Ground breaking for the Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium. From right are: Daughter of Andre Rodgers, Gina Rodgers-Sealy; Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson; Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie; and Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis. (BIS Photo/Kris Ingraham)
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NASSAU, The Bahamas -- A new
Andre Rodgers National Baseball Stadium will be completed in 2015 and heralds
rapid expansion of the game of baseball in The Bahamas. The stadium will be named after Bahamian
baseball great, Kenneth Andre Ian Rodgers – the first Bahamian to play US Major
League Baseball.
Rodgers played primarily shortstop
for the Giants, Chicago Cubs, and Pittsburg Pirates.
Ground breaking for the
stadium’s construction took place November 7 attended by his family, friends,
and government officials, including the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister,
and the Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture.
The achievements of Andre Rodgers are still very vivid in Bahamian
sporting memory.
Mr. Rodgers’s daughter, Gina
Rodgers-Sealy, a journalist, addressed the ceremonies, and was a part of the
ground-breaking team.
The stadium will be designed
by Architect Michael Foster. As a state
of the art facility, it will support the nation’s current energies to fully
develop its sports tourism.
Mrs. Rodgers-Sealy, as a film
maker, produced a documentary that premiered at Atlantis, Paradise Island this
weekend, entitled “Gentle-Giant: The Andre Rodgers Story.” Exposed to baseball at the Major League and
the life of a famous father from a young age, Mrs. Rodgers-Sealy showed the man
who was the gifted sportsman, and the man who was her father.
Mrs. Gina Rodgers-Sealy, daughter of baseball great, Andre Rodgers, shares moment with (l-r) Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Perry Christie, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Works the Hon. Philip Davis, and Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture, the Hon. Dr. Daniel Johnson. (BIS Photo/Peter L. Ramsay)
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