Combatting the Cost of Opportunity
Baseball Generations filling the gaps for grateful youth ballplayers in Southern California
Images via Chris Simon
Opportunity is everything.
The same sun rolls on everyone. Unfortunately, catching those rays isn’t always within the realm of our control. But we can always improve our odds.
Whether we’re talking about life, work, or even baseball, this formula applies. Put the necessary level of effort in and good things will happen. Rise to work, work to rise.
In baseball, specifically, this process has played out as such for over a century. From Little League through the professional ranks, the cream rises to the top until there’s no higher to go.
Even at the zenith of the sport, the elite set themselves apart. It’s what makes this game what it is. There’s no faking it between those lines. Talent holds serve. Always has and always will.
Untapped talent has been an unfortunate, just-as-prevalent part of this game for as long as it’s been around. The tale of the player who just never figured it out is an oft-told and familiar one.
Talent will always fall through the cracks, especially at the highest levels, but what about untapped potential among the younger generation?
What about the kid with all of the natural tools and all of the heart but none of the — wait for it — opportunity.
Youth baseball is for everyone. But talent will often carry a player past the conventional avenues of the sport and onto the high-speed expressway of the game. That entrance ramp isn’t open to all, though.
Gone are the days of exposure based on skill, word-of-mouth, and the occasional write-up in the local paper.
The system has shifted to a pay-to-play model and if you want your kid trained by professional instructors and to get scouts’ eyes on them, it’s gonna cost you.
Skill transcends all, of course, but the financial burden attached to advanced levels of the youth game is too much for some families to bear. Especially when additional development is needed to reach that next stage.
That gap is widening every year and the game is losing future stars because of it. The rising costs of youth sports are extinguishing dreams at a point when they should be taking hold and it’s tragic. An epidemic on multiple levels.
Here on Long Island — where neighboring towns may have $80K gaps in median household income between them — the costs associated with travel ball (upwards of $10K annually for upper-level players, taking travel and offseason training into account) are leaving entire communities on the outside looking in.
And it’s all relative. Costs vary around the nation, but the hurdles are just as high for families on the low-end of the financial spectrum, wherever it may be that they call home.
Some are equipped to handle the costs, some scramble to fill the gaps, but some families simply can’t make it work. It’s an unfortunate truth that speaks to a much wider issue in this country.
Changing the system is a tall order with somewhat realistic long-term goals. It won’t be easy or quick but it’s possible. Though, in the meantime, the game and thousands of young players who are left behind in that process will suffer.
As one generation gets turned off to this game, the chances that the next one catches the fever are degraded substantially. That’s a doomsday scenario for baseball.
It doesn’t have to be this way. And there are people who see this gap and are striving to fill it.
In mid-July, Major League Baseball announced its partnership with The Players Alliance to pledge $150 million over the next 10 years to “a variety of programs built around participation in baseball, mentorship, and professional baseball employee development” with a focus on inclusion within the Black community.
That will certainly provide a much-needed bridge, but the implementation of this collective goal on a grassroots level will be imperative to create actual change.
Thankfully, there are like-minded folks on that front, as well.
Baseball Generations and its BBG Foundation, a non-profit based in Los Angeles founded by New York Mets outfielder Dominic Smith and two lifelong friends, Ron Miller and Tim Ravare, are attempting to fill that space for young ballplayers in Southern California, some emerging from the very same neighborhoods they did.
“We understand what’s going on in youth baseball and we know what the kids are going through and missing out on because we come from that same environment,” Miller told The Apple. “Me, Dom, and Tim were raised in South Los Angeles. We are connected to these kids growing up here now. So we are happy to build a platform for kids who might not be able to afford showcases and the right exposure.”
The simple joys of playing ball can end up being invaluable in a variety of ways. Whether you’re five years old or 75, everything’s right on that field. During one’s formative years, the importance of that escape magnifies intensely.
“The most fun we had is when we were all at the field together,” Miller said. “It kept us busy. It was school, then baseball, and then workouts. Our parents were trying to keep us busy and safe, then as we got older we really fell in love with it and realized that this is something that can change our lives.”
As we noted when speaking with Marcus Stroman at his family’s HDMH Foundation’s inaugural baseball camp in Glen Cove last month, all it takes is that spark for efforts to be kicked into hyperdrive.
Baseball Generations is providing that spark.
Through “expert-level baseball instruction, mentorship, life skills training, youth development, and local park beautification in a way that is completely accessible to South Los Angeles youth”, the lessons its founders learned as kids on local sandlots are being passed on to the wide-open eyes and ears of the next generation.
And expert level doesn’t even quite suffice as an adjective in BBG’s case. Besides Dom Smith’s intimate involvement in the foundation and its operations, major leaguers J.P. Crawford, Tim Anderson, Lucas Giolito, and others have lent their time to the cause.
“It’s been a dream come true, honestly,” Miller said of BBG and its goals. “It’s been great to see it all come together. As for the future, we will continue to help kids in the inner-cities with a sturdy foundation for development in baseball and education.”
Making headway would be an understatement in describing what Smith, Miller, and Ravare, and the rest of the team at BBG have been able to accomplish in four short years. Leaps and bounds would be more apt.
By becoming the bridge between baseball-driven dreams and the adversity that stands in the way of those aspirations, Baseball Generations is paving the way for the next generation to carry the flame of this game when, in some cases, that may not have been possible.
We love to see it.
Follow along with Baseball Generations on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, and keep an eye out for local BBG showcases and clinics in the future!
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Combatting the Cost of Opportunity
Love our Dom for SO Many Reasons!! And this is the Biggest One!! His desire and heart to Give Back is what makes him such an Amazing Person!! And that ALL feeds into who he is as an Amazing New York Met!!! Dom is quietly having an Off-the-Charts Season!! His defense and offense is Pure Fire!! As always, Great Read Tim! You are truly an anointed Scribe!!