MILB reaches out

Minor League Baseball has announced a new initiative catering to Hispanic/ Latino fans. Here are the four franchises that were chosen to launch the program in August before it expands to all 160 minor league markets in 2018:

■ Las Vegas 51s, Pacific Coast League ■ Charlotte Knights, International League

■ Kane County (Illinois) Cougars, Midwest League

■ Visalia (California) Rawhide, California League get a good result, or a good reading on a result? There’s a long relationship between the 51s and the Latin Chamber of Commerce, so you check that box.

“And my goodness, it’s Las Vegas. In this country today, pretty much everything in one form or another comes through Las Vegas. So we felt it would provide the profile that we felt this initiative is worthy of.”

Note to Visalia, California: Don’t you dare try to steal the NBA Summer League or the big darts tournament at Tropicana Las Vegas.

Jim Gemma, the 51s’ longtime media man who has statistics for everything, or will get them to you in 15 minutes or fewer, said six of the 51s are foreign-born players of Hispanic/latino descent. One in four. Including shortstop Amed Rosario, who in April was named the top prospect in all of baseball by ESPN.

Since the Triple-a All-star Game, Rosario has missed a bunch of games with a stomach illness. Es no divertido ser un shortstop when you have gastroenteritis, and the team for which you play is 17 games out of first place.

But I have a feeling the Dominican kid with the slick hands and the quick bat is going to like the new uniforms.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal. com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ ronkantowski on Twitter.