Were fortunate enough where we do have indoor batting facilities, but what if you dont, okay . Then you have to be creative to do that. Well, if i may suggest, there are, you know, secondary, you know, training things that you can possibly use. Obviously, tennis balls are good training methods thatting use indoors, okay . You can also get whiffle balls, all right . And you can use those inside gymnasiums. And depending on your application, they contributed considerable amount of money in terms of grants to all kinds of baseball and Baseball Development programs. You can reach kathy action from its called the baseball tomorrow fund. It is Kathy Bradley at mlb. Com. Kathy dot bradley at mlb. Com. I dont have any other credentials other than i have been a lover of the game since i was this line. But when i coached most of the parents were interested because their kids had no knowledge about baseball. Never threw a ball, never hit a ball with the bat. They just want them to of the baseball experience. They wanted to know what it was like to put even if they work very good. I remember one kid didnt get it all year and the parents were thrilled because they got to have a season of baseball. We need to find a way to infect the kids at an early age because it does cost the most but we need to find to reach every kid. If we dont come Little League baseball is losing one to 2 i believe a year and probably more. Weve got to infect decades as early as possible to get them bust into a game, the whole ball team. Take them for free. Wouldve you can do. I dont pretend that any answer but i know i caught the bug when i was five years old. It even earlier. Got to reach the kids. [inaudible] my biggest problem that i see is that parents, how do we get to change the mindset of parents . I literally have seen parents take their boys out of baseball and place them in football. I mean, you can go to a baseball practice, you might have five or six cars parked outside while yoyou in baseball. G20 football practice, its like going to a football game. Cant find a parking space. How do we change the mindset of the. The parents are responsible for these young kids. If these young kids are not pushed into it or experience the fact that they want to play baseball because a lot of kids do want to play baseball, but the parents, no, play football. I think its taken right out of my class, you are in football. You mentioned mindset. That may be more literal than what you just said, but theres a pendulum swing away from baseball because of brain injuries. And as it is its a lifetime for major League Baseball, the union, and i said before, Public Policy legislators at the state, county, municipal levels to say look, our kids are getting concussions in football. Let them play baseball. So, coach, get permission from your principle to go to the city council meetings, the school board meetings, the county commission meeting, the state legislature meeting. And ask for appropriations. As doctor leon said before its not so and resources, its redirecting the resources. I think as a matter of when National Security and then maybe preserving our kids mind and their brain and their schools, it may be time that we shipped Natural Resources towards noncombative sports like baseball. I would also like to add that are two components of this. One, we need to do a better job of educating really some of the richness of the sport. It is going to be a long road. It is going to be more at a cognitive game may be. Some kids want to play, but thats what appeared comes in. The parent is decide whats in the best interest of that young person. I would argue that baseball hands down, but through the parents perspective, one of the things that jeffrey i and i are addressing is the scholarship issue but i do know if some of those parents are choosing to matriculate that student or the young person over football or basketball more than baseball, even if baseball is their choice and what they do better. The reality is football and basketball more likely to give you a full scholarship and baseball is presently. So tom times that she just urges economic impact. And we plan to address that. Im trying to get the question in order to hands are being raised. This jungle been over here in the corner. [inaudible] this gentleman over here in the corner. This is a league that is an alliance, all around the United States where it has maybe 12 leagues around the United States that are sponsored by major League Baseball. We are probably the only ones that actually owned and operated by africanamericans. Weve been in existence, which is completed our second year and were primarily looking for africanamericans, you know, after all around the country that can come in, that can play at this level of baseball to give them opportunity. We noticed that a lot of guys were getting draft, 3540 guys get drafted out of his league and theres your africanamericans. We consist probably 70 of africanamerican athletes from all over the United States that we bring in and just what youre talking about, mr. Hammons, about expense. We pay for everything. Corporate sponsorship and a lot of money through our own pockets. Because when we play we didnt get the opportunity to play and we want these kids to have an opportunity to play and for something to go on for quite some time. But our problem is finding. We pay for stadium these. We pay for bats. He doesnt pay for uniforms. He comes in, we have balls. Where playing with brandnew baseballs, you know, for batting practice and so want to try to get these guys an atmosphere of playing professional baseball because it is a link to delete. Since then delete has recognized us as far as being a good program, good upandcoming program, something to keep an eye on to try to reach, ms. Lewis, and i talked to william a couple times but i never got the pleasure speaking to you yet. I want to bring this to your attention, this is what were trying to do. What we noticed is this isnt a problem thats just going on the east coast or on the west coast, you know, down south but this is going on all over the United States. These are problems were trying to address. We look at our fan base. A lot of times we dont have very