BLACKSBURG – On behalf of the Virginia Tech baseball program, head coach John Szefc is proud to invite all to celebrate the Hokies during the program's 14th annual Baseball Night in Blacksburg, as scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 12, at The Inn at Virginia Tech. This season's event will be headlined by special guest and keynote speaker Jeff Passan – distinguished sports journalist, author and MLB insider for ESPN.
An iconic byline in American baseball coverage, Passan is a revered writer and analyst who has spent close to two decades reporting on professional baseball and its athletes. After graduating from Syracuse University, he landed his first baseball column in 2004 with The Kansas City Star before transitioning to Yahoo! Sports, where he was a leading MLB beat writer for 13 years.
In 2019, Passan departed Yahoo! to join ESPN's baseball coverage team, with whom he now serves as a field reporter, television analyst and social media voice, often breaking MLB news to his more than 740,000 Twitter followers. Passan is also the author of the New York Times best-selling book, The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports.
Billed as the formal kickoff to Tech's spring season, Baseball Night in Blacksburg provides an intimate setting where fans can meet and interact with the 2022 Hokies less than a week before gates at English Field officially open. Beginning at 2:30 p.m. and running through 5:30 p.m., guests are welcome to share in a catered dinner, drinks and a silent auction while hearing remarks from head coach John Szefc and special guest Jeff Passan.
Tickets to Baseball Night in Blacksburg are available at $75. Guests may also purchase tickets at $100 that include three free drink vouchers to the event's cash bar, available to all patrons of age.
Tables within the event ballroom (accommodating eight tickets, plus three drink tickets apiece) are available at $1,000 on a first-come, first-served basis.
All Baseball Night in Blacksburg proceeds go to support the Virginia Tech baseball team and its continual enhancements to English Field at Atlantic Union Bank Park, as well as to the James C. Weaver Baseball Center. Past banquets have supported the installation of artificial turf and expanded dugouts, among other general ballpark overhauls and additions.
Jeff Passan will become the Hokies' latest high-profile special guest, joining the names of notable speakers Cal Ripken Jr. (2008), Mike Williams (2010), Billy Wagner (2011), Bobby Valentine (2012), Chuck Hartman (2014), Tim Kurkjian (2018), Ken Rosenthal (2020) and others.
To register for Tech's 2022 Baseball Night in Blacksburg, please click here. Those with questions may direct them to baseball director of operations, Corey Haines, by email at haines@vt.edu.
