Inner-City Baseball Benefits From Brown

Kevin Brown will not arrive in Los Angeles with the Dodgers until next week.

But the new Dodger right-hander is already making an impact on the local high school baseball scene.

The Kevin Brown RBI Academy for Excellence, funded by Brown’s $1-million donation to RBI (Reviving Baseball in Innercities), is sponsoring the fifth annual RBI/Chet Brewer baseball tournament, which begins Saturday.

The 16-team tournament will be played at USC, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, Loyola Marymount, Cal State Los Angeles, East Los Angeles College and Los Angeles City College. The teams will be divided into four pools. Semifinals and the championship game will be played Saturday, April 3, at USC.

John Young, executive director of RBI, said the tournament is an opportunity for inner-city students to receive a positive experience in a college environment and play on some of the best U.S. diamonds.

Some of the players to watch in the tournament include Huntington Park senior left-hander Edgar Arambula, Hamilton senior third baseman Anthony Ware, Roosevelt sophomore left-hander Philip Valdes, Crenshaw junior pitcher/first baseman Carl Johnson and Locke freshman catcher Marques Pugh.

Schools from the San Fernando Valley have dominated City Section competition in the last 20 years, but Young said the gap will narrow as more inner-city athletes become involved in the sport at a young age through programs such as RBI.

“I’ve noticed a difference in some of the teams,” Young said. “Huntington Park, South Gate and Bell have traditionally been strong, but Locke is much improved and Crenshaw and Dorsey have good young teams. It’s going to be a great year.”

Young said RBI traveling teams will play in Montreal this summer. They also will play a home-and-home series against the Harlem chapter in Dodger Stadium and Yankee Stadium.

“The program is starting to pay dividends because we’re getting more kids and coaches involved and that’s translating to the quality of play at the high school level,” Young said. “There is still a long way to go. But progress is definitely being made.”