​4/18/14

By: Grays Press

Antonio Scott, general manager of the DC Grays, will be a guest on “The Dugout” a weekly baseball show on Sports Talk 570 (WSPZ-570 AM).  The show is hosted by Thom Loverro and Tim Shovers, and will air on Saturday (April 19) from 7:00am-8:ooam and on Sunday (April 20) from 9:00am-10:00am.

The topic of the show this week is the state of African-American participation in baseball at all levels.  Scott is an authority on the topic, as he is a former college baseball player for Howard University and now runs baseball operations for the Grays, one of the few summer college teams in the country that actively recruits African-American ballplayers.  In his capacity as General Manager of the Grays, Scott recruits black ballplayers from colleges around the country – including many from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).  The DC Grays baseball team is a member of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, one of the top wood-bat summer college leagues in the country.

Scott also oversees the Grays’ free baseball clinics for inner-city boys and girls, which the Grays run in conjunction with the Diamond Dream Foundation.

Thom Loverro, the co-host of the show, is a board member of DC Grays Baseball, the non-profit group the runs the DC Grays.

​4/17/14

By: Grays Press

Delaware State Shortstop DJ Miller (Grays ’13) has been named to the Golden Spikes Award Watch List.  After a strong finish to last summer’s season with the Grays, DJ has continued strong play into this spring’s college baseball season for Delaware State and being the only Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference player named to the high honor thus far this spring season.  Read more here.

​The DC Grays are pleased to announce that Original Soul Wingz will be their official concessionaire for 2014! Original Soul Wingz will provide concessions at all 20 DC Grays home games at the new Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.

Original Soul Wingz is a local African-American family-owned business located in Washington, DC. The company provides catering and concession services to a variety of local teams and organizations – and is known for the best wings in the area. Some of the menu options for 2014 will include Soul Wingz, Soul Tenderz, Soul Friez, Soul shrimp baskets, Mesquite BBQ Friez, Corn Dogz, hot dogs, half-smokes and the signature Soul Treatz. Original Soul Wingz is also developing a special line of healthy concession options – including gluten free and vegetarian choices, and will have fresh fruit available for purchase as well.

The Grays and Original Soul Wingz worked together in 2013, when the Grays played their home games at Hoy Field at Gallaudet. Original Soul Wingz was the concessionaire for ten Grays home games in 2013 – and the tasty menu options were a hit with Grays fans.

“We are thrilled that Original Soul Wingz are on board as our concessionaire for 2014,” said Grays president Mike Barbera. “They are a family-owned company that cares about the local community – and they have great-tasting food at reasonable prices. It’s a great relationship for the DC Grays and our fans.”

​Members of the DC Grays board of directors were in attendance at the official ribbon cutting for the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy on Saturday, March 29.  A proud member of the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League, the Grays will be playing their home games on the main field at the Academy starting in June.

The soggy weather didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the large crowd that gathered at the new education building on the Academy grounds.  The Academy is located in the Fort DuPont section of Ward 7 in the District.  The entire Nationals roster and coaching staff was on hand, along with the Academy board, many local youngsters from Ward 7 who are enrolled in the Academy after school programs, as well as Nationals mascot Screech and the racing President Teddy Roosevelt.  Nats announcer Bob Carpenter served as master of ceremonies.  In attendance for the Grays were President Mike Barbera, General Manager Antonio Scott and board members Scott Burr, Gary Wilcox and Thom Loverro.

​The closest I’ll ever come to owning a baseball team
by Thom Loverro
I’ve become a baseball owner – sort of, but not really. But I am part of the management of a baseball team, so it may be the closest I will ever get to owning a baseball team.

It’s an association I am very proud of. I am on the board of directors of the DC Grays, the Washington baseball team in the Cal Ripken Summer Collegiate Baseball League.

The DC Grays are as much about opportunities in life as they are about baseball. It’s a non-profit organization devoted to creating opportunities for inner-city youths and their families through baseball, by bringing in talented college ballplayers from around the country to play in a top-tier collegiate summer league and to conduct summer camps and clinics for inner city youths.

That calling is more valuable than ever today, because the opportunities that do exist in the game for inner city youths have dwindled, and in some cases, disappeared. Budget cuts and changing priorities have made places to play harder to find, and with it the people committed to teach the game. The DC Grays try to fill that void, by raising money to field a team of players from a variety of college baseball programs and then serve as mentors to inner city youths teaching them about baseball and “making the most of their opportunities.

This season, the Grays will help District youngsters in camps, and playing their home games, at the new Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy, a $15 million complex that will open this spring.

This effort — a calling, if you will — relies on volunteers with a commitment to baseball and opportunities for youths in Washington, and raising money to continue the calling.

Baseball is part of the fabric of life in Washington, D.C., and it won’t go away, no matter how many times they try to kill it. Major League Baseball has come to town not once, but three different times, the latest incarnation being Montreal Expos franchise that relocated in 2005 and became the Washington Nationals.

When baseball returned in 2005, 34 years after the Senators left for Arlington, Texas — it came back to a different city — one where the game had not been grown among the city’s powerful and influential African-American population, a city where the game was foreign to inner city youth.

It took several men — Antonio Scott and Brad Burris, former baseball players at Howard University — devoted to grow the game again in the neighborhoods in this city, to build the D.C. Grays in 2006.

It was only right and appropriate to name the team the DC “Grays” — honoring the memory of the Homestead Grays, the great Negro League baseball team that played in Washington from 1939 to 1948 and featured such legendary baseball players as Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Cool Papa Bell.

When the Expos moved to Washington in 2005, one of the names that was a finalist for the relocated team was the “Grays.”

The “Nationals” was the name selected, and the DC “Grays” picked up the banner of those legendary Negro League teams.

The mission of the Grays was to create and develop a team that would become “ambassadors for baseball” in Washington. The main goal is to engage more inner-city youth and their families in the sport of baseball through the collegiate summer league team and the camps and clinics that spring from it.

The Grays played in the Clark Griffith League from 2006-2009. When the league folded in 2010, the Grays came back strong in the new Cal Ripken Collegiate Summer Baseball League, led by Washington lobbyist and former college baseball player Mike Barbera as team president, along with Antonio Scott and a new board of directors.

The Grays are a 501 c (3) not-for-profit organization — DC Grays Baseball. This calling to bringing baseball to inner city youths relies on donations from individuals and corporations, through sponsorships, gifts and partnerships.

Different levels of sponsorships will identify the commitment to the DC Grays, from advertisements in the game programs to in-game sponsor “Thank You” announcements, your logo on the homepage of the web site and free season passes and parking for all home games at the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.

I will be hosting a cigar fundraiser in the coming weeks at Shelly’s Back Room in the District to help raise money for the Grays. Details will follow shortly, and I hope you can be part of it.

Visit Thom’s blog here: http://espn980.com/blogs/thom.php