Elizabeth OroscoFeature Writing

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

The field is silent, except for the clanging of the flagpole in the wind. The

dugouts and bleachers are empty, the grass freshly mowed, and the bases gleaming

at each corner of the diamond. In just a few short weeks, this quiet ballpark will be

alive and thriving as friends and family fill the bleachers and boys in uniform grip

the chain link fence inside the dugout, watching their teammates race around the

bags, chasing their dreams.

Cleveland Park, a field used by Kansas City’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

(RBI) Program, was recently the recipient of a $1.8 million renovation in 2004,

including the addition of infield mix, laser grading and drainage around the

diamonds.

The RBI Program is one of the largest branches of the Boys and Girl’s Club of

Greater Kansas City. Founded in 1989 by former Major Leaguer John Young, this

program is aimed to overcome obstacles preventing children in the inner city from

playing the game of baseball. Considering crime rates, lack of funding for adequate

fields and equipment, these obstacles seem endless. Young envisioned a program

that would not only provide the essentials for the game and teach the fundamentals

of baseball and softball, but also instill the importance of academic success, social

responsibility, teamwork, leadership and life skills.

“Even though scouts don’t go ‘look, you have an opportunity for college and

stuff like that to better yourself,’ it teaches you some honor. It teaches you some

integrity. So yeah, I really encourage everything that happens in the RBI,” said Willie

Wilson, a former Royals player.

Today, the RBI program serves 900 youth, ages five to eighteen with 57

teams playing over 800 games a year. Since 2008, over 90 high school graduates in

this program have continued to college, 54 of them with a baseball scholarship. Two

members of this program have also been drafted by Major League Baseball teams.

“I’m not so interested in making Major League players, as I am interested in

making Major League citizens,” says Phil Harris, the director of the RBI program.

“That’s our goal, to produce Major League citizens.”

Harris is currently in his sixth season as director of the program. “Years ago, I

used to umpire in the program, and the opportunity was presented and the next

thing you know, I was able to follow my passion and be a part of it. It is my passion.

Anytime we can affect the lives of young people, that makes a difference.”

Making a difference is exactly what this program is about. Geared towards

children specifically growing up in the inner city, this program has tapped into a

wellspring of eager ballplayers who face challenges not as prevalent in other sports,

such as basketball.

“It’s easier to pick up a basketball, find a hoop anywhere and play the game,”

Harris says. “Baseball is a little bit different. Baseball isn’t a game you can just pick

up and lay down.”

However, the main obstacle facing inner city children wanting to play

baseball is the daunting issue of expenses. Compared to other sports, baseball is

simply not an option for some children because of the finances needed to play. On

certain leagues around the city, one child could easily require four to five hundred

dollars to play on the team, considering the cost of uniforms, equipment and league

fees.

“In our program,” Harris explains, “a kid pays twenty-five dollars which

includes his school-year membership at the Boys and Girls Club, their summer

program, a complete uniform, complete gear, and their equipment for the field:

baseball bats, helmets, catcher’s gear, all of those things.

Thanks to generous donors, contributors and team sponsors, the RBI

program is able to cut down the cost dramatically, giving every child an opportunity

to play, and never turning a single one away, even if they are unable to pay the low,

$25 fee.

Once these children are signed up and placed on an age appropriate team,

they become a part of a community focused on developing life skills, through the

game of baseball. As a branch of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kansas City, the

RBI program values personal development and academic success over batting

average. Off the field, the program teaches life skills through the Boys and Girls Club

SMART (Skills Mastery and Resistance Training) Moves program. SMART Moves

addresses issues such as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

“We develop life skills,” Harris says. “Sports teaches you how to get along

well with others, especially a game like baseball. It’s not an individual sport; it’s a

team sport. So you have to get along with others. After our kids have workouts, we

make all of our young men come up and tell their story: How did your workout go

today? Where do you go to school? How are your grades? If our young people don’t

make the grades, they can’t play the game. We understand that whenever school

districts go through struggles, the first things they cut out are sports and arts. I have

some issues with that. Those are the two ‘carrots’ you can dangle in front of a kid to

keep them within their grade point. They’ll understand that if they don’t make the

grades, they can’t play the game.”

For many of the participants of the RBI program, this strict accountability in

academic achievements and personal development stretches them in ways that they

have never experienced in home or school settings.

“I have been playing in RBI since I was 8 years old,” says Anthony Atkinson Jr.

“The RBI program kept me on track with school, not just baseball. Without RBI, I

don’t know what I would be doing.”

This program highly encourages postsecondary education, aiding high school

participants in their pursuit of a college career. One of the goals of the program is to

ensure that all eligible senior players graduate on time and have a postsecondary

plan in place. The program has seen a tremendous increase in the number of high

school seniors continue on to college.

“In the five years that we have had the program, every year, all of our eligible

high school seniors have graduated on time, with the exception of year one,” Harris

says. “We had one young man who graduated a semester late. However, he did get a

scholarship to go play baseball after he graduated. So we feel pretty good; it worked

out well.

“I also just got an email the other day from a kid who is graduating from

Baker with a double major: Sports Management and Business, and he has already

been accepted into Texas A&M’s Masters program. Those are accomplishments we

like to see.”

This program not only pushes and encourages participants to pursue a

college education, it offers scholarships to ease the financial burden. The RBI

Scholarship, offered by Major League Baseball gives a participant $5,000 for four

years, a total of $20,000. The RBI program in Kansas City has already had several

recipients of this award.

Also available is the David Wolfe Scholarship that offers a few thousand

dollars, depending on available funds, every year. Wolfe was a big supporter and fan

of the RBI program, with several of his own children participating in the program.

After passing from cancer, his family offered to start a scholarship in his honor,

because of his love for the game.

“Many kids in the urban area would not have that opportunity to go to school

without that type of assistance,” Harris says.

Sometimes, this program even develops certain participants into Major

League Players. Two years ago, Braylen Jackson and Justin Chigbogu were drafted

by MLB teams. Jackson was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the fourth round,

and Chigbogu was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth round. Harris explains

that even though the drafts were a momentous occasion, he believes there is a

bigger vision.

“We are ecstatic that Braylen and Justin both got drafted, but baseball is just

a vehicle for a better life. It drives you to where you need to go.”

This program, aimed towards assisting inner city children, faces yet another

obstacle as hundreds of kids pour in each year. These children often come from

unfortunate circumstances, and the majority are raised in single-parent homes,

living with only a mother or a grandmother. This presents a certain dynamic to the

program that must be addressed, and any adult working with these children must

be equipped for. Baseball is widely known as specifically a father-son sport. Unlike

other sports, the game of baseball has to be taught by and practiced with another

person, usually a father or father figure. Because the majority of the children in this

program lack that dynamic in their homes, it presents the RBI program with an

opportunity to specifically develop and grow this missing aspect of their lives.

“We offer coaches clinics for all of our coaches to attend, and then we help

equip them for that,” Harris explains. “We have children that come from abusive

situations, or a lot of our young men come from single-parent home. So that coach

becomes their mentor, that male figure and male role model that young men need to

see that make a difference in their lives. You see that bond develop between the kids

and the coaches. They practice during the week, they have games from May to July,

and these kids hang out with them. It’s not uncommon to see a coach come up to the

ball field with three or four kids trailing behind him because they bonded and made

that connection.”

The RBI program is very aware of this lack and need in the children’s lives

and is prepared to adequately handle, address, and fill that void. However, this is not

the main focus of the RBI program, but other programs in the Boys and Girls Club

are available to participants that are fully geared towards this issue. The Passport to

Manhood program engages young boys in discussions and activities that reinforce

character, leadership and positive behavior.

“I don’t care if it’s banking, we teach our kids how to balance a checkbook, we

teach our kids how to spend their money wisely, not just get your money. You see a

lot of guys go around with their huge, nice cars. We want our kids to understand

that there’s a process that you have to go through in order to obtain these things,”

said Ronnie Stevenson, former RBI director.

