Kids' Baseball "Academy" To Open In South Philadelphia

(PHILADELPHIA / KYW Newsradio 1060) -- The Philadelphia Phillies, the City of Philadelphia, and Major League Baseball are partnering to build the first-ever, multi-site "MLB Urban Youth Academy."

KYW's Michelle Durham reports that the academy will not only offer year-round instruction in baseball -- softball for the girls -- but the kids will be schooled in all facets of the game.

Jimmy Lee Solomon is MLB executive vice president for baseball development:

"We will have groundskeeping clinics, we will have umpiring clinics. We will teach kids how to do all the other things that go along with our sport of baseball."

Solomon says the kids will also get SAT preparation help as well.

Recreation commissioner Mike DiBernadinis explains how the baseball academy will work:

"We'll start a feeder program and we'll build out over time as the program grows.  But we envision this as a citywide program."

Construction meetings start immediately, and officials hope to break ground later this year, with the center up and running by this time next year.

It'll be based at the Marian Anderson Recreation Center and at FDR Park, both in South Philadelphia.

(Photo by KYW's Michelle Durham)