BLACKSBURG – One month away from hosting its 14th annual Baseball Night in Blacksburg – as headlined this year by keynote speaker Jeff Passan (ESPN's MLB insider) – the Virginia Tech baseball program has locked in special event details and information for its season kickoff banquet on Saturday, Feb. 12, at The Inn at Virginia Tech.
A formal event, guests are expected to dress at minimum in business casual attire and should adhere to all university COVID-19 guidelines and protocols. Individuals who are not actively eating or drinking should be masked in accordance with The Inn's policy.
Guests are invited to arrive at 2:15 p.m. and partake in a cocktail hour before the catered dinner commences at 3 p.m. Beginning at 4 p.m., head coach John Szefc will welcome all in attendance with season-opening remarks ahead of inviting special guest Jeff Passan to address the 2022 Hokies as well as their families, patrons and supporters.
Throughout the evening, guests are encouraged to participate in a silent auction, which will conclude at 5:15 p.m. prior to the banquet closing at 5:30 p.m.
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.
JEFF PASSAN
An iconic byline in American baseball coverage, Jeff 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 750,000 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.
