Pat Kelly and Friends from the Sacramento MSBL Deliver Baseball Equipment to Nicaragua

By Steve LaMontia, Director of Communications

Pat Kelly is a long-standing member of the Sacramento Men’s Senior Baseball League, where he began playing in 1993. He is also an annual participant at the MSBL World Series in Arizona and the MSBL Vegas tourneys as a member of the perennial powerhouses Sacramento Tribe and Sacramento Majic, with an occasional stint with the Solons.

In January of 2020 Pat and a bunch of his league associates decided to take their skills once again to Nicaragua in an attempt to help the impoverished children improve their baseball skills, while also delivering 1,300 pounds of much needed equipment, including 500 baseballs, 100 bats, helmets, shoes, gloves and all things baseball.

“Trip coordinator, Hal Young, is a good friend of mine from California who built a community center in La Calle Real in an attempt to raise education and help the local families learn basic skills in building, farming, sewing and regular skills needed to survive,” explained Kelly. “Hal has been going down there maybe ten or twelve years and he noticed how popular baseball was with the kids but that they didn’t have the skills or equipment needed to keep moving up and improving. He thought that a series of baseball clinics would be very worthwhile. That’s how the idea was hatched. Hal is a saint.”

In January of 2020, Pat’s second year of involvement, he also took with him additional equipment as donated by 2018 MSBL World Series Hall of Fame member Charlie LaDuca and his charitable efforts with Little League organizations back in and around his hometown area of Fredonia, New York.  “It was a labor of love,” said LaDuca. “We shipped over three hundred pounds of equipment to Pat.  It was a great cause.”

Below is the link to a video that Pat recorded that shows the kids receiving their donated equipment: