Orioles Continue Partnership With RBI Program, Promote Baseball In Inner City
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- The Baltimore Orioles have sponsored the RBI Program, an MLB initiative, that started in 1989, and will continue to do so in 2019.
The RBI Program is designed to promote baseball in inner cities, and provide less fortunate children with the opportunity to be successful on and off the diamond.
Andre Brown, Head Coach of the Baltimore Orioles RBI Program, said that he has lost count of how many kids he has impacted through the game of baseball.
"I probably reached anywhere from 1,000 children," he said.
In 2018, Brown and the Baltimore Orioles RBI Program served 600 kids.
"Baseball gives you an inner sight, inner thought and discipline to have you play the game the right way," Brown said.
Dozens of players from the program have even gone on to play in college.
Dominic Rheubottom has played in the program for over seven years.
He said he credits the program to keep him from being another statistic in a city that is grappling with violent crime.
"Baseball always felt like an escape route to me," Rheubottom said. "I don't even think I'd be here to keep it honest."
The program enables kids to dream big while promoting America's pastime.
"I want to be a State Trooper ultimately," Moriah Dennis, of the Baltimore Orioles RBI Program, said. "I don't see doing anything else, but this is too important for me to not be doing it. I love it with everything in me."
The program is a Major League Baseball initiative administered and supported by the Orioles at a local level.
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