Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities

Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), sponsored by Major League Baseball, is entering its 22nd year of play in 2011.  From its inception in 1989 through the 2011 season, RBI has grown from a local program for boys in South Central Los Angeles to an international campaign encompassing 203 cities and as many as 120,000 male and female participants each year.  John Young, a former Major League Baseball player and scout, developed the concept of RBI to provide inner-city youth an opportunity to learn and enjoy the game of baseball.  Jr. RBI (ages 6-12) was started in 2010, and is designed to create new playing divisions that provide baseball and softball opportunities for younger children.  This new program serves as a feeder to the current RBI Junior baseball (13-15), Senior baseball (16-18) and girls softball (13-18) divisions.

 During 2011, the Reds Community Fund will support Spring and Summer RBI leagues, featuring a total of 15 baseball and softball teams ranging in age from 9-18.  The Cincinnati RBI program has teams participating in the Jr RBI (9-12), Junior RBI, Senior RBI and girls RBI softball divisions.  In 2011, the Reds will host the RBI East Regional Tournament, for the third consecutive year.  On July 25^th, the East Regional finals will be held at Great American Ball Park (baseball) and Northern Kentucky University (softball). The champion from each division will advance to the RBI World Series being hosted by the Minnesota Twins.  We are proud to say that in 2010, our very own Cincinnati Reds RBI Junior team won the championship game at GABP to advance and represent Cincinnati in the RBI World Series played in Jupiter Florida.  We are looking to new and exciting advances in our program as we enter our 2011 season.

For more information on the RBI program, you can contact Bill Daggy at bdaggy@reds.com or (513) 563-7621.