As some of you know, YourSports is a media company with a purpose. One thing YourSports does to give back is support a non-profit foundation called the I Love Baseball Foundation. Chris McCoy, along with Ben Holman started the ILB several years ago after a mission trip to the DR. They saw the importance of bringing education to Dominican men and realized that sports could be their platform to do so.

Last week, Myself, Brandon Napier, and Ben Holman had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic to help get the baseball academy off the ground. Much effort has been put into raising money, solidifying partnerships, and creating awareness of the ILB both in the states and in the DR. Now, the academy is actually on the ground running. There are 10 players in the ILB right now. They have practice every morning from 8-noon, have a large meal together (to put some muscle on some of the malnourished players), and go to school in the afternoons. Although the ILB has plans to include more players and do some more exciting things, this was very encouraging to actually see the foundation working.

I have attached an email I sent to Chris while in the DR to give you all a better idea of what happened down there. I'll include parentheses for areas that need clarification.

"Chris

We got some footage of guys in the bateys (impoverished haitian villages)
with the metal/wood bats today! It is rad! The internet has been spazing out
though so I might try to upload the video of this tomorrow if it's working
better.

The ILB Academy had their first meal yesterday, they had their second
today. It's so awesome! Dude, some of these kids are 13/14 and throwing
high 70's and low 80's but are malnourished. Most of these types of
kids are from the bateys. 5 of them came to the lunch meals and have
absolutely been woofing down their food, and they are LOVING IT. They
are getting tons of rice, chicken, veggies, lettuce, tomatoes, juice,
milk, it's amazing. I'm convince these last two meals have been the
best meals of their lives. David and Ben are convinced several of
these kids are getting signed (with major league baseball teams).
Now, with good food, they can put some meat on their bones and be
throwing gas (throwing the ball fast).

I led the strength exercises today cause David and carrion want to help
the players improve their speed and they don't have any exercises to
build muscle... So, Brandon and I worked them into the ground with wall
sits/lunges and tons of other stuff up our sleeves. They were sore as
you could believe, a good start for them to get faster. Good thing they
have tomorrow off for good Friday (the whole country shuts down this
week because of the weekend).

See ya in the states in a couple days.

Seth"