NY Times: Brandon Phillips hometown

[redsmetz]

Not sure what to title this thread (I'm open to suggestions for changing it), but interesting article from the Times about baseball development in Brandon's hometown and his high school. Chris Nelson and Domonic Brown also attended the same high school. It also talks about the baseball school run by Brandon's parents. The focus is about popularizing the game with African American youth.

http://nyti.ms/12ZlEE1

[redsmetz]

I think I'll retitle it by the Times' own headline. The other was not terribly specific.

[RadfordVA]

Thanks. Nice article I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise.

[Tom Servo]

Very interesting read redsmetz, thanks.

Brandon Phillips, in his Citi Field interview, remembered seeing baseball commercials that featured Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, Frank Thomas, all of them African-American players.

“Ken Griffey Jr. was the savior of baseball for black people,” he said. “He was always on commercials; everybody wanted to be like the Kid. Now you see LeBron James on TV, you see Dwyane Wade, Kevin Durant. But you don’t see those people when it comes to baseball.”

This is very true.

[marcshoe]

I also thought the comment about BP's interest in baseball was piqued when he saw Larkin playing in Atlanta. I've always thought that Larkin, more than most other players, was impressive in person is an unusual way. There was just something about the overall way he played.