- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
O’s spread love of game through Play Ball clinics
- Updated: May 14, 2016
BALTIMORE — About 10 years ago, Darren O’Day and Zach Britton each signed their first professional contracts. It was a dream they each realized after boyhoods spent playing in the dirt, playing around parks, laughing and learning and in love with a game that was fun to them.
On Saturday morning, only hours after combining to close out another Orioles victory — their sixth in a row — the All-Star relievers were together again at the nearby Fort Meade military base to join in Major League Baseball’s inaugural Play Ball Weekend and to feel like kids again.
• Complete Youth Baseball coverage
“I’ve got to warn you that the next station might be boring,” O’Day told boys and girls at the fielding skills station before they rotated over to the pitching station manned by Britton.
“I think Darren messed them up when they sent them over to me, so I was trying to fix them,” Britton said before catching blazing fastballs from the wide-eyed kids. “No, it was a lot of fun. … We’re just trying to spread the love of the game through baseball. We want kids to enjoy it so hopefully they one day follow in our footsteps a little bit.”
This was one of two simultaneous Play Ball Weekend clinics staged by the Orioles, each teaching baseball skills to kids with current and former Orioles in attendance. O’Day and Britton were joined by Al Bumbry and Rick Krivda at Fort Meade, helping about 100 children of various military service families. Over at Lake Waterford Park in Pasadena, Md., Orioles pitcher Brad Brach along with alumni Ken Dixon and Larry Bigbie taught fundamentals to more than 40 children with mental and/or physical challenges from the Oriole Advocates Challenger Baseball program.
Britton taught them to step and throw, taking some close-range heaters, including one off the knee with a laugh. O’Day, ever the Florida Gator, taught them fielding by cupping his hand over his glove and asking: “You know what an alligator is, right?”
Among other perks like hot dogs and gear, these and many other kids were given tickets by the Orioles to attend that evening’s scheduled home game against the Tigers.
Play Ball Weekend is an extension of MLB’s Play Ball initiative, …
continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com
