Reviving Baseball in Inner-Cities a Precedence For MLB

That began to shift by the end of the 1970s. The NFL had surpassed baseball in popularity, and the Larry Bird/Magic Johnson NCAA final in 1979 led to an explosion of popularity and financial strength for the NBA and for basketball in general. The back of Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and Henry Aaron was seen by many inner-city youths as slow, boring and the plot of their parent`s generation. Some wondered if reviving baseball in inner-cities was still possible.

By the later 1970s, the dwindling amount of African Americans playing baseball was noticed by officials, as was the crowds that were often composed of all Whites at major and minor league games. Something was required to kick starting the so-called National Interest in urban areas. That something turned out to be a programme called Reviving Baseball in Inner-cities (RBI).

John Young, a former Major League Baseball player and scout, developed the conception of Reviving Baseball in Inner-cities to allow disadvantaged youth an opportunity to see and love the game of baseball. Young grew up in South Central Los Angeles at a sentence when the country developed many professional baseball players. However, by the later 1970s, Young-who was running as a Major League scout-noted a substantial reduction in the act of skilled athletes emerging from his childhood area.

After visiting inner-city schools and talk to members of the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation, Young discovered that the bulk of kids stop playing baseball between the ages of 13 and 16. The drop off was due to many factors, including a deficiency of organization, funding, and community support for young baseball, as good as an overall deterioration of the social climate in many underserved areas. More frequently than not, kids quit after becoming demoralised by poorly organized baseball programs and enticed by the creation of other activities, including street gangs.

Since 1989, Reviving Baseball in Inner-Cities has grown from a local plan for boys in South Central Los Angeles to an international campaign encompassing more than 200 cities and as many as 120,000 male and female participants a year. Perhaps not coincidentally, Major League Baseball saw its first addition in Black players in 2008, to 10.2 percent from a low of 8.7 percent the year before. The final numbers for 2009 have not been released, but it is believed that African American agency in the Major Leagues will increase again.

Young intended to support the Reviving Baseball in Inner-cities program local for 5 days before launching it nationally. However, due to the winner of the platform in Los Angeles, the Mathews-Dickey Boys Club in St. Louis adopted RBI in 1990, and Kansas City and New York City followed with the constitution of RBI programs in 1992. In 1993, RBI programs were accomplished in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Miami and Philadelphia, while youth baseball programs in Atlanta, Richmond and San Juan also became connected with the program. In 1994, RBI expanded to 28 cities and introduced softball leagues. To date, more than 200 leagues in 203 cities worldwide support the program.

Major League Baseball, which has administered the Reviving Baseball in Inner-cities Program since 1991, serves as the key administrative agency for RBI and from 1993 to 1996, along with Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA), provided start-up grants for programs demonstrating financial need. Since the origin of the program, Major League Baseball and its clubs have designated more thanmillion worth of resources to the RBI program.

"The RBI program has many benefits," said former New York Yankee and ESPN broadcaster Roberto Clemente, Jr. who founded the Pittsburgh RBI program and is involved with the San Juan program. "It keeps kids out of pain and off the streets, while at the same time teaching them to persist in school. They earn self-esteem and self-respect. The educational components help them realize their potency and turn toward receiving college scholarships based not merely on athletics, but academics."

RBI alumni currently acting in the Major Leagues include Carl Crawford (Tampa Bay Rays), Jimmy Rollins (Philadelphia Phillies), Coco Crisp (Kansas City Royals), and Dontrelle Willis (Detroit Tigers).

Meanwhile, Young - the "founder of RBI"- continues to be astounded by the success his plan has achieved in reviving baseball in inner-cities. "It`s like a baby to me," he said. "To see the magnitude of RBI - what it has grown into - is unbelievable. It`s like a dream come true."