How Harlem Little League could be a model in bringing back the summer game to North Philadelphia

The screech of sirens and the hum of news and police helicopters are sounds that have become too familiar for Angel Goldsmith, a mother raising two kids in the northern sector of Philadelphia.

“We don’t really do anything outside the house with our kids,” Goldsmith said. “We just plan activities to do at home, because there aren’t many things we can do [outside as a family].”

Citizens living in the neighborhoods north of City Hall yearn to hear the joyful laughter of children playing on freshly mown grass fields, where organized games like baseball and softball enable them to experience carefree moments in safety and embrace their true essence as children.

“It seems like our neighborhoods are getting worse and worse for our kids,” said Thomas Upchurch, a 32-year-old father of three who lives in North Philadelphia.

Upchurch alludes to the lack of sports fields or even a basic green space in North Philadelphia, meaning that children are deprived of their right to such amenities.

“It’s [nonsense], really,” said Upchurch, who’s originally from Las Vegas. “Most children can’t enjoy the parks because there really aren’t any. When I was growing up, they weren’t the best, but they were still something us kids looked forward to using.”

There have been 1,554 shooting victims in the city this year, and 171 of those shot were minors. Approximately 30% of these shootings took place within the 22nd, 25th, and 39th districts, which are the primary patrol areas for North Philadelphia, among other neighborhoods, as reported by the Philadelphia Police Public Affairs office.

“The chances of making it out of there are slim to none,” said Ryan Howard, a former Phillies World Series champion, National League MVP, and active philanthropist in underserved areas of Philadelphia. “That doesn’t have to be the reality.”

If North Philadelphians need a blueprint to provide their children with safe outside spaces to play, they can look 100 miles north to Harlem, where youth baseball and softball are thriving.

In 1991, Harlem residents who lived in the Upper Manhattan neighborhood decided to form teams affiliated with Little League International and Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities (the Major League Baseball initiative known as RBI).

RBI claimed an abandoned lot between First and Second Avenues from 100th to 101st Streets. At the time, the plot looked more like a dump, rather than untapped potential. The area was famously described in the New York Times as the “worst block in NYC,” but that all changed when it was transformed into a diamond.

Organizations like the New York Yankees and Mets pitched in toward building the field, adding lights, and lending credence to the parents’ declaration that Harlem’s first youth baseball organization since the 1970s was there to stay.

Why did that matter? According to a New York Times article on May 18, 1993, after the field sprang up, crime began to fizzle out of the area.

“The crime on this block was down something like 46% strictly because there was a presence on the block,” said Jay Acton, founder of Harlem’s RBI League.

Harlem RBI, now known as Dream, continued to expand far beyond the realm of America’s pastime. Seeing how influential it had become in East Harlem, Dream set its sights on the greater need of the community: education. It formed multiple schools, ranging from pre-K development to high school.

The game was already blossoming elsewhere. Two years earlier, Little League International reestablished its connection to Harlem after a decade with no baseball in the area.

Harlem residents Dwight and Iris Raiford played a big part in the rebirth.

The couple who lived in Harlem kick-started a league in 1989, using Colonel Charles Young Park at the corner of 145th Street and Lenox Avenue as the primary field so their son Joshua could fulfill his dream of playing one of his favorite sports. At its peak, the league fielded as many as 850 children in one year.

At first, the Little League gave boys ages 5 to 12 organized baseball. With more demand, the league started to accept children up to age 16, and later added softball for girls.

Two leagues strong, Harlem started to become a more accurate representation of New York City as a whole. The same families that were choosing to be Yankees or Mets fans had to choose between Harlem Little League or RBI.

This spring, Harlem Little League fielded 21 teams for boys, ranging from tee ball to 14-and-under squads. There were a pair of softball teams, one representing girls 12 and under, the other for girls 14 and under. The league now registers about 300 boys and girls between its spring and fall seasons. Of those 300, about 15% to 18% are girls.

According to the league’s website, the registration fee covers the cost of children’s uniforms, playing equipment (excluding baseball gloves), and umpire fees for both tee ball and 16-and-under baseball. For fall ball registration, fees range from $50 to $100, and according to Jody Mercier of the league’s information office, “We will never turn anybody away if they can’t afford to pay.”

The pride in what these children accomplished at young ages still resonates.

“I got into baseball early. … The history is so rich here,” said Emery Smith, a 21-year-old Harlem resident.

Smith, a Hunter College student, played Little League ball at Holcombe Rucker Park, a facility just across the street from where the historic Polo Grounds stood. It was the home of the New York Giants.

Look over at Holcombe Rucker’s right-field fence, you can see the top of Yankee Stadium across the Harlem River in the Bronx. Derek Jeter, who Smith said is his hero, played there while Smith lived out his fantasies until he was 14 years old.

It took that sort of diverse economic village to make a difference in neighborhoods throughout Harlem because of ballparks like Holcombe Rucker.

The impact of the game’s revival for Harlem children is evident.

“Harlem RBI started in a storefront, very small,” said Tony Reagins, MLB’s chief development officer who oversees the league’s RBI program. “But over time, it morphed into a giant — it speaks to me in a way that baseball can be so much more than just nine innings and playing on a diamond.”

Reagins, the former general manager of the Los Angeles Angels who joined the commissioner’s office in 2015, has fostered the expansion of Play Ball programs, with a focus on diversity as well as youth facility management, and various other initiatives. The RBI program, which greatly benefited Harlem, is now implemented in more than 200 cities, nationally and internationally.

Philadelphia’s RBI boys’ and girls’ teams have enjoyed success on the big stage in the organization’s annual international World Series.

» READ MORE: Philly has a real need in finding its youth more safe spots to play baseball

North Philadelphia has also benefited from other programs initiated by Major League Baseball and its sponsors. Last summer, a field refurbishment program sponsored by Scotts provided a $50,000 grant to Lighthouse Field on the 100 block of Erie Avenue.

Getting rid of unsightly divots or scattered rocks across the infield dirt matters, Reagins said. He was referring not only to the potential harm of bad bounces on ill-kept fields, but was also speaking of helping build a neighborhood where children feel safe.

“That’s such a cool thing, see these kids being able to really utilize [refurbished field],” Howard said. “Seeing kids being able to get active, that was something that was very, very special, near and dear to my heart.”

Still, North Philly is an area that could use its own Harlem renaissance. While that does not mean you won’t see a community organized game north of City Hall, there are only two youth baseball leagues in Philadelphia that are specifically affiliated with Little League or RBI, and both are in South Philly.

“That North Philly area can use some assistance, some outreach,” Reagins said. “Obviously, North Philly is a tough area.

“In North Philly, I think that the resources, whether it is from the city or the corporate community, is important. There was an investment made in that [Lighthouse] facility. In order to continue that momentum, I think when you get major corporations involved, that’s when it can happen.”

Playing Fields, not Killing Fields is an Inquirer collaboration with the Claire Smith Center for Sports Media and The Logan Center for Urban Investigative Reporting, to produce a series examining the current state of Philadelphia’s youth recreation infrastructure and programs. The project will explore the challenges and solutions to sports serving as a viable response to gun violence and an engine to revitalize city neighborhoods.