

The Witherspoon twins were among the four athletes from Northeast Florida who were selected in the early rounds of the 2025 MLB Draft. Trinity Christian pitcher Aaron Watson was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round. Alex Lodise, a Bartram Trail graduate and Florida State shortstop, was picked by the Atlanta Braves in the second round as well.

The Witherspoon twins are far from the first twins selected in the same MLB Draft.

Damon Minor and the late Ryan Minor were the last set of twins drafted in the same year to both play in the majors. Damon, was selected in the 19^th round in 1995 and the 12^th round in 1996. Meanwhile, Ryan was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 7^th round in 1995 and 33^rd round in 1996.

LaShun Highsmith Sr. says the Witherspoon brothers are part of a pipeline of Jacksonville boys who are making a big name for themselves in the sport.

Paxon graduate Lebarron Johnson was selected by the Colorado Rockies last year. The 23-year-old pitcher was promoted to High-A Spokane in May. At the other end of the pipeline is 10-year-old L.J., who was selected to play in the USSSA All-American games.

“It inspires me because I know some of my culture is making it,” L.J. says of the Witherspoon twins.

Jacksonville once had a storied baseball legacy. There is hope the Witherspoon twins, as well as the success of other emerging players, will revive it.

“To see the twins come from Jacksonville, to see kids from diverse backgrounds choose the sport of baseball, stick with baseball, achieve at the high school level, achieve at the collegiate level, and now, both of them well be well-compensated in their dream to be big leaguers, I hope it motivates kids in T-ball,” says Jacksonville City Council member Terrance Freeman.

“Baseball is a game. It’s not life. If I go to school, have good grades, and be a good person, I could have this same opportunity. That’s what I hope for with more diversity in baseball.”

Major League Baseball has tried to diversify the game over the last decade. That has come through investment in youth development opportunities and providing showcases for collegiate players and networking symposiums and opportunities for interested coaches and executives.

Freeman helped bring Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program to Jacksonville prior to his political career. Freeman played more than 400 minor league games for the Detroit Tigers, Pittsburgh Pirates and Athletics organizations and coached the sport at multiple youth levels.

This January, Freeman and Highsmith Sr. combined to host Diamond in the Rough, a youth skills initiative for boys and girls between 3 and 19. It typically draws more than 100 young athletes and is timed to prepare them for the upcoming spring season.

“Every kid is not a football player. Every kid is not a basketball player,” Highsmith says. “Baseball gives the kids that don’t want to take all the hits, or are maybe not that good playing (other sports), another option in the community. It’s not even to go pro, but just to go to college.”

There may be additional opportunities for college scholarships in the years to come. Beginning in the 2025-26 academic year, Division I programs will have the option to offer as many as 34 baseball scholarships, a far higher number than the 11.7 baseball scholarships that were previously available.

When youth baseball players are stratified by talent, and not an ability to pay, it creates more diversity within the sport.

Jacksonville nonprofit Walk Off Charities has also sought to bring baseball to the urban core. It sponsors leagues in Northwest Jacksonville, as well as the Westside, and provides equipment and fields introductory clinics for third grade students throughout Duval County.

Freeman does not want to guarantee outcomes for anyone in the sport; he wants to create opportunities for children to excel.

“The more kids are exposed to this sport, I think the better its going to be to increase the numbers in high school, increase the numbers in college and eventually the pros,” Freeman says. “Conflict resolution is an amazing attribute for kids to learn. Baseball, for me, is a sport that really helped hone that skill for adversity.”

This year was the first time since 2018 that the percentage of Black players on Major League Baseball’s Opening Day rosters increased from the year prior. The 6.2% of Black players on the first day of the season, according to Major League Baseball’s data, is far lower than the 18.3% of Black players the Society for American Baseball Research found on major league rosters in 1985.

This year is the 40^th anniversary of Raines High graduate Vince Coleman making his MLB debut with the St. Louis Cardinals en route to earning the National League Rookie of the Year.

Highsmith Sr. says Coleman is the reason he remains a Cardinals fan.

L.J. says his favorite baseball players are Shohei Ohtani and Cincinnati Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz, both power hitters for the left-handed L.J. to emulate.

L.J. knows there may not be as many African Americans in baseball as there were when his father grew up in Jacksonville’s Grand Park neighborhood. But he knows discipline and dedication will take him just as far as his sweet swing.

“Even though I’m 10-years-old, right now, it means pretty much everything to me,” says L.J. who expects to celebrate his 11^th birthday on the final day of the showcase that features some of the best 10-year-old baseball players in America on July 27.

“I have to work hard to get there.”