BGC, BBBS and B4B Together as ONE in Cleveland!
Our 21st event of the summer was scheduled with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland. It was to be held at the Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland. Now, if that isn’t a full circle impact on youth mentoring organizations in the city of Cleveland, then tell me what is!
With a weekday evening event it is usually a bit tougher to get a full crowd at a B4B clinic. This week was no different. School is gearing up and getting ready to start back up, summer is kind of ending (it’s cooling down at least), and adult volunteers are making their last attempt at a summer vacation. It really is no matter for us though. With a fewer number of kids we are able to individually coach each kid and provide them with a better understanding of the game. Always looking at the positives… we are able to provide a more intimate mentoring event!
The kids get to bat more times through the order and field more balls in the field. Everyone is more involved!
Maggie, Jess and the BBBS of Greater Cleveland were wonderful out on the diamond. We’ve been adding a new element to our clinics as well – infield grounders. Chase will usually serve as catcher while Adam taps infield grounders around to the various positions. Rex plays first basemen while Steve hops around shooting pictures.
Practicing grounders was always one of my favorite things growing up as a kid and we are happy to help these kids put a smile on their face with the same form of practice. Turning two, around the horn and “Follow it in” are a couple of the games we do through our infield practice. It’s a ton of fun. And what’s even better is that most of these kids have never played before but look natural fielding, catching and throwing the ball! I’m telling ya, we are introducing kids to the game of baseball that might have been otherwise left in the dust.
We want to be the bridge that unites our nation’s inner-city youth with America’s pastime.
When we separated out into teams, we matched the B4B team up versus the Bigs, Littles and employees of BBBS – Cleveland. This always provides for a fun game. Believe it or not, B4B LOST to BBBS in a darkness-shortened game. Crazy. Check out this finish off of a double from Devin! BOOM!
Devin, Ashley and Quintin, our Little for the evening, were great. Quintin is a football star but I’ll be surprised if this kid isn’t playing for a high school baseball team real soon.
Ashley was “more of a golfer” but was making diving ESPN highlight-reel catches out in left field. She’s a ball player now!
Devin was our most energetic and talkative of the group. He mashed home runs in HR Derby, made diving catches, socked hit after hit during the game… the only thing missing was a pack of seeds in his back pocket. He hit the bucket TWICE too! He even tried teaching Adam how it was done. But Adam couldn’t duplicate the success of Devin.
Another great tight-knit group that was tons of fun to spend our time with for a couple of hours during our stay in Cleveland. Hope to see you guys again next year!
HRs hit: 11
ESPN Highlight Catches: 2
Buckets Hit: 3 (2 by Devin!)
Final Score: BBBS 8 – B4B 7
