In the comments to my Sheffield Pt. 2 post, which centered on the discussion on MLB, and whether it is doing enough to bring African-American and other poor Americans (including Puerto Ricans) into the game (versus going after the less-costlier supply of Latinos ballplayers), Erin from Blue Thoughts had the following comment:

There's an interesting counterpoint in a column on SI.com right now. It says this:

"According to Jimmie Lee Solomon, baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations, MLB just put up a $10 million baseball facility in Compton, Calif. called the Urban Youth Academy, complete with four fields and a 12,500-square foot clubhouse on a 10-acre plot.

Not only that, but Solomon said that the Atlanta Braves put up an academy in Atlanta with the financial backing of Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton, Brian Jordan and John Smoltz. In addition, a site is being selected in Washington, D.C., the Phillies are building an academy in Philly, the Red Sox in Boston and the Astros in Houston.

Plus, MLB has run the RBI program since 1991, with 165,000 of 200,000 of its young ballplayers playing in the U.S. And there's more. The Baseball Tomorrow Fund, a joint venture from MLB and the Players Association, has targeted $10 million in grants to aid baseball in inner cities and impoverished areas."

Maybe it's not enough yet, and maybe it's way late, but it's got to count for something.

So let's see what MLB is really doing for youth, especially poor youth, in the US.  My experience with RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner cities), an organization that runs youth leagues, is from my days living in East Harlem.  I noticed the organizations signs on a few baseball fields in the hood that needed to be restored, and the RBI signs had a number to get more information.  Today I used both my accounting background and my nonprofit experience, and looked up their financial statements to find out more about the Harlem RBI program.

Harlem RBI is a spinoff of John Young's RBI program founded in California in 1989.  Harlem RBI opened up shop in 1991.  It's budget in 2005 was $1.25 million.  It's actual expenses was $1.13 million in 2005, with a $1.85 million projection for 2006.  Most of its money comes from donations, mostly corporate.  MLB and the NY Yankees are among the over 50 corporate donors, but they are not in the top 10, indicating a direct donation of less than $100,000.  As for programs, the Harlem RBI organization spent under $500,000 on programs in 2005.  

The Harlem RBI program does lots of good with what little money it does have.  It has over 650 boys and girls in their baseball and softball leagues; 80% also participate in their Youth Development programs.  They also give out scholarships (around $2500) to worthy kids in the program. 

Let's look at the RBI program in general.  Founded in 1989 by John Young in Irvine, CA.  According to the 2005 financials, the organization's philanthropic activities in 2005 consisted of "sponsering (sic) scholarships to ex members in college", "to encourage abiliyt (sic) in youth twelve to eighteen", and "program encourages academic and social responsibility; served over 1700 young boy and girls."

So how much money did they spend on program-related expenses in 2005? $67,614 for uniforms and equipment; $9,237 for baseball camps and clinics; $59,924 for payments to umpires; rental expenses for $18,296; registration and entry fees for $11,011.  The total spent is under $200,000.  It's a good program, but it's it not much more than a drop in the river.

Now let's look at MLB as a whole.  Some interesting things I found while searching the MLB F/S as a whole:  Bud Selig gets paid $14.5 million dollars, according to the report for The Office of The Commissioner of MLB.  Four other employees top $1,000,000 each, including a guy named Jon Mariner.  I don't know why that makes me laugh... perhaps because I'm picturing the mascot for the Seattle franchise as a top-level employee of the Office of The Commissioner.  Would make sense, right?

By the way, the Schedule K-1 is handwritten (only time I've seen that), and sloppy as hell.  Mad professionalism over there.  

MLB has a ton of smaller organizations - The Arizona Fall League, for example.  Only four of these are non-profit, tax exempt status, charitable organizations.  One is the MLB Disaster Relief Fund, which specializes in helping out when disasters occur (like Katrina); we ignored them, since their scope of duty doesn't relate to helping encourage youth baseball.

