by Jon Carroll

Taney pitcher Mo’Ne Davis
(Image via al.com)

I have watched with pride as the Taney Little League All-Star team has advanced all the way to Williamsport as the Middle Atlantic representative in the Little League World Series (LLWS).  Mo’Ne Davis has become a national story as she became the first girl in LLWS history to win a game with her 2-hit shutout on Friday.  When you couple Davis’ accomplishments with those of Pierce Jones of the Jackie Robinson Little League All-Star team from Chicago, you have strong evidence that the underrepresentation of African-Americans at the Major League level is not an issue of talent, but one of opportunity.  Hopefully, the success of these predominantly minority teams will inspire MLB execs to rethink how they conduct outreach in metropolitan centers.

When I first heard that a team from Philly was starting to make noise in the qualifying rounds of the LLWS, my first thought was Where do they play?  In my time growing up in Philly I could not remember where hardcore little league baseball had been played that would prepare a group to be ready for the stiff competition that takes place in Williamsport.  I was hard pressed to think of a facility in Philly comparable to the facilities I have experienced with my own son here in California, a noted hotbed of youth baseball.  To make sure I was not dreaming, I put my old 19131 zip code into the Little League finder and got results like Lower Merion, Haverford, and Drexel Hill, all of which are outside of the City limits.  As a means of comparison, my son’s Little League complex is only 3.5 miles from our rival organization.  Both have over 800 registrants across a number of skill divisions.  This illustrates just what kind of battle East Coast teams face when they enter into Little League play.  It also shows the challenge of developing baseball talent in urban centers.

Jackie Robinson West
(Image via abc7chicago.com)

The Taney Little League is operated out of many fields spread across downtown and South Philly and started in 1994.  They have only had a charter for Little League competition for two years and have quickly become a force to be reckoned with.  Similarly, the Jackie Robinson West (JRW) Little League operates out of multiple fields on the Southside of Chicago.  Their little league tradition goes back a little further than that of Taney as they first had a team qualify for the LLWS in 1983.  The success of the teams is a tribute to the volunteers of both organizations as it takes a great deal of dedication and commitment to make them work.   I can only imagine how much more difficult it becomes in urban centers where you have multiple fields to deal with instead of one large complex as has been my experience.  If Major League Baseball is serious about addressing its diversity issues and pulling more Black people into the game, it would behoove them to think about how they can capitalize on the structures already in place in urban centers where Black people live.

Currently Major League Baseball has six Urban Youth Academies (UYA) (Compton, Houston, Philly, New Orleans, Cincinnati, and Puerto Rico), the first of which was founded in 2006.  These academies are meant to grow the game through professional skill instruction and preparation.  This is a nice start, but what about cities like Detroit, Baltimore, Miami, Tacoma, Memphis or any of the five boroughs in NY?  MLB has an interest problem among young adults and promoting the game through these academies as well as additional coaching clinics would go a long way to increasing awareness of the brand.  My hope is that the continued success of both Taney and JRW makes someone at the MLB office see dollar signs so that expansion of the UYAs and other creative outreach programs make perfect sense. Perhaps MLB could create a grant program that would award money to those Little Leagues who make it to Williamsport for the continued improvement of their organization.  Who knows what the ceiling is for a Pierce Jones or Zion Spearman if they are developed to make baseball their main sport over other more popular options and are provided the environment to do so.  The next Andrew McCutcheon is just as likely to be found in West Philly as in traditional talent producing factories.  It only serves MLB to help make that happen.

Jon Carroll for War Room Sports