Passing on a love of the game - Chicago Tribune

Melissa Persaud has the fortune of working with the “nicest men in baseball,” and two of them happen to be from Northwest Indiana.

Those two — LaTroy Hawkins of Gary and Kenny Lofton of East Chicago — along with other Region-tied ball players, showed their love with a baseball skills camp sponsored by Still Got Game at the Gary Railcats’ U.S. Steel Yard in Gary Tuesday morning. More than 100 kids converged on the field, where they were divided into age groups and sent around the field to practice — or in some cases, learn — baseball basics with some of the best there are.

Advertisement

Persaud, who formed the nonprofit in 2019 after a long career with the MLB Players Association, describes Still Got Game as a group of former MLB players and businesspeople who pooled their resources — passion, time, celebrity and cash — to get out and give back to their communities. Their events largely have a social justice bent or financial literacy bent, but they’re always a great avenue for the retired athletes to find ways to help.

Not that they need much prodding, as her days with the MLBPA showed her, she said.

Advertisement

Volunteers Dan Johnson, left; and Ivy Evans show Stormi Williams, 5, how to grip a bat during the Still Got Game baseball camp at the U.S. Steel Yard on Tuesday, July 26, 2023. More than 100 kids came out to learn the basics of the game. (Michelle L. Quinn/Post-Tribune)

“When we would have events, so many players always wanted to come back and do things with us,” Persaud said. “A few years ago, MLBPA did an eyeglass clinic for the kids in Gary, and we told (Hawkins and Lofton) to just come by in the morning to say a few words. Those guys were here from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. and then came back a couple weeks later to help handout the glasses because that’s just who they are. A lot of them come from underprivileged backgrounds, so they want to be a part, and they just want to stay involved with baseball.”

They also get to show off skills they may not realize they have in abundance, Persaud pointed out.

“You watch them with the kids, and they’re so good with teaching,” she said. “They get down there to (the kids’) level and show exactly how to do things the right way. They relate so well with them.”

Hawkins, who was a seventh-round pick of the Minnesota Twins in 1995 and ended up playing with the Cubs, Giants, Orioles, Rockies, Yankees, Astros, Brewers, Angels, Mets and Blue Jays over the course of his career, is a board member for Still Got Game along with Lofton. The thing he loves most about it is the smiles.

East Chicago baseball standout Kenny Lofton, second from left, holds the mic for White Sox executive Jim Thome as former MLB players Tim Burdyk, LaTroy Hawkins, Mike Bowden and Marcus Nettles answer questions from the kids they coached during the Still Got Game baseball camp at the Steelyard July 26. (Michelle L. Quinn/Post-Tribune)

“Look at that smile,” Hawkins said as he took a picture with a campgoer. “He’s not inside playing video games — he’s outside having fun and learning, because you can really learn something here.”

Teamwork, for one, since Hawkins got labeled as having a “bad attitude” at the start of his career.

“I was really just competitive, but coming from Gary, there was an assumption,” he said. “I learned to channel that competitiveness into working with others as a team. And it’s not just about playing baseball; most of these kids don’t play or won’t play, but baseball has so many opportunities.

“I always tell people that when you’re seeing a game on TV, that’s the last thing there, because there are so many other moving parts that makes MLB go.”

Advertisement

Taylor Hodges, program coordinator for the Baltimore-based Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, gives his group of students instruction during Still Got Game, a baseball camp held at the U.S. Steel Yard on Tuesday, July 26, 2023. (Michelle L. Quinn/Post-Tribune)

One of the kids asked the coaches — among them Tim Burdyk, Jim Thome, Mike Bowden and Marcus Nettles — what it was that got them into playing pro ball. Lofton said it was “easy.”

“When you’re out there playing ball with your friends, it feels like a party, so you just want to have that party all the time,” Lofton said. “And look where it got me!”

Michelle Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.

Adblock test (Why?)

https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMihAFodHRwczovL3d3dy5jaGljYWdvdHJpYnVuZS5jb20vc3VidXJicy9wb3N0LXRyaWJ1bmUvY3QtcHRiLWdhcnktYmFzZWJhbGwtY2FtcC1zdC0wNzI2LTIwMjMwNzI1LXA1Zmx6eXJpZmZobWxsNzQ1cXF6bnNpZXNhLXN0b3J5Lmh0bWzSAQA?oc=5

2023-07-25 23:18:12Z

Bagikan Berita Ini