As the RBI program continues to grow, it has benefitted greatly from the

assistance, contributions and efforts of the community and partners. The program is

also able to participate in several events in the city.

The Kansas City Royals allows the program to host a “First Pitch” event in the

Hall of Fame Suite at Kauffman stadium, to give a “pitch” about the program to

donors, informing them of the goals, vision, and needs of the program and how they

can get involved. The Royals also host a “Night at the K” for the participants of the

RBI program, providing tickets and food vouchers for each child.

The RBI program also hosts clinics in the community, and often, members of

the Alumni Association, such as Frank White, Willie Wilson and John Mayberry will

participate in these events. “We always appreciate guys like that who always want

to give back,” Harris says.

Recently, Major League Baseball provided the program with a certain

allotment of tickets to take a group of participants to the premiere of “42.”

“We called the coaches and asked who has good grades, who is doing well?”

Harris says. “So we chose those premier kids to go to that event. And that’s

something the other kids know, that if they do well, not necessarily on the ballfield,

but how you’re doing in life, that’s what it’s all about.”

Harris is very thankful and proud of the progress of the RBI program the last

few years, but says he still has a big vision for the program.

“Our goal is to serve well over 900 kids this year. What we always need in the

community is kids, we always need kids. We always want children to play this game.

Our goal is to produce quality more than quantity. If you produce quality, you’ll have

the quantity. Our goal is to make sure all of our eligible seniors graduate on time,

with a post-secondary plan. And what we really envision one day, and I’m going way

out on a limb here, is to have our own indoor hitting facility and workout facility

where the young people can have turf, cages, tunnels, nets inside, so they can work

inside.”

The RBI program has benefitted the community immensely, but most

importantly, it has touched the lives and changed the course of the future for

hundreds of young participants.

And once you touch the life of a kid, that kid will remember you forever,

Harris says. “I had a young man approach me a few months ago from the program,

and he said ‘Coach, thank you! I’m doing well in school because you gave me an

opportunity and I’m ever so grateful.’ That makes my day. There’s so many other

things to sports than running the field and catching a baseball. We prepare our kid’s

minds and say, when the day comes when you no longer play the game of baseball,

you can become a statistician, you can become a trainer, do sports medicine, you can

work in the media, there’s so many different things you can do that make a

difference. There’s so many things you can do off the field.”

Harris’ love for the game and desire to shape the lives of young people drives

him to continue to do what he loves.

“One guy explained baseball as the young girl that you fall in love with and

once you fall in love with her, no matter what, you never lose that love.”

Interview: Phil Harris

The RBI program is just a program of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Kansas City

About Phil Harris

This is going on my sixth season.

Years ago, I used to umpire in the program, and the opportunity was presented and the next thing you know, I was able to follow my passion, to be a part of it. It’s my passion. Anytime we can effect the lives of young people, that makes a difference.

Achievements

I’m not so interested in making Major League players, as I am interested in making Major League citizens. That’s our goal, to produce Major League citizens.

In the past five seasons, we have had over 100 kids go off into more programs and play the game of baseball, or go off to play other sports at the collegiate level.

We had two young men drafted two years ago: Braylen Jackson and Justin Chigbogu. Justin was drafted by the Dodgers in the fourth round, and Braylen was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the fifth round.

Goals

Our goal is to serve about 900 kids this year. Our goal is to produce quality more than quantity. If you produce quality, you’ll have the quantity. Our goal is to make sure all of our eligible seniors graduate on time, with a post-secondary plan.

Vision of Program

John Young saw one thing when he started the RBI program. He saw that there was not enough minorities playing the game of baseball from the States. We understand that there’s the Venezuelan kids, the Dominican kids, the Cuban kids, but there’s not many minorities playing the game from the States.

Obstacles for inner city kids

Part of that is because baseball is a very expensive sport. It can be very costly, when you come to think about it, to play for some of these programs on some of these leagues around town, it can cost a kid, by the time you figure it all up, it can cost a kid, with his uniform, his league fees, it can cost him four or five hundred dollars just to play on a team. In our program, a kid pays twenty-five dollars which includes his school-year membership at the Boys and Girls Club, their summer program, it will give them a complete uniform, we don’t give them gloves or cleats, but when we

have them, because there’s someone that donates them, we will give them gloves and cleats. We give them their complete gear, their equipment for the field: baseball bats, helmets, catcher’s gear, all of those things.

