Why the RBI Program Hasn't Had an Impact

RBI is a program designed to fight the problem this book is all about. First, a little history about the RBI Program: Working as a scout for the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB) following his playing career, John Young noticed a lack of African American prospects. While working for the Baltimore Orioles, he surveyed prospects selected in the 1986 MLB Draft, many of whom attended four-year colleges, and then noticed that among California colleges, 4% of players were African American and less than 3% were Hispanic. He presented his findings to Orioles' general manager Roland Hemond and MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth. Ueberroth contacted Tom Bradley, the mayor of Los Angeles, who agreed to fund a youth baseball program in Los Angeles, providing $50,000. This seed money helped to build RBI's flagship program and the model in which most other urban baseball programs followed thereafter.

RBI is a program with a noble goal, but has it really been effective? The percentage of African American players on Opening Day rosters dropped from 19% in 1995 to 8.5% in 2013, a period when the RBI program was fully active. Does this mean that RBI has been an abject failure? Probably not. But it does point to the fact that the problem in baseball's ever-shifting demographics is more than just opportunity to play the game. The main weakness of the RBI mission is that it does nothing to prepare players for the modern era of baseball where athletes specialize and have year-round travel ball, clinics and camps to hone their skills. RBI still caters to kids who cannot afford to play elite baseball and as a result, does little to bridge the gap between the haves and have-nots.

In running the RBI program in San Diego, we saw the challenges first-hand. With our leagues, any kid with any kind of baseball experience was a dominant force who could shift the balance of a game significantly by themselves. I ran the oldest division and turned the 18U team into a travel team because there were not enough players to create an in-house league. We played mostly low-income high school programs and similar travel teams. Our biggest asset was the fact that I had a key to a private baseball field and the ability to hold practices at my convenience, which is a luxury most inner-city programs simply do not have. My team was quite successful, but it was more because I had used my connections to players from previous leagues I had coached in and built an all-star team of experienced ballplayers. However, as a program, we struggled to gain much traction in building elite baseball players because one practice a week and one two hour game on the weekend is simply not enough to catch up to kids who are practicing three days and playing the other four every week.

This is why RBI has not been successful in its mission despite trying to do all the right things. RBI deserves to survive and exist, but for it to make any kind of discernible impact on the demographics of Major League Baseball it needs to expand significantly and adjust to the times. Sure, in 1994 it was possible for a kid to make the majors just from playing some ball part time, but those days are long gone. In 2020 a kid needs to be focused 100% on baseball from a young age to have a shot at ever making it to the next level unless that kid is an absolutely elite athlete who makes all-state in multiple sports. You simply will not see a kid who plays 20 games and practices for just 3-4 months a year make the Majors without some kind of other-worldly talent.

I love the mission of RBI, but why has it failed to really bring any change to the trends in baseball demographics in America? One major factor contributing to the lack of impact of RBI is the noncompetitive nature of the leagues and teams. There are some competitive RBI teams and leagues, but most are purely recreational and they do not push for any development beyond the program. You do not see RBI programs sponsoring elite travel teams, they strictly stick to segregated leagues in poor neighborhoods with limited coaching and cheap equipment and that is not a springboard to the Major Leagues by any stretch of the imagination.

TO READ MORE ABOUT THE RBI PROGRAM AND MY EXPERIENCE RUNNING A LEAGUE, LOOK FOR THE CHAPTER IN MY UPCOMING BOOK:  "YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE:  STORIES OF DISCRIMINATION AND EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICES IN BASEBALL"