TULSA, Okla. -
One could argue the feigning interest in America's pasttime over the last few decades can be contributed to lack of opportunities among underprivileged children.
Jerry Jacobson wanted to change that in the north Tulsa community when he established World Baseball Outreach, a non-profit organization in 1995.
"We were all about providing equipment to players, and we were pretty good at that," said Jacobson.
But just spending a day or two on the weekend with these kids wasn't enough to hold their interest in the game of baseball; and likely not enough for a mentor to be a positive influence.
Major League Baseball's "RBI Program" became involved almost two years ago by giving the summer baseball league more strucure. It brought more resources including volunteer coaches and umpires.
It also allowed the teams to hold practices as well as games.
As volunteer coach Teresa Delancy explained, "They brought clothing. They brought shoes. These kids wouldn't have had shoes. A lot of these kids... they didn't even know what first base was."
Working with these kids on a more consistent basis yielded incredible results in a relatively short amount of time.
"[In the] first year, we had 150 kids. This year we're up to 600," said volunteer coach Justin Duffield.
"We were blown away... I don't know how so many people found out because we didn't have any sort of promotion. I guess with a little bit of word of mouth and the grace of god, we have a lot of kids playing ball this year that didn't have the opportunity to play last year."
The RBI program has done so well in the local area, Major League Baseball has selected Tulsa as 1 of 12 programs to take a small team to Kansas City for a tournament. They also get to spend MLB's All-Star weekend at Kaufmann Stadium.
Jacobson said, "They get to write an essay. And if their essay is chosen, they get to shag fly balls during the home run derby so that'll be a lot of fun too."
