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CalL1 Visalia Rawhide

Rawhide Announce Local "Play Ball" Initiative

April 12, 2016 - California League (CalL1)
Visalia Rawhide News Release


VISALIA, CA - The Visalia Rawhide are pleased to announce "Play Ball," a new community initiative in 2016. The Rawhide have partnered up with the Arizona Diamondbacks as well as the Wittman Center in Visalia to provide underprivileged areas in the community with access to baseball.

The initiative will teach basic baseball skills to children who do not have the financial or home-support to participate in local baseball or softball leagues, and will encourage these kids to play ball as they grow up and continue to be involved with the All-American pastime, whether that be as a player, coach or fan.

This implementation of the "Play Ball" program here in Visalia is in line with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's vision and the Arizona Diamondbacks commitment to servicing the community in a variety of ways.

Thanks to the Rawhide and the Diamondbacks organizations, full baseball equipment will be provided to the youth center, which will assist in selecting 50 children (half boys and half girls) to participate in the program. Each selected child will receive a glove, baseball and t-shirt to take home with him/her.

"We're proud to call Visalia one of our Minor League partners for ten years now." said Diamondbacks President & CEO, Derrick Hall.  "The City of Visalia is constantly striving to improve the facility safety, and local community members graciously open their homes to our players each summer.  The Rawhide organization is known for being industry leaders in community involvement and share our same values in that regard. We wanted to show our support for the work they are doing, and continue to encourage our younger players to give back to this amazing community as well.  This is a template program that will no doubt be nationwide in the near future - another tribute to the hard work of the Rawhide staff & the Visalia community."

In preparation for the season opening "Play Ball" clinic, Rawhide players and the children involved will head to the local Dicks Sporting Goods in Visalia to purchase the needed equipment on Saturday, April 16th.         

"Dick's Sporting Goods is very happy to be a part of the Visalia Rawhide's Play Ball program! We look forward to working with the team and are excited to be involved in our local community," said Amy Vanderlin, Dick's Community Marketing Manager for Northern California.

The "Play Ball" clinics will begin April 30th and run through the course of the 2016 season with one clinic per month.  Each clinic will also focus on one of the "Six Pillars of Character' & will echo the "Pursue Victory with Honor" slogan of Character Counts.   The participants will also be recognized at a kick-off event at the Rawhide game on Wednesday, April 27th - tickets & meals provided by the Step-Up Program of Tulare County.   

"We put an emphasis on teaching our players what it means to be role models on & off the field here in Visalia." said Rawhide General Manager, Jennifer Pendergraft.  "When Commissioner Manfred unveiled his community initiative programs last year, they were very similar to the efforts already started in Visalia.  With the help of our long-time Major League Affiliate, the Arizona Diamondbacks, we were able to tweak existing programs, and implement Manfred's Play Ball initiative in our own community - which demographics are quite different from the MLB Cities that Manfred is tackling.  It's neat to see everyone coming together for the betterment of baseball - both on & off the field - and we could not do this without the support of the Diamondbacks!"--

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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