Team Sponsors/Volunteers

That twenty-five dollars includes the cost for the umpires, and it’s because of great donors. We have a lot of great contributors, team sponsors. Team sponsorships are very huge with us. Our team sponsors are generally from corporate America.

Our “First Pitch” event, we do out at Kauffman stadium, which is for our donors and we give them a pitch about the RBI program, and they give us the Hall of Fame suite and they allow us to come in and dothat. They give us a night at the K for all of our kids in our program. The Royals provide us with the tickets and provide vouchers for the kids to buy hotdogs, drinks and peanuts. We take the kids out to the ballgame and we provide about seven or eight busses, it’s exciting.

We had about 120 volunteers in our program last year. These volunteer coaches make it possible for us to serve the sixty-plus teams that we serve. Without volunteer coaches, we could not do what we do.

Alumni association comes out and helps us with clinics occasionally. Frank White, Willie Wilson, John Mayberry will come out to the clinics. So we always appreciate guys like that who always want to give back.

The Royals have what they call a “Fall Elite” team, a junior and a senior squad for kids who are from the greater Kansas City area. They put together what they call an Elite team. In the last couple of years we’ve had five to nine players who have always made the squad, this year we had seven players make the squad, so that is always important to us.

Fruit of Program

I just got an email the other day from a kid who is graduating from Baker with a double major: Sports Management and Business, and he has already been accepted into Texas A&M’s Masters program. So those are accomplishments we like to see.

What we need in the community is, we always need kids. We always want children to play this game.

One guy explained baseball as the young girl that you fall in love with and once you fall in love with her, no matter what, you never lose that love.

We don’t only serve baseball, we also serve girl’s softball. Girl’s softball is a challenging piece in the community, and it’s a game that you have to get them to

start playing when they’re eight or nine years old so they’ll fall in love with it, and once that is there, they continue on in that game.

We become the “feeder system” for our high schools. If our high schools could understand and our elementary schools could get kids on the team and get them understanding our kids from the elementary level, we become the feeder system for the high school programs.

How to develop life skills

We are part of the Boys and Girls Club. We develop Life Skills. First of all, sports teaches you how to get along well with others, especially a game like baseball. It’s not an individual sport, it’s a team sport. So you have to get along with others. When our kids have workouts, afterwards, we make all of our young men come up and tell about their story: how did your workout go today? Where do you go to school? How are your grades? If our young people don’t make the grades, they can’t play the game. We start helping them understanding early that grades are part of your education. We understand that whenever school districts go through struggles, the first things they cut out are sports and arts. I have some issues with that. Those are the two “carrots” that you can dangle in front of a kid to keep them within their grade point. They’ll understand that if they don’t make the grades, they can’t play.

We are ecstatic that Braylen and Justin both got drafted, but baseball is just a vehicle for a better life. It drives you to where you need to go, to that university. Many kids in the urban area would not have that opportunity to go to school without that type of assistance. We offer several different scholarships within the organization, we have a scholarship that was started by the family of David Wolfe. David was a young man who was a fan of RBI, he had several of his kids who played in the program, and he was overtaken with cancer a couple years ago and passed. His family reached out and said, because of his love for the game and the program, we are going to start a David Wolfe scholarship fund. So we give a scholarship away every year worth a couple thousand dollars from the David Wolfe fund, every year.

We also have another scholarship that the young people compete for every year across the country, it’s and RBI to RBI scholarship. It’s done by Major League Baseball and it’s giving from the RBI program to the RBI program in the city. We have had a couple recipients the last few years from our program. It gives a young man or woman $5,000 a year for four years, so it’s a $20,000 scholarship. So that gives them another opportunity.

Even though baseball is a “summer sport,” we don’t just go for the summer. As soon as the summer season ends, we take a short break, and we hit it back for the fall. We work out, and our young people are back on the dirt, outdoors, playing the game of baseball, getting their skills enhanced, learning this game. Baseball is a game you have to play regularly.

