Andrew McCutchen says baseball is freezing out lower-income kids

In a powerfully written piece published by the Players’ Tribune on Friday, Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen became the latest person to share his perspective on Little League’s decision to strip Jackie Robinson West of their United States championship, as well as the underlying issues and obstacles that lower-income kids must overcome just to be noticed or receive an opportunity to carry on their baseball dreams.

He’s also among the most qualified to weigh in on this often overlooked and vitally important reality that hampers the growth of our beloved game.

Having grown up in Fort Meade, Florida — a town of just over 5,600 according to the 2010 census — and in a household with a lower level income, McCutchen lived the struggle and faced those same obstacles on his own path to baseball stardom. A path that at several turns was nearly derailed by financial limitations, but through perseverance and the support from unexpected sources, he was able to continue on until living his dream in 2009. 

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As McCutchen writes, a game that once only required a bat or a stick and a ball, has grown to become almost too big for its own good. Though those basic needs will never change, the expenses have grown to the point where families simply don’t have the means to provide their children with the equipment to play, the opportunity to be seen, or just experience the satisfaction of being involved. 

It’s not about the $100 bat. It’s about the $100-a-night motel room and the $30 gas money and the $300 tournament fee. There’s a huge financing gap to get a child to that next level where they might be seen.

Thankfully, an AAU coach by the name of Jimmy Rutland noticed me during an All-Star game when I was 13-years-old and asked my father if I’d ever been on a travel team. At that point, I had barely left the county. My dad told him that it was just too expensive, and coach Rutland basically took me in as if I was another one of his sons. He helped pay for my jerseys and living expenses. My parents took care of what they could, which was basically just money for food.

Unfortunately, not all children have a Jimmy Rutland walk into their life. However, as McCutchen writes from his own experience, that was just one unexpected break and one source of support out of the many he needed to stay on track.

If you’re a poor kid with raw ability, it’s not enough. You need to be blessed with many mentors to step in and help you. Kim Cherry, Michael Scott — I could list so many names of people who took me in and treated me as if I was their own son. When people talk about the Jackie Robinson West team and blame the adults who took in kids from outside the boundaries that the Little League organization set, remember that those adults may be saviors to those kids. They’re the ones buying them shoes when they need it or an extra protein drink after the game.

It’s a perspective some may not consider, because it’s a reality they’ve never experienced. Yes, rules were broken when the Jackie Robinson West team was put together, but it doesn’t necessarily mean every case involved a selfish adult looking out for his or her own good. Maybe they were serving as that essential first mentor, one that is genuinely hoping to open doors for a young aspiring athlete.

We can maybe agree that the punishment did or did not fit the crime. But without knowing those involved, we can’t judge their intentions.

That’s really only a small piece of the bigger message McCutchen is sending though. He also delves into how difficult it is for young players to get full ride scholarships in baseball, and how that reality nearly pushed him to football.

And you know what’s crazy? Even despite all the breaks I got with baseball, I probably wouldn’t be a Major League player right now if I didn’t tear my ACL when I was 15. I thought I was going to play college football. Why? Economics. If I could’ve been a wide receiver for a D-I school, I would have chosen that path because of the promise of a full scholarship. The University of Florida offered me a baseball scholarship, but it only covered 70 percent of the tuition. My family simply couldn’t afford the other 30 percent. The fact is, no matter how good you are, you’re not getting a full ride in baseball.

If that’s how close baseball was to losing Andrew McCutchen, think of all the other remarkable talents who didn’t get the same breaks. It’s a strong dose of reality within an incredibly enlightening and thoughtful piece. A piece that should remind us that while we may all think we know the truth or have the correct answers, we don’t. Nobody does, because not everybody goes through the same experiences.

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813