COMPTON, Calif. -- When Major League Baseball’s Youth Academy first opened its doors in 2006, it was a one-of-a-kind program that offered high-level baseball and softball instruction to young boys and girls from urban communities.
Now, it is one of many.
On Thursday night, as the kickoff event to All-Star Week 2022, the Youth Academy’s Compton facility was the site of an opening ceremony for the third annual All-Star Commissioner’s Cup and Jennie Finch Classic, which were last held in 2019. Each competition, which will take place from Friday through Monday, features 10 teams of youth baseball and softball players (ages 17 and under) from MLB Youth Academies and Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) programs from around the United States and Puerto Rico.
Besides the MLB Youth Academy, participants include the P&G MLB Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy; Texas Rangers MLB Youth Academy; Houston Astros MLB Youth Academy; Kansas City Royals MLB Urban Youth Academy; New Orleans MLB Youth Academy; Philadelphia Phillies MLB Urban Youth Academy; Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy; and DREAM RBI from the Bronx and Harlem, N.Y. The MLB Development Program in Puerto Rico will also contend on the baseball side, while Jennie Finch’s Aces of Flemington, N.J., will represent the Olympic gold medal winner and MLB youth softball ambassador.
Darrell Miller was there when the Compton academy came to fruition and on a night when it welcomed a string of youth academies upon which it had been modeled. As the academy’s director, Miller threw out the tournaments’ ceremonial first pitch, along with Finch, marking the end of a festive day that involved food trucks, loud music and skills competitions, including Pitch, Hit & Run and the Jr. Home Run Derby.
Shortly before that happened, however, there was a surprise in store for Miller himself. A five-year Major Leaguer with the California Angels, the 64-year-old played a pivotal role in building and developing every youth academy now in operation -- and MLB sought to honor him for it.
David James, the league’s vice president of baseball and softball development and the ceremony’s emcee, followed up remarks from MLB’s chief baseball development officer Tony Reagins and Andrés De La Peza, chief program officer for the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation, by introducing Miller without explicitly naming him.
“He has been a mentor to hundreds, if not thousands, of kids who have walked through this facility, including the dozen Major Leaguers who got their start here at the academy and still mention his name in gratitude,” James said. “This man been a little bit of everything to the Youth Academy in Compton, pouring his heart and soul into it every day.
“He may have been a Major League player with the Angels, but without a doubt, his greatest contribution to this game has been the foundation he’s helped build toward its future.”
James then turned to the young men and women seated in a half-circle on either side of home plate and asked them to give a standing ovation to a person who made it possible for each one of them to be where they were in that moment. Walking up to receive the microphone, Miller was moved to tears.
“When I was hired in 2005, we had this dream about building an academy that could influence young men and women who want to play the game of baseball and softball. That was our goal,” Miller said. “What could we do to help young ladies and young men, student-athletes go to the next level? We didn’t really know how, but we wanted to do something. We did more than something.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing; I just knew it had to be done, and I figured it out. And that’s how life goes. I wanted to be a GM like Tony Reagins and win championships. But instead, I was able to help develop and build championship people and Major League contributors to society and make just a little bit of a difference in people’s lives.”
Since its inception, the flagship Youth Academy has served more than 10,000 young men and women in Southern California. And while many have gone on to play or work in college or in the Majors or Minors, there are also countless numbers who have found success in a myriad of professions -- from doctors and nurses to police officers and armed services members. There are even some past participants who, inspired by their experience, are going back and building programs of their own, adding to the legacy that began on this field 16 years ago.
“The impact that this place has had on so many different lives is a great story to tell. It’s really sad that we don’t tell it enough,” Reagins said. “That’s one of my goals: to tell this story a lot more. Because every single day, somebody’s life is changing here.
“I’m looking forward to the next few days and letting these kids play.”