First Long Island RBI Program Coming to Garden City

Major League Baseball organizes a program, Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), in approximately 30 communities around the country. One of the best youth baseball programs in the country, the program strives to combine the best possible baseball instruction with life lessons of sportsmanship and character, and is usually focused on minority communities. 

RBI has many alumni playing in the major leagues, including CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees. The first Long Island RBI program is coming to Garden City, where 2010 is the pilot season (with teams for 16 and under, 13U, 8U and 7U).  

By 2012, the program will expand to include one team in each age group between 7–18 years old. The program will be administered through Garden City Bombers Baseball, a 501C non-profit organization. The local program will be run by the Garden City Bombers Baseball Club, a non-profit organization.        

"On Long Island, the pilot RBI program is structured so that half the players come from Garden City and half are minority," said Joe Mohen, administrator of the Long Island RBI program and a founding director of the Garden City Bombers.

He added, "RBI is not for everybody, and fills a niche. It is for a limited number of players, from open minded families, who are really crazy about baseball and would enjoy playing on an integrated team with players of diverse ethnic and economic backgrounds. This is a very positive baseball experience and life experience."          

The roster objective is for half the players to be from Garden City, and half being minority or low income players, some from Hempstead, Westbury and Roosevelt. It is expected that there will be approximately 7-9 openings per age year for Garden City players and positions on teams are by tryout only. Games for the two younger teams (7-8U) are scheduled as not to conflict with GCAA Little League, and all players are encouraged to also play Little League as well. Tryouts for the high school 16U and 13U RBI teams will be held at St. Paul's on Sunday, March 14 at 6 p.m. 

This program is an evolution of the work of the Garden City Bombers over the past 10 years. In 2006 and 2007, when the Garden City Bombers played in tournaments in the Santo Domingo, the Garden City team took along the MVPs and pitchers of the Hempstead and Roosevelt High School baseball teams.

The teams played well in the Dominican Republic and were covered extensively in the baseball crazed Domincan media. The teams also caught the attention of Major League Baseball executives, who, sensing the positive impact of the community outreach, started making special opportunities available to the program, Mohen said.

This led to the new RBI program in Garden City.

More sponsors are needed. For more information on the Garden City Bombers and the Long Island RBI program, email GCBombers@aol.com or call 516-637-8644. Visit http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/community/rbi.jsp for more information.