Players Trust Helps Introduce California Children to Game of Baseball

The Players Trust soaked in the California sunshine last week, while participating in a series of events on the west coast, starting with Buses for Baseball in San Francisco followed by back-to-back City Clinics in the Bay Area and Anaheim.

The Players Trust kicked off its action-packed week last Tuesday, when 50 students from Brett Harte Elementary School—those who accomplished a perfect attendance record during the 2014-15 school year-- were treated to free tickets, transportation, meal vouchers and personal greetings from players when the Giants faced the Padres at AT&T Park.  Players including Jeremy Affeldt, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford, Justin Maxwell, Joe Panik, and Hunter Stickland made sure to stop by say hi to their special guests, posing for a few photos (and selfies) and signing autographs as students enjoyed watching batting practice from the field.

On Wednesday morning, youth from the Junior Giants headed over to Big Rec Park, located in iconic Golden Gate Park, to attend a Players Trust City Clinics event where they received free, hands-on baseball instruction from current Giants players Matt Duffy and Justin Maxwell. The Junior Giants received pointers in areas such as base running, pitching, hitting, throwing and fielding followed by a question and answer session with Matt and Justin.

Junior Giants, the flagship program of the Giants Community Fund, is a free, non-competitive and innovative baseball program for boys and girls ages 5-18 years old. Junior Giants focuses on the four bases of character development - Confidence, Integrity, Leadership and Teamwork - and offers programs in Education, Health and Violence Prevention.

The final stop of the Players Trust’s California tour was on Friday, when Los Angeles Angels players Efren Navarro, Carlos Perez, Cesar Ramos, Hector Santiago and Joe Smith and former big leaguer Kenny Lofton shared the game they love with children from Angels RBI and neighboring inner city youth programs.

Located in Anaheim, CA, Angels RBI provides a fun, safe and inviting environment for children to play in a baseball league that places emphasis on character development and quality life choices. Angels RBI promotes and celebrates academic excellence.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram @MLBPlayersTrust to view photos of these and other Trust events.