RBI World Series this week

This week we will be presenting to hundreds of kids at the RBI World Series in Jupiter, FL. Next week we will have 4 campaigns; Seattle, Philadelphia, Toronto, and Milwaukee.

Photos from KC and SD

Make sure you check out pictures from our past 2 PLAY Campaigns that took place in Kansas City and San Diego at:
www.flickr.com/photos/playcampaign

Luke Hochevar

Tomorrow in Kansas City, Luke Hochevar will be our player in attendance to show the kids how to be active and have fun while doing it!

RBI World Series

Last year PLAY and the Taylor Hooton Foundation was lucky enough to be asked to go down to Jupiter, FL and run some events at the RBI World Series. RBI stands for Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities and they host many regional tournaments around the country in July followed by the World Series in August. It looks like we'll have the privilege of heading down to Jupiter again this year. The Florida Marlins host the event and always put on a great time. We're looking forward to it again and when we get more details we'll pass those along!

This Week

This week we have 2 PLAY Campaigns. Tomorrow,  Tuesday the 27th, we'll be in Kauffman Stadium with the Royals and on Wednesday the 28th we'll be in Petco Park with the San Diego Padres. We're really looking forward to having these great events and make sure to check back at the end of the week for pictures!

Cardinals, Indians, Orioles

We have event pictures from the Cardinals, Indians, and Orioles PLAY Events all up RIGHT HERE. So make sure you click on the link and check them out. You can see all the pictures from the past PLAY Campaigns on the right side.

Cleveland and St. Louis Wednesday and Thursday

We just had Baltimore and the Cubs today and I'm headed to Cleveland. We have our PLAY event with the Indians tomorrow and the Cardinals on Thursday. Make sure you check back to get all the photos and maybe win some autographs.

Chicago Cubs Pictures

Pictures from today's Chicago Cubs PLAY Event are all up right HERE! Make sure you check them out and download some of your favorite.

Chicago Cubs PLAY Event

We had a great PLAY event out at Wrigley Field today. We had about 50 kids from the Chicago Parks and Rec out to the the Stadium and Mark O'Neal, Ed Halbur, and Tim Bus organized a great event! We had hitting, stretching, running, and a tour of the weight room and training room. Clint Faught did a great job talking about steroid awareness. Ted Lilly and Marlon Byrd came out and threw to the kids and signed hats for everyone. Overall it was a great event!

White Sox Pictures Up

Chicago White Sox PLAY pictures are up online RIGHT HERE.

Chicago White Sox

When we showed up to U.S. Cellular Field this morning it was pouring. Rain was in the forecast for the whole day in Chicago.... but that would not deter us. Head athletic trainer Herm Schneider did a great job moving all the stations inside and having plenty of information for the kids to learn. Donald Hooton of THF started it off with his talk and then they broke up into 5 groups. There was a pitching station, hitting station, outfield station, infield station, and conditioning station.... all inside. It all went great even though it was pouring outside. The weather doesn't always work with us, but the teams are great at making it happen even with bad weather and the White Sox did absolutely that. Thanks to Laina Myers and Dan Puente for setting everything up. Great Event!

Giants PLAY

Make Sure you check out the pictures from the Giants PLAY Campaign and every other 2010 PLAY Campaign so far this year HERE.

Arizona Diamondbacks PLAY Pictures

CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES from the Arizona Diamondbacks PLAY Campaign yesterday. More to follow including videos and pictures on this site!

Colorado Rockies Pictures are up

Make sure you check out all of the pictures from the Colorado Rockies event right HERE. Thanks to Keith Dugger, Scott Gehret, Taylor Bucholz, Matt Daley, and Eric Young Jr.

Oakland Athletics PLAY Pictures

For all of the photos from today's PLAY event with Oakland CLICK HERE.