many africanamericans coming out to see this thing. We have White American to come out and say man, i can to so many black kids are playing baseball at a high level. So we are looking to bring guys in. Just like you stated before, as far as having a franchise, plenty of opportunities just like mr. Burnett was a. Is going to be a broadcaster, we have room for the. Weve Internet Radio. Names like that. We have marketing programs. Different things you can get involved in whether you play the game of baseball or not. There are plenty of guys i love the game of baseball the can play at this level, and are looking for opportunities to do something, to participate in this game and had a chance to move on to the next level. Such as want to let everybody know, little kids out of, you do have people to look at, coming, you might want to listen to us on Internet Radio to see the things were doing, and we need everybody thats in here to help us to do what were trying to do, to create that atmosphere for africanamericans to recognize and be appreciated in this great game of baseball. Thank you. Lets go to the back. [inaudible] our home field is the national academy. I wanted to make this point that, and part of our commitment was to assist in the innercity programs. We have to spend an hour each day, every practice day to assist in innercity program. I just want you to say it is an opportunity for innercity kids there, you just have to come over and find out about it. Thank you. This gentleman here in the blue shirt. My name is robert. Im a High School Baseball coach. One of the ways that we have done to get kids more involved through park and Planning Committee clinic this past saturday. We had over 100 kids to attend. And im not able to show a lot like a used to so had an assistant coach do the showing but i do chance to talk to parents. After talking with parents, the arm many ones who didnt know the opportunities for baseball. They did not know about, you can fail seven times and be successful. We have to continue to tell as many people that. Ask them if your sons making 30 of his tackles, 30 of his free throws, will they be successful . We have to market that. I have a passion for baseball. I moved here in 1970, 71. Im from cincinnati, ohio. We grew up playing baseball. I tell my kids the challenge, i coached against my high school. Our players, ive a tennis ball, rubber balls, theres a wall. Thats how we learn to play the game. Kids ask you, how can you still had . I dont know. I just watch the guys at that. They say, you what . I could we get a constructor. Youre wasting your money some time. Coach, how do you know that . I watch people play. I emulated people. I think if we have enough people like the coaches here who have a passion for the game and to what and sell the game, we can get it back the way it used to be. Because i can tell you right now there our kids, once they get the love and hit the baseball a couple of times, they love the game, they will continue to play the game. Strategy, technique, fundamentals. And always used the analogy, if were fundamentals have we will have fun. If my kids are not having any fun, i dont want to coach. I have not won a championship yet but i played on some championship teams. Kids need to have fun playing this game and bring baseball back. [applause] this woman over here. And while youre getting to her, not only watching, but listening. Commentate. Because ive learned an awful lot about, i learned as a kid, i learned an awful lot not only from watching it but from listening to the playbyplay and why isnt joe morgan on baseball . Anyway, joe morgan needs to be back on television to talk about baseball. Go ahead your combat choice. It was a bad choice. I wanted to talk about editors with because what were talking here, i have no credentials except im a mama, two kids, two little boys and were talking about baseball fields and talk about baseball costs. I challenge the numbers are coming up with as far as the cost of raising a baseball player. I think looking at four to 500 to outfit them is probably a lot higher than that. Those are average numbers. One of the challenges i found as a parent having the kids growing up in this league is that theres even, we go in, i was the moms have never by mice at a two or three or 400dollar that, ever. I would never be that crazy. However, he tried to play ball with these boys into the field and these are the kids are using bats that cost three and 400. So what do you do . You want to give them the opportunity so you sacrifice. You buy them at the back. Are you buy them is that it is so expensive and in a couple of years you go to the game and they said wait a second, lets check that out to significantly. A look at the bat at that and say guess what . That that is a longer approved to be used. Thats a huge process. Were investing this money into our kids and were not able to use the equipment longterm. One thing i wanted to mention women are coming to the lakes. Were playing in a very affluent part of orlando. We looked into my sons, it was daddys ball 100 as i want to get away from that and i want somebody to coach like it who put the basket in that position from whether its my child or not. We looked into travel ball. We talked about that. You addressed it. Travel ball, that these were looking into in orlando, florida, two things bothered me. First of all between seven and 800 was the court for two children to play. In addition we have to travel with these kids. So we have to go and we have to pay all the fees associated with the child. The second part of the travel ball that were looking at and was the biggest problem is that it is very unregulated. Who looks after these kids . Icing kids that they have practices before four to five hours during school nights, for five hours a day, 45 days a week. So there has to be some insight into what because when i look into it there was these kids can pitch, they can pitch today, they can pitch the next day. Its something he needs to be addressed and its a big concern for actual parents. To the pitching think i just know what i coached baseball i had pitch count. No matter how well my kids were pitching, i had a pitch count to a user