Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic

The fourth annual Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic, featuring the best high school juniors in the nation the summer before their senior year, will be played at noon on Aug. 12 at San Diego State's Tony Gwynn Stadium. ve San Diegans have played in the first three games and two more All-Americans were named for the 2006 game.

Padres Catcher Mike Piazza presents an Aflac All-American jersey to Nick Noonan, as Reggie Jackson presents a jersey to Sequoyah Stonecipher in front of the players’ hometown fans at PETCO Park

Reggie Jackson (left) helps Sequoyah Stonecipher try on his Aflac jersey as Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez and Aflac's Al Johnson look on at a press conference announcing the game Aug. 12 in San Diego.

05-07-2006: By Tom Shanahan, San Diego Hall of Champions

It took the McDonald’s All-American High School Basketball Game three decades to discover San Diego before the 29th annual event visited San Diego on March 29 on San Diego State’s Cox Arena.

But the Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic only needed four years to find America’s Finest City and high school baseball hotbed. Aflac announced on May 7 the fourth annual game will be played Aug. 12 at San Diego State’s Tony Gwynn Stadium.

The Aflac game, matching the nation’s best high school juniors the summer before their senior year, has quickly evolved into the baseball equivalent of the McDonald’s game.

One reason Aflac may have discovered San Diego so quickly is the talent that comes out of San Diego. The first three games have featured five San Diegans and two more were selected for the 2006 game.

Mission Bay High’s Sequoyah Stonecipher, a 6-foot-1, 190-pound outfielder who is orally committed to USD, and Francis Parker’s Nick Noonan, a 6-1, 170-pound shortstop, were both named to the Aflac game in a press conference on May 7 at the Petco Park. The game matches the best players from the East vs. the West.

Stonecipher and Noonan received their Aflac jerseys and a Mizuno bat – wood bats are used in the Aflac game – in a pre-game ceremony before the Padres’ win over the Chicago Cubs. Baseall Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson, the Aflac game honorary chairman, and Padres catcher Mike Piazza presented the jerseys and bats to the players.

The five previous San Diegans to play in the Aflac game are Mission Bay’s Matt Bush (2003), Valhalla’s Sean O’Sullivan (2004), Rancho Bernardo’s John Drennen (2004), Eastlake’s Nick Romero (2004) and Rancho Buena Vista’s Gavin Brooks (2005).

In the first three years of the Aflac game, 82 players were drafted by Major League Baseball teams. Bush was the first pick of the draft by the Padres in 2004 and Drennen was a first-round pick by the Cleveland Indians in 2005.

Tickets for the Aflac game in San Diego can be purchased by calling 619-282-4487.

For more information on the game, visit aflacallamerican.com.

Tom Shanahan can be contacted at 619-699-2334 or toms@sdhoc.com.

Padres pitcher Shawn Estes (left to right) with Reggie Jackson, Nick Noonan, Adrian Gonzalez and Al Johnson.