When my editors at The Baltimore Sun sent me to the Dominican Republic in 1991 to write about the Orioles’ scouting efforts there, they also sent a staff photographer, Ken Lam. We spent a week on the island and came back with a series of stories about the Orioles’ attempts to mine major league talent out of desperate poverty..
I wrote the words. Ken’s magnificent photographs told stories of their own.
One photo in particular initiated a chain of events no one could have envisioned.
I wrote a story about youngsters playing baseball in the streets of San Pedro de Macoris, a city that has produced many major leaguers. Lacking the money to pay for proper equipment, they got creative. Broomstick handles and trash can lids became bats. String and bottle caps became balls, Ken snapped a picture of an 11-year-old who’d fashioned a piece of cardboard into a glove. (See the top of this post.)
The photo of the youngster catching a ball with his cardboard glove ran alongside my article in the paper. Chuck Lippy, an Orioles fan in Baltimore, was deeply moved by the sight. And he was in position to do something about it. He belonged to the Oriole Advocates, a volunteer organization that seeks to spread love of baseball and the Orioles with community-based endeavors.
Lippy suggested the Advocates collect used baseball equipment at Camden Yards and send it to the kids in the Dominican. The Advocates went for the idea, as did the Orioles. The drive was given a name based on Ken Lam’s photo: Cardboard to Leather. The kids who’d used cardboard gloves would now have real ones.
Over a June weekend at Camden Yards, which had just opened and was attracting sellout crowds for every game, thousands of used gloves, balls, bats and cleats were collected and eventually sent to the Dominican.
Thirty-four years laters, Cardboard to Leather is still going strong. In fact, it has swelled exponentially. “Thanks to our partners in Camden Yards, local Minor League stadiums, schools, little leagues, recreation departments, and individual donors, we’re able to collect, vet, and send over a hundred tons of equipment to youth players abroad annually,” the Advocates report on their website.
I’m beyond delighted and proud that my articles and Ken Lam’s photos were the inspiration for what has become a fantastic Baltimore baseball tradition.
Click on this link to find out more about Cardboard to Leather.
Click the play button below to hear me read the Baltimore Sun story that ran alongside Ken Lam’s photo:
Click here to check out another Bird Tapes post about my 1991 trip to the Dominican Republic.
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