THEY SHOULD GET TO TRY THE HARD SPORT TOO:

The search is on for baseball's next urban legends: A 10-acre, $10-million youth academy in Compton is a tribute to Robinson's legacy and a focal point in the sport's efforts to strengthen its foothold in an area where it's lost ground: inner cities. (Helene Elliott, February 9, 2007, LA Times)

The late Jackie Robinson will be honored at major league ballparks April 15, the 60th anniversary of the day he shattered the sport's color barrier. He deserves every accolade, but tributes are only words.

The Urban Youth Academy, a 10-acre complex at Compton Community College, is a living tribute to Robinson and inclusion and all it can mean.

The $10-million facility, which will be a year old Feb. 28, operates year-round with four instructional leagues and a summer camp for boys and girls. Former and current major leaguers offer lessons, and educational programs are available to prepare kids for life outside the white lines.

Thirteen young men who played at the academy or participated in the grass-roots Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program were drafted by major league teams last June. The RBI program, born in Los Angeles in 1988 and since expanded to more than 200 cities, last year moved its World Series to the academy grounds.

Crenshaw High alumnus Trayvon Robinson, who played in the RBI program, was chosen by the Dodgers in 2005 and has played two seasons of rookie ball. Robinson, a popular figure at Wednesday's clinic, said few of his friends played baseball when he was young. Baseball "in the inner city, it doesn't have a lot of popularity, but I think it's getting it back," he said.

Dodgers first baseman James Loney, who is African American, played in the RBI program while growing up in the Houston area. His team advanced to the 1999 RBI World Series in Orlando, Fla., and he'd like to see other kids have the same chance to play and fall in love with baseball.

"I think a lot of it is most minorities play basketball and football because it's the easy thing to go do," Loney said. "You just throw a football on a field or go shoot hoops somewhere. Baseball takes more time, maybe more guys to play with, equipment, all that stuff. And maybe it's not the coolest thing to do. I think some people think that."

According to the most recent report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the University of Central Florida, 9% of major league players in 2005 were African American, the fewest in 26 years.