“A vote for the ‘Ripken Way’”

The idea of sports being a conduit for life lessons, character building, leadership skills, building teamwork and commitment is not a new one. Every coach from a sixth grade soccer team to a professional football squad preaches these values, primarily as a means to an end. If you do this, this and this you will be successful. Success in this context is winning games. True, you might end up being a better human being, but that is just an ancillary benefit in our sports world.

I had the opportunity this week to get acquainted with a package of programs that have the potential to reverse the emphasis on winning in sports and actually put other more important goals and values in winning’s place.

The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation was founded in 2001 by Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and his brother Bill, a 12-year Major League veteran. The Foundation’s goals are “to create baseball and softball programs and facilities that positively impact disadvantaged youth by combining the principles represented by the Ripken name, the power of Cal Jr. as a modern day hero and role model, and the universal appeal of baseball.” Boiled down to its simplest terms, the Ripken Foundation wants to bring baseball, as an instrument of change, to the disadvantaged kids in this country.

The Ripken 2008 Play Ball Tour for Children arrived in Richmond last Wednesday afternoon. This 17-city tour paired local disadvantaged kids with local high school and college baseball players at the beautiful Benedictine High School baseball complex. Supervised by Ripken staffers, about a hundred inter-city kids were exposed to the most rudimentary baseball skills.

I, being one of the more mature (can you say old) sports writers in the area, am familiar with all three Ripkens. Cal Sr. was a major league catcher but was probably best known for his fourteen years of managing the Baltimore Orioles.

But he was best known within the baseball community for being the consummate hands-on manager with a unique teaching system. “The Ripken Way” incorporated simplicity, fundamentals, “perfect practice,” explanation instead of just instruction, an emphasis on fun, and the acknowledgement that different styles work for different players. Not all that dramatic until you consider this was Cal Sr.’s way of handling seasoned major league baseball players.

The Ripken Foundation is rapidly expanding its scope to include grants for baseball and softball programs, training for coaches and the construction of Cal Sr.’s Yard, a state of the art baseball facility in Aberdeen Maryland, but it is a program called “Badges for Baseball” that woke me up. Just last year the Ripken Foundation partnered with the Virginia Office of the Attorney General to launch the first Badges for Baseball program.

There are a lot of nuances and tons of agencies involved, but simplistically, law enforcement officers act as baseball/softball coaches as well as mentors for young people in disadvantaged areas.

Attorney General Bob McDonald attended the clinic on Wednesday and threw out a ceremonial first pitch; a little high, but with impressive velocity. His comment was that “character, integrity, life lessons, sportsmanship and leadership” were the intrinsic values in the new program. But the more basic idea that kids from neighborhoods eaten up with drugs, crime and poverty would have the opportunity to develop friendships with the police seems wonderful.

Although too young for success to be measured, the program has so much potential that 16 more Virginia cities already have active programs, seven more are instituting programs and six other states from Massachusetts to Texas are coming on board.

But I think I was most impressed that our Attorney General got involved at all. Yeah, yeah I know. He’s a politician and does politician things, but I’d really like to believe this is something he believes in. The head of the Virginia State Police was there, but it was the interaction of the off-duty officers and the kids that showed the promise in the program.

The kids went through fundamentals training at five “stations,” the sixth station had the police/mentors discussing what are everyday crime and drug issues with these kids and how to react to them. Some of the conversations were very candid.

The thing that I was least impressed with was the relatively small number of kids (there were more dignitaries, players and coaches) attending. The tie-in is with the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs and, even though Richmond and Petersburg Clubs participated, 92 were all that showed up.

I have the thought that the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs are, in effect, already a grounding influence for the kids who belong to them. While the additional benefits of both the Ripken Foundation and Badges for Baseball are substantial for these children, it is hard to imagine that there are not a tremendous number of at risk kids who have not been attracted to Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs who could benefit even more.

Regardless, and I’m sure there is a valid explanation for the target group and the low attendance, it is truly encouraging to see a valuebased program not only endorsed by, but also championed by a State official.