A few years ago, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird came on the scene, and it was easier to pick up a basketball and find a hoop anywhere and play the game. Baseball is a little bit different. Baseball isn’t a game you can just pick up and lay down. You have to stay with it. That’s why we do fall workouts. Then when it gets too cold to stay on the dirt, we go indoors and we workout in our gyms. And what we really envision one day, and I’m going way out on a limb here, is to have our own indoor hitting facility and workout facility where the young people can have turf, cages, tunnels, nets inside, so they can work inside.

In the five years that we have had the program, every year, all of our eligible high school seniors have graduated on time, with the exception of year one. We had one young man who graduated a semester late. However, he did get a scholarship to go play baseball after he graduated. So we feel pretty good; it worked out well.

The amazing thing is, with our program, we invite anyone to come, anyone to be a part. We serve kids from the ages of five to eighteen, so that’s what makes it so different.

We play at three locations: Cleveland Park, the historic Satchel Paige Memorial stadium, which is where our high schoolers play, and that, of course, is a woodbat-only league. And we play at Clark Ketterman in South Kansas City. And all of those facilities have been renovated by Parks and Rec and the Boys and Girls club and the Royals.

The last two years, when the All-Star game was here, the Satchel Paige stadium had the opportunity to be the recipient for the program that Major League Baseball does to renovate a field, and we were one of the field renovations that they did at Satchel Paige, as far as the infield and outfield, they did a complete makeover on that, and there’s other programs that helped us with Cleveland Park, the Baseball Tomorrow fund helped us do something at Cleveland Park. We maintain them as far as the grass. Anything inside the fence lines, we incur the cost. That’s why our kind contributors are ever so important, those baseball sponsors who take a $2500 hit to sponsor a team. That helps us off-set our budget.

Our “bat a kid in” program makes it affordable to individuals in the community who can’t contribute that large of a donation, but want to help a kid.

We offer coaches clinics for all of our coaches to attend, and then we help equip them for that. We have children that come from abusive situations, or a lot of our young men come from single-parent home. So that coach becomes that mentor, that male figure, that male role model that young men need to see that make a difference in their lives. You see that bond develop between the kids and the coaches, because they practice during the week, they have games from May to July, and these kids hang out with them. It’s not uncommon to see a coach come up to the ballfield with three or four kids trailing behind him because they bonded and made that

connection. That connection is made and it changes lives. One of the programs we run in our Boys and Girls Club is called “Passport to Manhood.” That is also a part of the program for them to understand that there is a passage to becoming a young man, to learn responsibility.

When you teach kids about the game of sports, they understand that the coach can pull up with all the gear, the kids know “I have to get the bucket of balls, I have to grab the bag, helmets and gear…” They understand that we all work together.

We get permits from about nine to ten locations across the city for the kids to practice and we assign them practice fields.

We do background checks on all of our coaches, national background check and the Major League background checks, to make sure it’s a safe environment for the kids.

We recently had an opportunity to take a group of kids to the premiere of 42. Major League baseball provided us with a certain allotment of tickets, so we called the coaches and asked who has good grades, who is doing well? So we chose those premier kids to go to that event. And that’s something the other kids know, that if they do well, not necessarily on the ballfield, but how you’re doing in life, and that’s what it’s all about.

And once you touch the life of a kid, that kid will remember you forever. I had a young man approach me in Panera a few months ago from the program, and he said “coach, thank you! I’m doing well in school because you gave me an opportunity and I’m ever so grateful.” That makes my day. There’s so many other things to sports than running the field and catching a baseball. We prepare our kid’s minds and say, when the day comes when you no longer play the game of baseball, you can become a statistician, you can become a trainer, do sports medicine, you can work in the media, there’s so many different things you can do that make a difference. There’s so many things you can do off the field.

June 1st: opening day at Satchel Paige stadium

There’s a success with kids through sports

Sports Fest: June at Sporting KC Park

Grandview High School: Cameron