Timing Is Right to Save & Restore Tinker Field, Launch Urban Youth Academies
As the Tinker Field saga continues, factors outside of our community indicate the timing is increasingly right to save and restore our most historic public venue and the site of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s only speech in Orlando. There is also a real opportunity to help build lasting youth programs to benefit the boys and girls of Orlando for decades to come.
Right now, there is Major League Baseball and other foundation money to help communities that come with unity and a game plan to support urban baseball and youth programs. It also makes sense to invest in Orlando right now. Not only is Tinker Field is one of the most historic and oldest baseball fields in America, the Orlando Monarchs and the City of Orlando were selected to host the Inner City Baseball Classic and the Black World Series for the next three years. We also know baseball still has a future at Tinker Field, including youth baseball and softball, according to former General Manager of the Orlando Monarchs Mark Popkin.
That’s why after months of frustration dealing with the City of Orlando, where Mayor Buddy Dyer is intent on demolishing the historic site, residents, including myself, continued to raise the issue to Orange County Commissioners. The renewed pressure led to Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs sending a letter to Orlando Mayor Dyer, thus further delaying the decision. Orange County leaders are currently waiting for Mayor Dyer’s response to new questions asked about the fate of Tinker Field.
While everyone waits for Dyer and the City’s latest excuses, cities across the U.S. are investing in baseball and urban youth programs to great success and also in partnership with Major League Baseball. In fact, MLB recently issued an update showing growth and progress in the MLB Urban Youth Academies. I also submitted to County and City leaders one possible proposal to save Tinker Field and build youth baseball and softball programs at the historic site.
Orlando has a great opportunity to launch our own Urban Youth Academy and partner with interested parties like Major League Baseball. Orlando could even join the MLB RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) before building its Urban Youth Academy. These programs would have a major impact on youth across Orlando but specifically downtown. The potential opportunities surrounding our historic field are endless, but not if Tinker is demolished and paved.
“The academies were built to provide free academic support and athletic instruction to children in the inner city, and more than 8,000 kids are regularly participating in the programs,” Spencer Fordin wrote for MLB.com. “The Urban Youth Academy has proven itself a magnet for students to get extra help, both on the field and in the classroom, and the community has gotten behind each academy in turn.”
In addition to the now proven track record of the MLB Urban Youth Academies, there is a new MLB Commissioner who has already made it clear one of his top goals is to “bring more people into our game — at all levels and from all communities.”
“Specifically, I plan to make the game more accessible to those in underserved areas, especially in the urban areas where fields and infrastructure are harder to find,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in his first letter to fans on January 25, 2015. “Giving more kids the opportunity to play will inspire a new generation to fall in love with baseball just as we did when we were kids. Expanding Little League, RBI and other youth baseball programs will also help sustain a steady and wide talent pool from which our clubs can draw great players and create lifelong fans.”
Commissioner Manfred emphasizes his time playing Little League and repeatedly states he is dedicated to expanding Little League, RBI and other youth baseball programs across America. There is no better site to invest next than Tinker Field.
Even former MLB Manager Davey Johnson knows it is time to save Tinker Field. “I want to put my two cents out there to save Tinker Field,” Johnson said previously in an official statement, who served as a batboy at Tinker Field in the 1950s and served as the former manager of Washington Nationals.
Just last week, new MLB Commissioner Manfred actually visited the Washington Nationals’ Youth Academy in DC. “Rob Manfred made it abundantly clear, even before he formally became the 10th Commissioner in baseball history, that he was committed to strengthening the connection between youth and the national pastime,” wrote Paul Hagen on MLB.com about the visit.
It is unmistakably clear there is major interest in preserving, restoring and bringing back baseball. Tinker Field is Orlando’s most historic public venue and the culture and history behind the field is worth saving. Add in the possibilities to build youth academies and programs to further engage children in the community and saving historic Tinker Field is a no-brainer.
If local leaders like Orange County Mayor Jacobs and Orlando Mayor Dyer put just a fraction of the money and constant PR effort they continue to put forward towards the soccer team efforts, Tinker Field would easily become a living historical landmark enjoyed by our community for 100 more years.
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