RBI World Series set to begin in Vero Beach

VERO BEACH, FLA. -- Regional champions from across the United States, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic arrived at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex on Sunday for the 27th edition of the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series.

Pool play begins at 8 a.m. ET on Monday, with the tournament being hosted for the first time at its new permanent home in Vero Beach. Sixteen teams separated by the Junior (ages 13-15) and Senior (ages 16-18) divisions will compete in pool play on Monday and Tuesday for a chance to make the playoffs on Thursday, following by the championship games on Friday. The Senior championship game will stream live on MLB.com.

The RBI World Series is the international championship tournament of the RBI program, the MLB youth initiative designed to provide young people from underserved and diverse communities the opportunity to play baseball and softball at a competitive level.

For some teams, advancing to the RBI World Series has become a tradition. The Junior Chicago White Sox RBI team, as well as both the Arizona RBI Junior and Senior squads, have made multiple trips to the World Series.

This is the second consecutive trip to the RBI World Series for Chicago’s pitcher/outfielder Sean Moore, who said that his team is a year older and a year wiser after losing to Philadelphia in last year’s Junior championship.

“I feel we have a much better team this year. I feel like we can win it this year,” the 16-year-old Moore said.

This is the Junior White Sox coaching staff's fifth World Series. Last year, the group coached the Senior team to a championship in Minnesota.

White Sox RBI coach Marcus Rodgers praised the Chicago White Sox for their efforts toward the RBI program.

“The Chicago White Sox do an excellent job of putting these kids in the right places so that they can be successful not only on the baseball field, but also off,” Rodgers said. “We have tutors. They do ACT prep. We have a whole group and a whole team around the kids that we just pour into them all year round. We pride ourselves, with the help of the White Sox, to be able to assist these guys in whatever they want to do in life.”

The White Rox RBI team won the Junior title in 2016 after losing in the first round of the playoffs to Detroit in the previous year. The White Sox lost to Philadelphia in the 2017 Junior World Series, while the Senior team won the title last season over a tough Arizona team that is also returning this year.

The majority of the Arizona Senior team has played in the World Series and half of its Junior team has, as well, according to assistant coach Daniel Vander Valk.

“We kind of rely on those guys for leadership and to get those other guys directed and calm their nerves and understand what the preparation is like to play the good competition that’s here,” said Vander Valk.

This is the third consecutive year for both Arizona RBI Junior and Senior teams to advance to the RBI World Series.

“Our head coach Glenn Coleman does an awesome job,” Vander Valk said. “He gets these guys committed to coming back each year. They love him. We feel like a lot of them come back to play for him. He does a good job with those guys.”

In his second year with the Arizona RBI program, 16 year-old Jesus Balencia is enjoying his second consecutive trip to the World Series.

“It’s amazing being out here doing something I love with my teammates,” Balencia said. “It’s a great group of people, great coaches. It doesn’t get better than this -- dinners, meeting new people. These are experiences you don’t get anywhere else.”

For others, however, it’s been a longer struggle to finally get to that first RBI World Series.

The Durham Triple Play RBI program is in its 11th year and has made strides until earning its first trip to the RBI World Series after hosting and winning the Senior Mid-Atlantic Regional.

“Every year, we’ve gotten a little closer,” Durham coach Paul Ensslin said. “You get more familiar with the routine; you get more familiar with the kids. We’re fortunate that the group that we’ve got has been together playing for a long time, many of them in the league since they were 13, and now they’re 16-18.”

Durham will lose only three players off this year’s squad, so perhaps it too can become regulars to the RBI World Series.

“We want to win it,” Ensslin said. “The kids have a good mindset. We got here and they unpacked and went right to the cages. So there’s a pretty good business-like atmosphere about them, even though they are 16-18.

“Winning regionals, now these guys know they can do it. And now we’re getting interviewed and getting to meet the mayor and we’re getting on TV and we’re making a long plane trip and we’re getting treated like Major Leaguers. It’s exciting. So we’re just going to ride it out.”

Still, it’s an eye-opening experience for a young player making his first trip to a World Series competition.

“It’s amazing,” said Josephus Shabazz, who has been in the Durham RBI program almost since its inception. “It really shows how far the league has come; a lot of diligence from the players and staff to keep at it and finally getting to this point.”

In his eighth and final season in the program, the 18-year-old Shabazz has bittersweet emotions about the trip.

“It’s been a joy,” he said. “Of course, you want to see the ultimate outcome of winning the whole thing, but over eight years, working this hard even to get to this point is a blessing in itself.”