THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 18, 1994 TAG: 9406180191
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940618 LENGTH: NORFOLK
On the basketball court beyond third base, some of Smith's buddies continued playing their game.
{REST} A few minutes later, Smith tossed his basketball to them.
He was staying on the baseball field.
``I like baseball better now,'' said Smith, 14, who didn't play much baseball before this spring.
Smith may never become a professional player, or even make his high school team.
But his newfound passion for the game is exactly what Major League Baseball wants to hear.
Smith is learning to play baseball because the major leagues awarded Norfolk a $30,000 grant to start an affiliate of RBI, or Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities.
The idea here, and in 30 more cities, is to reverse baseball's waning appeal among blacks.
In Norfolk, the strategy seems to be off to a good start.
In March, the Parks and Recreation Department put out a call for players and volunteer coaches. The response: 39 adults and more than 300 youngsters, enough to stock 33 teams spread among two leagues for boys and one for girls.
Every Saturday since May 14, teams have monopolized the baseball fields at Booker T. Washington High School, Barraud Park and Ingleside Elementary School. League play ends today for boys and July 16 for girls, with local and regional playoffs to follow. An RBI World Series will be held in Anaheim, Calif., on Aug. 6-11.
Players often get to the diamonds early to watch preceding games, loosen up, play catch or go over last-minute tips from coaches.
When play begins, youngsters well-versed in the hard-edged lingo of playground basketball spout baseball-isms such as ``Swing, batter, swing!'' ``Walk's as good as a hit!'' and ``Slide! Slide! Slide!''
Now youngsters can even name favorite big-league teams and their stars, a sharp contrast to the shrugs they gave before RBI came to town.
That's good for Major League Baseball, which not only wants to recapture inner-city talent lost to basketball and football, but to restore the sport to its pre-eminence as the national pastime among fans.
``That's one of my disappointments, not seeing enough young black kids in the stands at Harbor Park,'' Norfolk Vice Mayor Joseph N. Green Jr. said. ``And one of the ways to become a fan is to learn to play the game yourself, and then you enjoy the skills of others.''
Last year, Green set the table for RBI in Norfolk. He asked Al Harazin, then a New York Mets executive, what Major League Baseball does for inner-city kids. Harazin directed him to Leonard Coleman, who led RBI before becoming National League president.
Every Saturday now, Green watches a few innings of RBI games. ``I've seen progress,'' he said of the kids. ``I wondered what it would take because it's not the easiest sport to learn. But it's been an amazing transformation.''
Players, like Detrell Wood, 15, tell a similar story.
Wood planned to spend the season lifting weights for football until friends talked him into joining the Calvert Square Chiefs.
At first he held back, thinking baseball would be boring. ``I'd watch it on TV sometimes and I'd fall asleep,'' Wood said. ``But now, since I'm playing, it's fun.''
Another change has taken place. ``I don't get into any more trouble. I don't have time,'' Wood said.
He said he feels better about his days when heading home from practice instead of having spent the time out on the street, getting into fights.
Seeing the change in kids excites volunteer coaches like Larry Outlaw, 34, a Calvert Square maintenance employee who is known as ``Coach Larry.''
Working in Calvert, he found that kids needed more after-school activities and more adults ``to show them that somebody cares.'' He started spending time as a volunteer football coach.
This spring, he enlisted teens for the new RBI league but did not plan to coach. Baseball just wasn't his sport growing up in the Diggs Town public housing neighborhood.
``Then they couldn't find a coach,'' Outlaw said.
Neighborhood youngsters asked him to lead the team, and Outlaw had to scramble with the kids to learn the game.
``We're learning together. What I learn, they learn. What they learn, they have been able to tell me.''
What Outlaw doesn't know about baseball, he makes up for in leadership.
``He doesn't have to do what he's doing because he works all day,'' said LaShawn Boone, 15, the Chiefs' right fielder. ``When he gets off work, he comes right here and helps us.''
Before games and after practices, Outlaw calls his team together to form a prayer circle, with all players joining hands, their baseball caps on the ground in front of them.
And after the Chiefs' first loss two weeks ago, Outlaw demanded that his dispirited players stop grumbling and shake hands with the victors. ``Be proud of your team,'' he counseled. ``In baseball, every day it changes. It just wasn't your day.''
Other coaches have their special ways of boosting team morale.
Larry ``Coach Red'' Faulks, who leads the ``B-Jacs'' team, hollers ``attitude check!'' during games.
``B-Jacs!,'' his players shout back.
``Attitude check!'' Faulks implores again.
The response comes back louder: ``B-JACS!''
The B-Jacs, sponsored by the Bronco Jaguar Athletic Club, reward players who hit home runs and honor each week's best players with special treats, such as going to a magic show or out to eat.
``We feel that when we reward them, that encourages other boys to play well, too. It's all about encouraging these kids,'' said Denise Faulks, who helps her husband. ``We don't even let teammates get down on each other.''
The Faulkses, and other B-Jac coaches, ask parents to encourage novice players who get frustrated.
Antonio Yancey, 13, of Fairmount Park, quit after missing the ball during the B-Jacs' first practice. A coach's call to his mother soon got Yancey back out on the field.
``My mom said, `It's going to happen, so don't get like that,' '' Yancey said. ``So I came back.''
RBI has a girls division, too. But players hit off a batting tee, which some young athletes find boring.
``We could play just as good as the boys,'' boasted Natalie Huggins, 14, center fielder for the Pacers.
As in anything new, there have been a few glitches with RBI.
A dispute over paperwork held up the grant from Major League Baseball, so Norfolk is using its own money until reimbursed.
The spring announcement of the program came too late to equip all teams with full uniforms and get all the fields in shape. The Chiefs, for example, sometimes practice on a rough-hewn diamond at Calvert Square. A construction trailer is parked along the first-base line. A contractor donated the backstop.
But most participants are pleased.
``This thing came together very fast. We busted our butts to reclaim as many fields as possible from long disuse,'' said Stanley Stein, parks and recreation director. ``We created something out of nothing.''
by CNB