Matthew Williams is excited about giving the next generation an opportunity to fall in love with the game of baseball. The Detroit Tigers community impact team manager recently spoke to rolling out about the organization’s efforts and celebration of those who are helping get Black kids interested in the sport.
What is going on with this Play Ball Detroit celebration?
Play Ball Detroit celebration is just a culmination of all of our work with the six organizations we partner with in the community. They are all independent leagues that are coming under one umbrella to build the game of baseball in the city of Detroit.
What was the necessity of this event?
[It’s necessary to] highlight the sport. We know baseball is not as mainstream as a lot of other sports, but we wanted to get the kids together to showcase the sport, then also really to celebrate them for what they have done with the game of baseball this year.
What other activities are going on?
We’re doing … a fielding challenge where they’re going to time [the kids] from fielding the ball and throwing it to the net. Another one is the home-to-first challenge to see how fast they can run from home to first. And then [there is] the accuracy distance throwing challenge to see how far they can throw. Then we’re going to give them the moment to see where they are, where their skills are … to really help them grow from this point to hopefully get better over the course of this year, and for years to come.
What’s the overall goal of the camp?
We’re hoping to excite kids about playing the game and knowing the Detroit Tigers have their back because we understand that it is a very expensive sport compared to a lot of others. We understand they might need a little assistance in getting there, so they know the Detroit Tigers Foundation has their back in whatever they need.
What ages do you all start off?
From ages 4 to 18. We have three different divisions. The Tiny Tigers, from 4 to 8 years old. Ages 9 to 12 are Junior Tigers, and the RBI division, which are ages 13 to 18. RBI stands for “Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities.” Nike came in to give us a big donation to help us fund it.
So it’s called Tigers, Nike RBI, where we take 45 kids who are under Play Ball to different tournaments across the country [to play] against kids to see where their skills are and hopefully make it to the World Series. This year, none of our teams did. We had three teams that have gone in the past, but they had a great time.
In years past, they had to fund their efforts in getting there, paying for food and things like that, but this year, we wanted to make sure we took the bill, so they didn’t have to worry about food or anything like that. We wanted to make sure they can focus on playing the sport and playing the game versus knowing how they’re going to pay for their next meal.
