The Impact Of The GEICO Baseball City Series On 4 Inner-City Teams

CHICAGO—Louis Vazquez stood at the plate, with the fate of New York City in his hands.

It was the third place game of the GEICO Baseball City Series in Chicago, and the New York City team was tied 1-1 against Miami in the top of the sixth with a runner on second. Hours earlier at breakfast, Vazquez and his teammates were emphasizing the need to win. The team has been winless through pool play, and knew they were the underdogs.

This game was their chance to make a statement — beat the favored Miami, and do so in front of a national television audience.

Facing a 2-2 count, Vazquez tracked a pitch that was over the plate and took a big cut. The ball sliced in the air and landed on the white of the right-field foul line. Not only was it a fair, but it was also skipping into the corner. The runner from second scored easily, and Vazquez trudged into third with a triple.

“The adrenaline was crazy,” Vazquez said. “When I slid into third, I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ “

The bench erupted. All week long, New York City’s bench had been cheering and chanting. As Vazquez popped up from third, the bench was as loud as it had been all weekend. 

Vazquez would later score to add a much-needed insurance run. Miami would strike for another run, but New York City would close out a 3-2 victory. For Alex Zavala and his teammates, the win was for more than just third place.

“We showed who New York is,” Zavala said.

At the first-ever GEICO Baseball City Series, held last week at picturesque Curtis Granderson Stadium at the University of Illinois-Chicago, that sense of city pride mixed with college ambitions and a love of the game.

Four competing teams of 24 players representing Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City played four games in four days from July 8-11. When not playing, the teams made trips to Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field, went sightseeing and heard from the Miami Marlins’ Curtis Granderson.

The 96 players were all from public high schools, and some of the best in their cities. Some players had high-profile Division I offers — with an even smaller group committed to schools — and others had not had much success on the recruiting trail. 

Each team had a different team recruitment process. Chicago invited players based on how players looked during the season, while the other three teams had competitive tryout processes to lock down their squad. And leading the teams were some of the best coaches their cities have to offer.

Over the first three days, each team played in each other in a round-robin group stage. The two top teams — Los Angeles and Chicago — faced off in the championship. Both the championship game and third-place game were on ESPNU.

Throughout the week, scouts from the majors and college baseball were dispersed throughout the stadium. Steve Marchi, head coach of NAIA Roosevelt University, said the opportunity the players were getting at the event were “fantastic.”

“I can’t even imagine what it would have been like for me when I was in high school to be able to go play kids from New York and LA,” Marchi said. “It’s a great experience for any aspiring ballplayer.”

One of those players who got a lot out of the experience was Chicago’s Donovan Noble.

Noble — who played shortstop and led off for the Windy City in the championship game — said his main reason for playing was to earn college exposure. He said it is tough to get recruited when played for a public school in Chicago. And while he has attended showcases before, the City Series was a totally new, great experience.

“This event is 10-times better (than a showcase) because you don’t get just get your metrics and numbers,” Noble said “You get to get your numbers and then play three, four games to impress the scouts that were here watching.”

Noble got want the exposure he was looking for, and by the end of the week, he had received an offer from Jackson State. 

Los Angeles’ Daniel Eric Martinez also turned heads at the tournament after not receiving much attention beforehand. He started the week by lasering down a base runner trying to go from first-to-third in the first inning and ended it by putting the finishing touches on LA’s 6-2 championship victory with a 2-RBI double.

For his efforts, he was named MVP. Martinez said he came to the event hoping to put his name out there.

Martinez had traveled to showcases in his native Southern California and Arizona, but had not been outside the area. He was far from the only one to be playing in a new environment, and getting new eyes to look at them.

It’s exciting for these kids. Maybe they’re not getting recruited in our area, maybe they don’t have the finances,” Los Angeles’ head coach Matt Mowry said. “A lot of our kids just don’t have the finances to go to showcases, especially something like this, so it’s great for them.”

Players were not the only one’s looking for exposure at the event. There was also the hope to raise the profile of baseball in inner cities.

Chicago’s head coach Dave Rosene said there needs to be more recognition brought to the product in urban areas. The elite players will always get looks, he said, but the players below do not get the same chance to grow because o the lack of support.

He hopes the event will show people that the players and the game in inner cities, especially in Chicago, are really good.

“The kids work really hard, and the facilities and opportunities are not what they are as suburbs and downstate, other areas that are warm,” Rosene said. “We need people to back us up. We need funding. We need fields like this.”

The players and coaches believe the tournament can become a higher-profile event going forward. Before the event was a four-team tournament, it was an event between Chicago and New York City. New York City coach Roman Canela — who coached in Chicago vs. New York City series — said he hopes the City Series can expand to include more teams.

He also said that the City Series is a “good start” to getting high school baseball on television. Canela believes getting high school baseball on television is a big way to get more young athletes to play the sport.

Zavala also highlighted the power of playing on television. He said basketball gets all the “clout” in New York City, but after the game, he opened his phone to a bevy of messages across all different forms of social media. Many of his friends, and fellow baseball players, were watching and rooting.

The New York City team did not have the best players from the five boroughs, Zavala said, because some thought the format was different. But after experiencing the event and hearing from his friends back home, Zavala said the next tournament will be even better. 

“Next year, everybody is going to want to be a part of this,” Zavala said. “This team is going to comeback 10-times stronger.”

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