MOBILE — Crosstown bragging rights will be on the line as top senior baseball players from Mobile and Baldwin Counties will clash at McGill-Toolen Catholic on May 9 in the inaugural Senior Showdown.

Directed by the Mobile MOBSTERS, the game will rekindle a longstanding tradition pitting some of the area’s best seniors in a final contest open to the public. It builds on 69 installments of the East-West All-Star Game, which drew college and professional scouts but was last played in 2012.

“The Showdown, like other athletic events, is about helping young people learn how to succeed in sports and life,” said MOBSTERS co-founder Joe Connick. “We want this to become as much a spring tradition as the East-West Games when the Mobile Lions organized them.”

The MOBSTERS is an organization of former players and coaches that raises funds and collects used equipment to support inner-city baseball. MOBSTERS, which stands for “Mobile Organized Baseball Society Teaching Every Relevant Skill,” also conducts baseball clinics at area schools and recreation parks.

With the attendance fee set at either $5 or a donation of new or slightly used adult baseball equipment, proceeds will benefit local teams.

“Sports equipment is expensive, and anything we can do to put more baseball gear in the hands of young players advances the game,” Connick said.

Some players nominated for the teams may not be available if their teams are in the playoffs, but many of the top players are expected. Barring similar playoff obligations, the two head coaches are set.

The Mobile team will be skippered by St. Luke’s Episcopal School head baseball coach Mike Szymanski, who set a school record for wins when he coached at Satsuma High School.

Helming the Baldwin team will be coaching legend Tommy Walker, who returned to Spanish Fort after steering high school and college teams in the Birmingham and Ocean Springs, Mississippi areas.

Both are members of the Alabama Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame.

As part of the ceremonies acknowledging Mobile’s rich baseball history, former Major League Baseball players born in Mobile or living in the area will be inducted into the newly created Frank Bolling Ambassadors of Baseball Fraternity.

Bolling, a two-time MLB All-Star, played in the majors for 12 years and was instrumental in founding the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the Mobile Baseball Hall of Fame. He and his brother, Milt, are one of four double-play brother combinations in Major League history.

More than 50 players born in Mobile have reached Major League Baseball or the Negro League, including Hall of Fame members Hank Aaron, Billy Williams, Satchel Page, Willie McCovey and Ozzie Smith.

Stay tuned to gulfcoastmedia.com/sports for more information on the event as well as the roster announcements.