MLB 'Pitch in' to Help Young Baseball Players

While the 25th RBI World Series got underway in Cincinnati, Major League Baseball staffers in the Commissioner's Office volunteered their time to make sure other kids in the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program had the resources to perhaps reach the event one day.

MLB employees teamed up with Pitch In For Baseball to pack much-needed equipment for the Far Rockaway and North Newark RBI Leagues. Baseballs, softballs, bats, helmets, pants, catcher's gear, position and batting gloves, wrist guards, compression sleeves, T-ball stands and equipment bags were among the items that went into 70 large boxes and then out the door so that more than 600 boys and girls will have the basic essentials for the coming fall ball season and beyond.

"This is an important day for us," said PIFB CEO David Rhode, who has worked with MLB, clubs and players for a dozen years. "We're so focused on giving kids the opportunity to play. It's something so many of us took for granted. When you see the impact that giving a child who hasn't had a glove or bat or ball that equipment and the way their face lights up, it really is a continual reminder of the impact of the work that we do."

This was one of hundreds of other such projects already organized by PIFB in 2017, a non-profit organization that provides new and gently used baseball and softball equipment to boys and girls in the U.S. and around the world who want to play ball but may lack the equipment.

PIFB reduces barriers to play and promotes youth development by providing equipment directly to leagues, schools and organizations around the world to start, continue and expand their programs. Over the past 10 years, Pitch In For Baseball has donated more than $5 million worth of equipment to 500,000 under-resourced kids in nearly every state in the U.S. and countries across the world.

"Over 90 countries [and] several hundreds of thousands of kids have been affected positively by their fantastic efforts," said Tom Brasuell, MLB's vice president of community affairs. "PIFB started working originally with the Reds and Phillies on a club level, and they've worked with just about every club now over the last dozen years."

The RBI World Series was a natural backdrop for this equipment packing event, given the reason MLB started the RBI program in 1991. It is a youth outreach program designed to increase participation and interest in baseball and softball, encourage academic participation and achievement, increase the number of talented athletes prepared to play in college and pros, promote greater diversity in the mainstream of the game and teach the value of teamwork.