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Boston Red Sox’s Jemile Weeks Talks Baseball to Children at Orlando Monarchs Kickoff Reception
by Mellissa Thomas
The Orlando City Hall Rotunda was filled and ready for the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League (MJBL) and Orlando Monarchs Baseball (OMB) kickoff reception Friday evening. District 6 Commissioner Samuel B. Ings, District 3 Commissioner Robert F. Stuart, and Orange County District 2 Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor Daisy Morales joined OMB coach and founder Rickie Weeks, Sr. in the celebration. Special guests also included the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League National Commissioner Michael Mayden, who congratulated Weeks and urged the audience to support the team and league. Several OMB team members and their families were present as well.
District 2 Soil & Water Conservation Supervisor Daisy Morales (left), District 6 Commissioner Samuel B. Ings (2nd left), and OMB founder and Coach Rickie Weeks, Sr. (far right) at the Orlando Monarchs Baseball Kickoff Reception, made possible with the help of his OMB team leadership and community partners like Donna Morton-Morgan (2nd right). Photo: J. Willie David, III/Florida National News.
The Big Announcement
Weeks announced that Orlando will host MJBL’s Inner City Classic tournament in July, which brings minority youth players and teams from all over the country; and Bright House Networks will broadcast the event, running from July 26th to August 2nd, to “over 38 million homes.”
He also provided the audience with a brief overview of his team and its strong focus on educational excellence as a requisite for membership. “We tell the kids to have one hundred percent homework [completion], and read for an hour every day,” he emphasized. “If you read more often, the math actually becomes easier, and you learn the logistics.” He said that in OMB’s two-year run, as a result of that requisite, eighty percent of the team’s youth were excelling in honor roll programs, and five went on to college on baseball scholarships. He shared his vision of having future games broadcast regularly to highlight the talent of inner city youth, which he feels is very needed.
Weeks in the Major Leagues
Following Coach Weeks’s speech was an intimate Q&A session with his son Jemile Weeks, who plays for the Boston Red Sox. He attended the University of Miami on a baseball scholarship and played his first Major League Baseball game with the Oakland Athletics at twenty-four years old. “It felt good to have a goal and attach yourself to that goal,” he reflected on the experience. Coach Weeks proudly added that his son graduated high school with a 4.1 GPA taking all honors courses. “So it can be done,” he added.
Jemile Weeks shared his youth baseball experience and developing a love for the game. “You learn discipline, problem solving, teamwork…” he exhorted about the game in his introduction. “Baseball teaches you so much about everyday life.”
Then came the questions. One came from a young boy in the audience who asked how Weeks was recruited to the major leagues. “My dad always had me around the game, so I was always playing and meeting different key people,” he answered. “The key is to stay visible. I always traveled to playing in tournaments across the state and the country, so by the time I played in college, talent scouts knew who I was and recruited me.”
When asked about his experience playing baseball with his father as coach, he admitted, “It was kind of tough…you know, there are different opinions, but parents are the base root. It’s important for the parents to instill the base of the sport into the child.” He then encouraged the children in the audience accordingly to trust and obey their parents.
One of the parents then asked his take on keeping a child motivated if he’s discouraged or ready to give up. “It’s very important that you listen to your child,” he gently advised. “If you see that he’s not really passionate about it, maybe baseball is not for him. But find out what he does like. It could be basketball, art, music…But find out what he enjoys and support him.”
Another young boy asked Weeks what position he played on the field and why he chose it, to which he replied and revealed he is now a versatile player. He began as a short stop in his youth, but once he reached college, the team already had a short stop, so he became a second baseman, which he remained until very recently. For the Boston Red Sox, he now plays multiple positions: short stop, second baseman, and third baseman.
Coach Weeks, who also has his other son, Rickie Weeks, playing for the Seattle Mariners, ended the evening with a strong caution for both the youth in the audience and their parents. “You don’t have opportunities unless the parents provide it for you. And to get opportunities, you need favor.” He explained the factors that affect favor: the way a child carries himself, the way he respects others, and how he performs academically. “Stay encouraged,” he concluded. “You can do it, and we can do it together.”
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WINTER PARK, Fla. (Florida National News) – Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness, inspired by the children’s TV host and icon, comes to Orlando in March 2023. This week-long series of events was announced today at the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation in Winter Park.
“Fred McFeely Rogers devoted his entire life to reminding us of some of the most important ideas of what it means to be human among humans: love, respect and kindness,” explained Buena Vista Events & Management President & CEO Rich Bradley. “Many of us find that nearly 20 years after Fred’s passing, it is important to focus on his teachings once again, perhaps now more than ever. This is a week to re-engage with his massive body of work with some folks, and to introduce his teachings to others.”
Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness begins March 20, 2023, the date which would have been Fred’s 95th birthday, and concludes on Saturday, March 26 with the Red Sweater Soiree, a community dinner to recognize ten ordinary members of the community who inspire and exemplify the affinity that Fred Rogers had for showing kindness to our “Neighbors”.
Mister Rogers Week of Kindness coming March 20-26, 2023. Photo Credit: Mike Brodsky (Florida National News)
Activities planned for the week will include early childhood education activities and faculty training, as well as events open to the public.
“The events will be offered free or at low cost,” continued Bradley. “This week-long celebration is not a series of fundraisers, but rather about once again remembering and sharing some of the great work that Fred Rogers created, not only in early childhood education, but in reminding us that we are all part of one big ‘neighborhood’. Fred taught us the importance of accepting our Neighbors just the way they are and engaging in kindness with our interactions. I can’t think of another period in my lifetime where we needed to reflect on those messages again more than today.”
“There are three ways to ultimate success,” Fred Rogers was once quoted as saying. “The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind. Imagine what our neighborhoods would be like if each of us offered, as a matter of course, just one kind word to another person.”
Many of the activities of Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness will be attended by members of the cast and crew of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, which ran from 1968 – 1975, and again from 1979 – 2001. David Newell, known as “Mr. McFeely,” the “Speedy Delivery” man, appeared at today’s media conference via video, and looks forward to visiting Central Florida next March.
David Newell, “Mr. McFeely.” Photo Credit: Mike Brodsky (Florida National News)
Mister Rogers’ Week of Kindness is supported by the McFeely-Rogers Foundation, the Fred Rogers Institute, and Fred Rogers Productions. Details regarding the specific activities and venues will be released over the next few weeks.
For more information on the events, visit https://www.BuenaVistaEvents.com or https://www.MisterRogersWeekofKindness.com.