Oakland Athletics PLAY 2010

We had a great PLAY Campaign in Oakland today! We had 80 kids out from the Richmond PAL and they all had a great time. We had 5 stations out there; Clint Faught of the Taylor Hooton Foundation in the 3rd base dugout, Bob (strength and conditioning coordinator for the A's) in left field running them through agility drills, Asst. athletic trainer Walt Horn in center field leading them in stretching, Eric Patterson and Gio Gonzalez having a home run derby in right field, and Rajai Davis in the 1st base dugout teaching the kids about positive choices. It was a great campaign and Oakland did a great job!

Behind the Scenes

Have you ever wanted to go behind the scenes at a Major League Ballpark? MLB players are treated amazing and their digs underneath are very comfortable and luxurious. Some people get to go on tours underneath but not everyone gets to go behind the doors into a Major League clubhouse. Check out these pictures from Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and see where the likes of Ian Kinsler, Josh Hamilton, Michael Young, and Elvis Andrus get to hang out and get ready for the games.

 The entrance to the clubhouse from the players parking garage underneath the stadium

The entrance to the clubhouse from the tunnel

The main foyer at the entrance to the clubhouse

Inside the clubhouse

More clubhouse

Nelson Cruz, Ian Kinsler, Michael Young

Rehab Pool

Rangers Weight Room

The tunnel from the Clubhouse to the Dugout

The ramp behind the dugout that players can run up and down to get loose before an at-bat or toss some balls against to loosen up their arms

June 8th and 9th

We have 3 PLAY Campaigns next week. The Oakland Athletics will be hosting theirs on June 8th and the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies will be hosting theirs on June 9th. Make Sure you check back for great pictures from the campaigns and links to videos and chances to get autographs.

 Chris Young will be participating with PLAY in Arizona

Pictures from Cincinnati Event

Check out the pictures from today's PLAY event with the Reds! Click HERE to see all of them!

Oakland Players

On June 8th we will be hosting the PLAY Campaign with the Oakland Athletics. The players participating will be Rajai Davis, Gabe Gross, and Eric Patterson. We're looking forward to getting out there!

Gabe Gross and Rajai Davis

Eric Patterson

Chris Dickerson participating

Cincinnati Reds outfielder Chris Dickerson will be participating in our PLAY Campaign on Thursday at Great American Ballpark!

Pictures from Texas Event

For all pictures of the Texas Rangers PLAY Campaign click here

Media Placements in Texas

Check out some of the spots that ran on TV from our event.

CBS 11 News - PLAY Campaign

FOX 4 News- PLAY Campaign

Texas Rangers Event

We had our first PLAY Campaign of the year on Saturday and it was a huge success. We hosted around 85 kids from RBI and JR. RBI of Dallas at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Joining the Rangers head athletic trainer Jamie Reed, asst. athletic trainer Kevin Harmon, all-star 2nd baseman Ian Kinsler, catcher Matt Treanor, and Don and Donald Hooton from the Taylor Hooton Foundation, the kids got to do fun activities on the field and in the training room.

There were 4 stations that the kids went through:

1. Agility Drills with Kevin Harmon in the outfield

2. Learning about eating healthy and the importance of taking care of yourself in the Training Room with Jamie Reed

3. Hitting baseballs in the batting cages with Ian Kinsler and Matt Treanor

4. Learning about the dangers of performance enhancing drugs (PED's) and the side effects that come along with it's use in the Media Room with the Taylor Hooton Foundation.

The kids spent 15 minutes at each station and then came together at the end for a great group picture in the outfield. It was a very successful event with a great media turnout. Check out some of these pictures from Saturday's event-

Very Successful event and our thanks to the Texas Rangers and their training staff for putting on this wonderful campaign!

Pledge Cards

The Pledge Cards for the Rangers have been sent to the stadium for Ian to sign for all of the kids attending the event. On the pledge cards that we hand out at each event has information on PLAY, PBATS, and the Taylor Hooton Foundation. It also has links to different websites to get all of the pictures from the event.

Do you want an Ian Kinsler signed pledge card? Let us know on our facebook wall (www.facebook.com/pbats.play) and we'll let you know how to get one!