Early Saturday, Aflac Inc. (AFL) announced that Mychal Givens, a right-handed pitcher and infielder from Plant High School, Tampa, Florida, was awarded the 2008 Jackie Robinson Award and named the Aflac National High School Player of the Year.
Givens was selected from among six nominees determined by official Aflac All-American Baseball Game selection partners Baseball America and Perfect Game. Beau Wright bagged the Sportsmanship award and the Top Pitcher Award was presented to Matthew Purke.
The awards were presented during the fifth annual Aflac All- American Awards Dinner, which recognizes the best of best in high school baseball preceding the annual Aflac All-American High School Baseball Game.
The coveted Jackie Robinson Award is named after the renowned Brooklyn Dodger, the first player to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, and a leader in social issues off the field. Robinson's daughter, Sharon Robinson, and the game's honorary chairman Ozzie Smith, were there to present the awards.
The fifth annual Aflac All-American High School Baseball Game will be played on Saturday, Aug. 9 at Dodger Stadium. The event showcases the top 38 rising senior players in an East vs. West match-up.
AFL closed Friday's regular trading session at $55.59, up $1.61 or 2.98% and in the after hours session lost 25 cents. AFL has trended the past year in the range of $50.19 - $68.81 on a volume of 4.56 million shares.
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