Cal Ripken keeps giving.
The Hall of Famer and two current players were on hand at Oriole Park at Camden Yards to announce a partnership between the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, a youth outreach program.
Ripken, and the foundation named for his late father, will make a monetary contribution of “seven figures” toward the RBI program.
Major League Baseball and its clubs have set aside more than $20 million in resources for the program, and each of the league?s 30 teams has supported programs.
In his Hall of Fame year, Ripken is making the best of his continuing popularity to help further the game at its grassroots level.
“I see the attention as an opportunity to do good things such as this,” Ripken said. “I think I get more attention than I deserve ? but in this Hall of Fame year, I?m glad to turn the attention away from me and onto the game and the kids.”
A team from Baltimore City?s RBI League was in attendance Monday and posed for a picture with Ripken and current player representatives ? Orioles center fielder Corey Patterson and Detroit Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson.
“The game is great. A lot of great things happen from it, but RBI also talks about academics and growing as a person,” Granderson said. “Baseball is just one of the building blocks as you grow.”
RBI has developed six first-round draft picks and a handful of current big leaguers.
“It?s not really about the game of baseball; it?s about the life lessons we can teach the kids,” Patterson said.
The general aim is to simply give kids an opportunity to play the game. This year?s RBI World Series will be held at the Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif.
