Sox pick off direct funding to Little Leagues
‘Little League only accounts for a fraction of youth leagues and more often than not disproportionately engages boys vs. girls.’
You’re out!
That’s the Red Sox Foundation’s message to Little Leagues in terms of its normal annual direct donations, as the Major League Baseball team told the Herald it’s halted its $83,500 in cash to 167 organizations.
“This is also part of a larger shift in the Foundation’s youth baseball and softball strategy to more equitably support leagues in Massachusetts and New England,” Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran said. “Little League only accounts for a fraction of youth leagues and more often than not disproportionately engages boys vs. girls.”
Curran said the foundation’s total contribution to youth leagues isn’t decreasing
ZINEB CURRAN Red Sox spokeswoman
— just that it’s changing. She said the Sox are beefing up coach training, which Curran said is popular among the leagues. Curran added that the Sox will continue to sponsor the Little League tournaments.
Curran said the Sox in 2019 made 167 donations in the amount of $500 to different Little League teams in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In total, that amounted to $83,500 donated directly to Little League teams.
She said this plan is meant to “invest in the coaching support and other resources” that “we hope will allow us to cast a wider and more inclusive net which will hopefully result in a greater and more equitable impact.”
Curran said these changes don’t involve cuts to the popular RBI program — a play off of the baseball stat “run batted in,” but in this case meaning “Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities.” RBI and Jr. RBI programs in Boston cater to about a thousand kids, and are offered free of charge. The foundation spends about $300,000 on those programs in Boston and other cities.
Curran first presented these changes as at least somewhat coronavirus-driven, saying, “the Foundation’s fundraising efforts were severely impacted by the pandemic last year. They rely on in-person events to raise most of their funds and simply weren’t able to raise what they normally would in a typical year.”
But she added that the amount of money the Sox are spending is actually going up this year, with a bit more money going to the Little League tournaments and the cash reallocated to the coach training. The Sox said, “We hope will impact a greater number of players and families across all six New England states in a more equitable fashion.”
Curran said the Sox consulted with Little League administrators before making the decision, and the team said the administrators said the coach training was the most useful element the Sox offered.