I'm not a huge fan of Frank's play-by-play for Jags games.  That's pretty well documented.  But, I was listening to his show last night leading into the Jags show, and he was promoting a foundation that he has formed to help kids who are unable to do so for a host of reasons to play youth baseball. 

Years ago, I ran a small athletic association here in Jax, and we started an "Adopt a player" program to give people an opportunity to donate funds to give kids a chance to join our league who were financially challenged.  The donations went toward buying them equipment, uniforms, and covering the registration costs for these kids. 

Anyone who has ever been involved in running a youth athletic operation of any sort knows how difficult it is to just eat the cost of signing kids up because of the insurance costs and other expenses these associations need to absorb. 

When we started the program, we got a lot of interest from families in our community who wanted to donate, and as a a result, we actually were able to register several kids in the league.  It was a great opportunity for them, and much appreciated by the families who were the recipients of the donations.  Most of these kids were from single parent households.  So, beyond getting them geared up and registered, we also had to coordinate transportation to and from practices and games. This was all part of the program. 

Somehow we managed to capture the attention of Dan Scanlan at the Times Union, and he actually did an article on the program.  It got quite a bit of publicity, and sparked just about every other athletic association we were aligned with to follow suit.  A lot of kids got an opportunity that they otherwise might not have as a result of the donations.

What Frangie is doing is like taking that program to the next level with corporate sponsorship, and big fundraisers used to build up the resources to allow kids from anywhere in the community to have the opportunity to get a glove, ball, bat, and any other gear they need, and to be able to participate in clinics with local college, high school, and professional ball players.  It helps find them an athletic association if they want to play in an organized league, and actually takes care of getting them registered.  It's a fantastic program, and worthy of kudos to Frangie for being willing to set this up.

Ultimately, I think his goal is to grow this to include not only baseball, but sports of any kind, which makes this even better.

Walk Off Charities

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Never argue with idiots. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

That's very commendable.

I'm not a huge fan of Frangie when "on-air" personally, but I've met him and he was remarkably kind.
Glad to see he's promoting that cause.

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Good guy, average host, god awful PBP man.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

Got a face for radio for sure but, he's good on it. Not a fan of his PBP but this charity seems heartfelt.

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I used to despise Frangie in the afternoons. Nowadays sometimes I like him and sometimes I turn it off. I guess eventually I'll just enjoy him every afternoon in rush hour.

That being said....good deal for the community.

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