NewsRBI World Series off to a busy start
Burrage blasts one, Detroit dominates on exciting dayBy Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com
08/05/09 11:48 PM ET
JUPITER, Fla. -- The scattered ringing of aluminum bats brought an unusual chorus of ping to the backfields of the Roger Dean Stadium complex -- mainly a Minor League facility known for the thud of professional lumber.But no ping seemed to chime louder than the one that came off the bat of Angelo Burrage of the Chicago senior team during opening play of the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series, presented by KPMG, on Wednesday.
Parents, fans and idle coaches and players were roaming around a circle of four fields in the afternoon trying to take in as many games simultaneously as possible. But they all flocked to one ballpark -- Field 3 on this day -- when they heard Burrage uncork an absolute bomb way over the right-center-field fence in the first inning, a no-doubt-about-it three-run homer that traveled deep into the forest beyond the fence that led to an easy 12-1 opening win over Jersey City in five innings.
After the at-bat, Burrage continued to impress, hitting two triples deep into the spacious outfield before walking in his last plate appearance. But for the rest of the day, all the talk surrounded that one home run, which seemed to travel farther and farther as word passed.
"It felt good," said Burrage about his long homer on a field that's about 325 feet down the right-field line. "I knew it was gone as soon as I hit it."
Burrage is an 18-year-old, left-handed-hitting first baseman who doesn't measure more than 5-foot-9 but is built like an ox and has a sweet, powerful stroke. He went unnoticed at the 2009 First-Year Player Draft and instead took a 75-percent scholarship at Illinois State.
Still, there were a handful of scouts watching some of the best teenagers in the U.S. and the Caribbean on Wednesday, so Burrage -- who went 1-for-4 with a run scored in his second game, a 5-4 win over Detroit -- showcased a little bit of what they might have missed out on.
"Tremendous talent, plus power," said Burrage's coach, Ernest Radcliffe. "He can be a big league ballplayer. He's got a big league approach, he carries himself like a big leaguer. I thought he should've gotten drafted out of high school."
In regard to the rest of the 16-18-year-old senior division, the Los Angeles Urban Youth Academy beat defending-champion L.A. RBI, 10-6, then eked out a 2-1 win against Houston in the nightcap; Tampa sneaked past Detroit, 6-5; and Houston held on against Santo Domingo, 4-2, earlier in the day.
On the 13-15-year-old junior side, the L.A. Urban Youth Academy routed Santo Domingo, 12-4; Miami came from behind to beat Jersey City, 10-7, in five innings; and Chicago picked up two wins -- beating Montgomery, Ala., 10-2, and blanking Santo Domingo, 2-0.
But the biggest day on the junior side belonged to Detroit, which came in winners of three straight junior-division titles and showed it still might be the top force in the RBI World Series.
After demolishing Cleveland, 13-3, in six innings in its first game, Detroit rallied late for a 5-3 win over Miami -- a team that easily went undefeated in its regional tournament.
It isn't easy having the string of success Detroit has had over the previous three years -- not when you constantly recycle players because of age and live in a northern city where outdoor baseball is impossible for several months out of the year.
But year in and year out, Detroit seems to come out on top.
"To have won this many times, it's really tough," coach Steven Brown said. "We get snow in the ground, so we can't play year-round like down here in Florida or out West like in Houston and other places.
"But we have a good support system out there, good group of kids that love baseball and a little luck. You need to get a little bit of luck, too."
The opening day of the 17th annual RBI World Series featured several other highlights, too.
Some examples:
• The junior L.A. Urban Youth Academy team was down by two in the top of the seventh but batted around and scored 10 runs in its final at-bat en route to its lopsided victory over Santo Domingo.
• Timothy Blackmon of the Tampa senior team hit a two-run homer, then preserved a one-run lead in the seventh inning by picking off the go-ahead runner at second base for the final out.
• Miami found itself down, 7-3, in the bottom of the fourth against Jersey City, then finally came to life with seven runs that inning for the opening win.
• Santos Saldivar of the Houston senior team helped his squad get a two-run win over Santo Domingo by pitching five shutout innings and striking out 11 batters to end the game.
"A lot of competition today, and that's the beauty of pool play and the fact that everybody gets to advance," RBI program director David James said. "Regardless of what happened today, you're still alive, and you get to see the other talent and put yourself in a seeding position to get to Saturday."
Play will continue all day on Thursday, followed by a workout day on Friday and the interleague playoffs on Saturday. On Sunday, a winner from the senior and junior divisions will be crowned at Land Shark Stadium in Miami -- home of the Marlins.
The Senior Baseball Championship will air live on MLB Network at 3 p.m. ET. In addition, all three championship games -- for the senior boys, junior boys and girls 18-and-under softball on Aug. 14 -- will be streamed live on MLB.com.
Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
