MLB executive benefiting many with inner-city baseball facilities

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101206&content_id=16261758&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb

UYA helps Solomon offer what he never had; MLB executive benefiting many with inner-city baseball facilities

NEW YORK — Jimmie Lee Solomon says his proudest work with Major League Baseball has been the construction of the Urban Youth Academies, a project he took on because he remembered what it was like growing up without the game he loved. 

Solomon, MLB’s executive vice president of baseball development, was raised on a Texas farm in a rural, segregated town stationed roughly 40 miles from Houston. He always wanted to play baseball, but the local Little League program for African-Americans was available only in the summer and was stationed about 12 miles away — in Richmond, Texas — which for him meant it was essentially unreachable.

“I wanted to play baseball,” Solomon said, “and I could not get there.”

That’s why Solomon has strived to make sure others don’t have that problem.

With the guidance of MLB Commissioner Allan H. “Bud” Selig, Solomon has undertaken the construction and expansion of the MLB Urban Youth Academies, which are located in inner cities and provide free year-round baseball and softball instruction, as well as a slew of clinics and educational programs for other career opportunities within the game.

Solomon built an academy in Compton, Calif., and watched it grow into one of the most extensive facilities in the country. He sprouted another in the Acres Homes section of Houston this past April, and he announced the construction of a third UYA in Philadelphia in September (with several others soon to be finalized).

All have the same mission and purpose: Give kids the opportunities Solomon himself was never afforded.

“Commissioner Selig has made sure that all of us work to bring baseball back to urban America,” Solomon said. “And the opportunity that baseball provides should be there, whether the African-American kid in urban America decides to grab onto it or not. The Urban Academies are one of the ways we’ve done that.”

Solomon isn’t blind to the declining number of African-American players in the Majors. Reportedly about 30 percent of those on Major League rosters were of African-American descent in 1975. But on Opening Day 2010, that number was 9.1 percent, according to the University of Central Florida’s Racial and Gender Report Card.

A lot of that, Solomon says, is just the way of the world these days — basketball and football have grown in popularity, and modern technology brings numerous other distractions. So all Solomon hopes to do is use the UYA to give kids the chance to enjoy a game that is very difficult to play if growing up poor.

“They have no excuse,” Solomon said. “They have no hurdles.”

When Solomon was growing up, baseball wasn’t offered in the less-developed area where he grew up. He vows to change that now.

“People want to know why I put [the first UYA] in Compton and not over in The Valley; people want to know why I put the Academy in Acres Homes, but not over in Bel Air,” Solomon said. “I say, ‘Because they have plenty of stuff over there. they have nothing over here, and I wanted to put it in the neighborhoods.’ I know I have extra security issues and all of that, but if you’re going to make a difference, you have to take it to them and not make them go to it.”

Since Solomon joined Selig’s team at MLB in 1991, he has been involved with starting up the All-Star Futures Game, the Civil Rights Game and several other ventures. But he’s quick to point out that nothing gives him more pride than seeing the UYA grow.

“There’s nothing like going to the Academies, especially in Compton and in Houston now, and having these little kids come up to me, and say, ‘Thank you,’” Solomon said. “To get a letter from a little kid, telling me, ‘You saved my life,’ that kind of stuff; having parents come up to me as if I’m a rock star, saying, ‘Thanks for not forgetting us.’”

Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com and writes an MLBlog, Gonzo and ‘The Show’. Follow him on Twitter @Alden_Gonzalez. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.