Three left: The MLB Urban Youth Foundation (that sounds promising), MLB Charities, and Baseball Assistance Team (BAT - what's with these lame hitting-related acronyms?  Why isn't there a WHIP or K/9 foundation?).  

Let's start with the MLB Urban Youth Foundation: Located at 245 Park Avenue, so it's definitely managed by MLB.  If you want to go beyond my research, give em a call at 212-931-7800, ask them for an interview.   Total expenses in 2005 - $308,671.  Total of those expenses on Management and General - $298,671.  That's right ladies and gentlemen, a whopping total of $10,000 spent on program expenses!  I'm overcome by this display of philanthropy.

"This organization provides recreational opportunities for urban, minority and at-risk youth."  Ahem, maybe you should change that to "opportunity", since your budget doesn't allow for too many of them.   

Well, let's not break on them too much - they did spend over $5,000,000 on construction and similar expenses.  So they are spending money on building those fields that Erin wrote about in her comments.  Two interesting facts: it costs $10,000,000 to build 4 fields in Compton, or about how half of what one team could spend on a baseball academy for the entire Dominican Republic.  Also keep in mind that Jimmie Lee Solomon gets paid $986,083 in compensation.  I'm not drawing conclusions, just presenting the numbers.

MLB Charities - how did they do?  Better - the spent $2,303,015 of their $2,334,824 in expenses on actual program expenses.  That's some real nonprofit-ing there.  The don't have any real admin costs, as they mostly give out grants.  The recipients?

$1 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America.  $250,000 to Little League Baseball.  $50,000 to the Jackie Robinson Foundation.  Those are three of the four biggest grants they gave - the other one was $607,909 to CureSearch.  The National Urban League got $50,000.  Roberto Clemente Sports City - $50,000.  $5,000 for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Wow, you can donate money to a for-profit institute?  Is it really a donation?  

How about BAT (Baseball Assistance Team)?  $1,245,750 on program expenses.  All on "grants made on the basis of need to individuals associated with professional baseball and according to the bylaws and corporate charter of BAT."  Hey, check out the board members - Steve Garvey!  Bob Gibson!  Joe Morgan!  Robin Roberts (he's still living?).  Um, Randy Winn!  Whitey Ford on the Advisory Board, along with Joe Girardi, Sandy Koufax, Willie Mays, Jim Palmer, and Don Zimmer.  Oh, and the Office of the Board includes Bobby Murcer and Frank Torre.

I couldn't find the grants list for BAT on the F/S, so I had to do some more research.  First off, most of their money comes from donations from MLB players, coaches, managers, and minor league players:

"B.A.T., a 501C charitable organization, has awarded more than $15 million in grants to date, benefiting more than 2,000 members of the baseball family, which includes former Major League players, managers, coaches, scouts, umpires, athletic trainers, front office personnel as well as Minor League players, Negro League players, their widows and children and players from the Women's Professional Baseball League. All aid provided by B.A.T. is strictly confidential, allowing those in the need to receive help discreetly."

Okay, so that explains that.  However, clearly this is not really doing much to encourage urban youth participation in baseball, agree?

The only item left to dissect is the academy Chipper Jones, Mike Hampton (the pay machine!), Brian Jordan (that's three players that lived on the DL for most of their career - no wonder they have so much free time to do some good deeds) and crew put together in Atlanta.  That's great, but that money came from the players.  As for the "site" in Washington, plus the Phillies, Red Sox, and Astros academies - it's a good sign that teams are taking upon themselves.  But also keep in mind that these are all "big market" teams - they can afford this kind of development, it helps get them players, and it probably is a write-off against revenue sharing.  Small market teams are probably not spending loot on academies, though I could be wrong.  Anybody know if the Pirates, Royals, Selig's Brewers, et al, are spending money?

Again, I'm just presenting information.  I leave it up to you guys to draw your conclusions.  MLB seems to be spending money on charitable activities, but how much is actually being spent on encouraging urban youth to participate in baseball?

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