“The Game 365: Mookie Wilson”
Monday at 11pm on MSG Plus
Former NY Mets center fielder and current first base coach Mookie Wilson is featured in a new episode of “The Game 365” premiering on MSG Plus this Monday night at 11:00 p.m. Host Fran Healy and Mookie explore the issue of the decrease in African-Americans playing baseball. Mookie takes Healy to a baseball field in East Harlem where he is involved with “Harlem RBI,” a tuition-free program designed to generate urban youth interest in the game.
Mookie tells Healy that he believes “African-Americans don’t play as much baseball as they once did…because economics of the game have changed through the years. There are not as many leagues available to kids that are not well off. The leagues just aren’t there, and the ones that are there, are just not affordable – some of the travel leagues can cost as much as $6,000 a year.”
“Harlem RBI” has proven successful to this point with more than 800 kids participating, as well as involvement from some big names like Carlos Beltran and Mark Teixeira. The program also aims to help kids graduate from high school. An astounding 97% of “Harlem RBI” kids have graduated high school and 93% have gone on to college – much greater than the average in East Harlem. Mookie says that if he grew up in the inner-city, “I think my life would have been different. I would have had to make different decisions because I would have been exposed to different opportunities. Where I grew up [in Georgia], there was nothing else to do but play baseball.”
