Charity work reaches new level for Reds

At several of the inner-city youth fields in Cincinnati, broken glass and rocks were often as prevalent in the dirt infield as the bases. It became bad enough that the players began wearing shorts to help remind them not to slide.

Once members of the Reds Community Fund, including executive director Charley Frank, got a look for themselves, they knew something had to be done.

"When we went out and saw these fields in the spring, the condition of many of them -- especially in the inner city -- were absolutely appalling," Frank said. "Despite the shape they were in, you could see the footprints around home plate. So kids were already using and practicing on these fields and the conditions were miserable."

The Reds were already sponsoring youth baseball at these fields, including the storied Knothole program.

"We were heartbroken," Frank said. "We're trying to get people to play more baseball and we can't imagine anyone enjoying themselves or feeling good about participating on these fields."

It didn't take long for change to follow.

The Reds Community Fund joined forces with the Cincinnati Recreation Commission this summer, and for the first time, "adopted" 18 inner-city baseball fields. Each field was renovated and overhauled with new turf and drainage systems.

The CRC offered its services and equipment. The fields were maintained, treated and lined three times per week.

As for the dangerous glass and rocks, they were eliminated once the RCF partnered with Martin Marietta Inc., an aggregate corporation that provided better filtered dirt for the infield and helped underwrite some of the expenses.

"It was a pretty dramatic shift for the kids using the fields," Frank said. "They could tell there was something going on."

Baseball's Giving Spirit 2006 | MLB in the Community

The new program has already expanded to cover 55 renovated fields around Greater Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, Dayton, Louisville and Sarasota, Fla., where the Reds hold Spring Training. More than $400,000 was spent making the improvements.

Other Major League clubs offer similar programs that have their local youth leagues and communities apply for field renovation grants. At least for the first time around, the RCF didn't want to wait for the requests to come in, and instead went looking for fields to fix.

"We wanted to make a splash in our first year," Frank said.

The field renovations program was just one of several successes during an important transitional year for the Reds Community Fund.

Founded in 2001 as a non-profit arm of the Reds, the RCF's primary goal is to use the benefits of baseball to help improve the lives of children in the area. Until this year, the group had modest success operating its programs mainly outside the regular scope of the Reds organization.

In January, when he took over control of the team, new owner and chief executive officer Bob Castellini brought the RCF fully under the team's front-office umbrella. The dramatic change brought dramatic results.

"It was an absolute breakthrough for us," Frank said. "By bringing the community fund under the umbrella of the team, the team is committing to handle some of the overhead of the fund. That's just another strategic business advantage we have from our previous model.

"It opened the door to all the professional services, including the sales and marketing efforts, as opposed to us trying to generate the media and financial support on our own. We now have the strength of a fantastic organization behind us. The beauty of it is it not only makes our efforts more successful, I really think our ongoing programs in the community make the Reds better. It makes the organization more complete."

After routinely raising $350,000-$450,000 during past years, the RCF raised approximately $800,000 so far in 2006. That number will certainly increase following the return of the popular Redsfest on Dec. 1-2, where proceeds also benefit the community fund. Half of the money raised this year came via a matching grant from Castellini and the Reds' limited partners.

In addition to continuing Knothole baseball and Reds Rookie Success League, a co-ed non-competitive baseball program for at-risk children ages 8-11, the RCF will join with Major League Baseball and the Boys and Girls Clubs to launch a new RBI baseball program for inner-city kids. For more information on the RCF and its wide variety of programs and fundraisers, click here

Frank expects that the RCF will raise more than $1 million for the first time in 2007.

"That will be a very exciting thing for us," he said.

And for the kids who get to reap the benefits.