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• Annual round-robin collegiate baseball tournament designed by Major League Baseball to highlight Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and their baseball programs.

Recognized by the Higher Education Act of 1965, HBCUs have offered quality educational and athletic programs for African-American youth for more than a century. HBCUs have a proud baseball tradition, and have produced Hall of Famers such as Lou Brock (Southern University) and Andre Dawson (Florida A&M University).

The Urban Invitational was first launched in 2008 at the MLB Youth Academy in Compton, Calif., and was hosted there until 2012 when the tournament relocated to Houston. The Houston Astros hosted the event at Minute Maid Park in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 and 2015 the tournament relocated to New Orleans, and those two years included participation by NCAA Division I programs LSU and University of New Orleans.

Since 2008, the year of the inaugural Invitational, more than 25 HBCU athletes who have played in the tournament have been selected in the MLB Draft.