went through three pitchers a game because i was not, i can what the number was but i would not allow my ballplayers to pitch over a certain lets go to this gentleman here in the front. Two quick questions for the great panel by the way. First question is, have there been any ramped up efforts to reach young people where they are . Is simply reached out . I was listening to one of the ringtones as we wrote up, a key town called lifestyle they were playing, but i dont see these kinds of figures that holding a bat and ball. He spoke to the. Audit any plans of that . Number two, as far as on the cognitive in, is there a curriculum out there that you know of . Already and half of the iceberg more baseball maximum, metaphors. Reverend jackson for the penal system said for balls, three strikes and youre out. Thats a great way to teach through the game. Do you all know of any things for both of those men . No. [laughter] not that we dont want to. I mean, but we just came back from minnesota, and i was kind of surprised by the programming out there. Talked a little bit about a magic dragon. We need you. I know we need, when i say we need you, we need you to pay attention, go to the game and get mad about it, the in between ending songs and the whole rent the. We need to hear your voice. How do we always get our message across . We just yell as a collective unit. I would love to bring our guys back in but, unfortunately, we dont hug mccutchen. We dont hug weeks. We dont hug harris down pittsburgh. We dont hug our guys. When i say of them, we dont wear their shirts in the committee. Theres no business in the. We bring to chains out there. Wheres the business in that . Weve got to create business. We know weve got to come to the ballpark and be a viable entity and major League Baseball. As a player you love looking up. When i played in cincinnati, we loved that. We loved the groove. You can have to theres not that many of us out there so we do notice when youre in the stands. We try to get that attraction. We want you to come out. Nelly, he comes out to the celebrity game. Allen iverson is another game name who can play the game. But bottom line, i dont care where we are, we are strength in numbers. So to chains. So they are around. Puffy is around. New york, l. A. , san francisco, chicago, atlanta. They are around. How do we bring them into the gamecocks how do we bring them to the program . To change is going to do a concert on saturday night with eric davis insisted next year. With you put that on your calendar . Maybe. You would . Said yes. Say yes. I need to hear that so when i go back i can do that i dont if they will do that on their side. But we can better to on our side. Spent i know you dont want speed you saw that . We might need to get him out of there. That was terrible. I live in richmond, virginia, and i have one of those kids that play all three sports. So yes, im a busy mom like you, and he plays music and everything. Hes back there, my mr. Dimple face. So he needs to make me some money. But anyway, i can piggyback off a lot of things the people of said here today. We play in mjbl lead. Ifad nine teams before, played in every division. Unfortunately, this year i didnt anybody back. Side put him on an of the team. I have reached out, i didnt everything that pretty much everyone else done. Ifad strategies of assistant coach once a couple years back. I have done things like the hula hoops so the pitcher can just shoot at that target. Coat hangers on the bench, whatever i have to do to try, and wiffleball. Ive been everything i could do. I have parents who complained, its just too hot for much out to play out do. Its all of these little, you know, excuses. I costly tell them to look, i am a mother who had a child at 42 years old. Ill be 51 tomorrow, thank you, lord jesus. [applause] and so what im saying is i played high school softball, fast pitch. Ive done all these things. My parents were right there. My father had a little team, longer than im alive. Hes always taking kids to games and stuff like that. They dont want to go. He pays out of his pocket and they dont want to go. And this is football, this is based but, basketball that hes willing to do, and these are his, the guys that actually, thats on his Little League team can visit their children and grandchildren that hes trying to take. So its like they dont have the interest and its really sad because you have somebody who is reaching out, you have to pay the money. You have to pay for a hot dog. Somebody who has a love for the kids want to take them out there to entertain the sport, get them involved. Some going to have to work hard this year to work for next year to get my teams back to i do know what got to give them going to try to use every avenue, every whatever to try to get the love of baseball back. [applause] spent final question in the corner. Then we have some presentations we have to make. Former congressional staffer. I used to work for the late congresswoman mcdonalds. She was and cement and working with mlb and the Players Association to get the Baseball Academy in compton but i think when the challenges to near and longterm challenges is how do you get young kids, young minority kids, particularly africanamericans involved in the game . You mention allen iverson. Great athlete, decided to play football in high school and decided to play basketball moving forward. Baseball has historically been a great game and you dont have to be 65. You dont have to be 220. Youve got to be able to see that ball. And be able to make contact. I think the job that mlb is doing with respect to the academy is the right thing but i think you need to expand it to places beyond the dominican republic. One of the things, just to point out, ive got little ones. They play sports, whether its soccer, baseball or football. Living in virginia, they have cut the local government and school board have cut funding for athletic programs. Consequently all these kids out here, you know, if they are like mine, its 100 200 a pop per sport. So if youve got a kid that wants to play basketball and wants to play football, but really likes baseball, as a parent, and if you got multiple kids, ive got five, so it ge