MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 7, 2022

April Brown

Rob Manfred

Jerry Reinsdorf

Troy Williams

Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence Press Conference

APRIL BROWN: Good morning. Thank you for being here. My name is April Brown. I am the vice president of social responsibility at Major League Baseball, and it's my true pleasure to welcome you to this year's announcement of the Allan H. Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence. This is the 13th presentation of this award, but it's the first time that we've done it in a public setting. And what better way to do it than in front of all of our baseball industry peers here at the Winter Meetings.

This award for philanthropic excellence was created in 2010 to recognize the charitable and philanthropic efforts of our MLB clubs. Our winners have ranged across many of our clubs, both the larger markets and the smaller markets, across the country, and in Canada.

They've been recognized for a variety of important efforts that make a difference in the lives of individuals within their communities.

We are so excited about this year's winner, so without further delay, I'd like to bring to the podium, Commissioner of Baseball, Rob Manfred.

(Applause.)

ROB MANFRED: Thank you. One of the great things about the Winter Meetings is it provides us an opportunity to put focus on a topic that's important to us.

Certainly the community efforts of our 30 clubs is one of those topics. Throughout the season, 162 games, and during the off-season, our clubs, all 30 of them, do great work in their communities. Because of our desire to focus on great community efforts, we decided, instead of doing this award in front of an owners meeting, in front of the owners' peers, it would be more important to do it publicly and try to bring attention to some of the great work that's being done.

The process of selecting a winner is actually one of the best days of the year for me because you sit down and you go through submissions from all 30 clubs, and you realize the effort, the thoughtfulness, the resources that are devoted to community programs across our industry.

We had five clubs this year who really stood out in terms of their submissions, kind of the five finalists, and I'd like to mention them: The Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago Cubs, the New York Yankees, and the Chicago White Sox.

The winner this year is the Chicago White Sox for their Amateur City Elite program. I think one of the sort of deciding factors in this year's award was the focus of this program on play in communities that don't have enough opportunities for kids to play baseball. It's been a long-standing effort by the White Sox.

I have to acknowledge not only the club but Jerry Reinsdorf for his leadership, not only at the White Sox, but across the industry in terms of these sorts of community efforts, particularly efforts that have been focused on making sure we have a diverse player group in our game for decades to come.

Let me just give you a few of the highlights about the ACE program. The program has supported more than 650 youth athletes, all of whom come from high-risk and underserved communities. The program has seen nearly 30 alumni drafted by MLB clubs, with Corey Ray being one of their athletes who's reached the Big Leagues.

Equally important, the players in the program have received more than 250 college scholarships, just an outstanding number. They have a 99 percent high school graduation rate among the athletes involved in the program, which is 15 percent higher than the average for students in Chicago.

And the ACE program annually produces one of the most competitive teams at the RBI World Series. Nobody likes to draw the ACE program early. So it is a program that has had impact across generations of people, and I want to congratulate the White Sox, everybody from the White Sox involved in the program. It really is an outstanding program and a well-deserved award. So thank you very much.

(Applause.)

APRIL BROWN: Thank you, Commissioner. So to speak on behalf of the now two-time award winner recipients, please welcome to the stage chairman of the Chicago White Sox, Jerry Reinsdorf.

JERRY REINSDORF: It's an honor to accept this award on behalf of the people at the White Sox who really do all the work, particularly Christine O'Reilly-Riordan, who does so many good things in the community that I get credit for, and we're going to keep Christine around for a while so she can do that.

People often ask me, What's the best thing about owning a baseball team? And my answer really is it's not winning ball games. It's the impact that you can have on the community.

Teams can leverage themselves so much. There's so many things we can do, and we have so many programs that do good in the community. For example, our volunteer program. Most people would like to be able to do things and do things well in the community, but they can't do it by themselves. We have 5,000 people who come together and do these things and paint schools and build parks.

But my favorite program clearly is the ACE program. It's not the $5 million that Corey Ray got to sign with Milwaukee, it's the scholarship. You think about right now there are 250 people who are going to college or have gone to college who might not otherwise have gone. It's something I'm very, very proud of and proud because of the support that it gets from our staff, our people that do this work, and the reception in the community.

So it is an honor to accept it on behalf of all the people involved in the program. Thank you very much.

(Applause.)

APRIL BROWN: Thank you, Jerry.

So Jerry mentioned that it takes the whole team and there's a lot of leadership that really brings this program together. So I want to just take a moment to acknowledge them: Executive vice president Kenny Williams; senior vice president and general manager Rick Hahn; vice president of community relations and the executive director of White Sox charities, the lady who brings this all together and just makes it all happen, Christine O'Reilly.

(Applause.)

So you've heard about the program. So let's hear from someone who has experienced it firsthand. So to close us out this morning is a young man who is an ACE alum, now serving as a part-time ACE coach, while also pursuing his degree. So it's my pleasure to bring up Troy Williams.

TROY WILLIAMS: Thank you. Thank you to the commissioner. Thank you to Major League Baseball for this prestigious award. I want to thank the White Sox and White Sox charities, Christine, Kenny, Robert, Anthony, and the coaching staff of ACE.

I also want to thank the ACE players and families because this machine does not operate without the commitment that they give year round to us.

ACE is a huge part of my personal and professional identity. As a player at 16, I came through the program, played Division I baseball, moved back home at 23, started coaching youth baseball, and now as a full-time employee working on the leadership side with ACE for the White Sox, it's just a full circle moment for me.

I grew up in this program, like many young people in Chicago, and what ACE did is ACE has closed the opportunity gap for so many young people that look like me in the city of Chicago by providing unlimited resources and most importantly a platform to showcase that Black boys and girls can play this game at a high level.

We are all truly grateful for this honor and will continue to do the groundwork in Chicago to make sure that we are helping to grow the game. Thank you all. Again, thank you to the commissioner. Thank you to Major League Baseball. ACE never sleeps.

(Applause.)

APRIL BROWN: Thank you, Troy. So this closes out our conference for this morning. We're going to do a group photo, and then everyone will be available for questions off stage.

Thank you for attending and have a great day.