Camp Kelly: Richie Ashburn-Harry Kalas Foundation

All right, let's get to Bob. Could someone just walk by and call mom, Bob Kelly. Hi, mom. Call Mike, Bob Kelly. You didn't hear him? He said, Bob Kelly. I get it all the time. Hey, Bob. Hey, good morning, everybody. Come on, from walker to sliders. Check out these guys. Come on. We're up here at the Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas Foundation Baseball Camp. Let's see if we got it. Ready? See if we can slide it out. Ready? Surf! Hey, Bob, how are you, man? Hey, I'm great, Bob. How are you? So tell me what's going on here. So what we have here is the Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas Baseball Foundation. Okay. It's been going on for about 30 years. It's a free fall camp. We are all over the place in the summer. We do about four, five, six weeks. We're actually down in Ocean City, New Jersey also. So we're in Plymouth meeting right now. Right. And we're teaching these, each group is doing something different. These guys are learning how to slide. And they got the little towel right there. All right. And then over here, what's going on over here? Over here, we have the agility ladder. Kids working on getting quick feet. Quick feet. Let's see you guys. Go ahead, buddy. Let's go. Get in there. So we're going to be here for the next couple of hours going round robin with everything that these kids are going to be learning to do, training. We got hitting, fielding, sliding. What else? We got fly balls over here. Over there, we got ground balls, agility ladder. Hold my mic. Hold my mic for a second. I tried. Come on. You get in it. You go. You go and I'm going. How we got to do this? Like this? Just in it? What do you think? Huh? What do you think? Let's go. I'm going to slide. I'm not going to slide. All right. Good morning, everybody. We're at the Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas Foundation baseball camp. Bob, what are we teaching the kids to do here? Today, we're learning how to hit on a tee. So what we focus on is how you actually hold the bat. Okay. And you're going to see the kids shoot their fingers out, which means they're holding the bat properly. And then we're going to say, ready, set, trigger, fire. And our goal was to hit a line drive or a hard ground ball. What's your name, pal? James. All right, James. Hold on. Let me get back here. Hold on. All right. Go ahead. Fingers. Ready? Fingers out. Go ahead. Show them your fingers. Go ahead. Set, trigger, fire. Boom. All right. Pop it back up there. It's all practice. So how many kids do we have in camp today? So we have about 60 kids today. Okay. This is a free camp. It's just today or is it all week? No, it's all Monday through Thursday. Okay. Usually nine to 12. So you have them all throughout the area as well, right? We do. Come on, get those balls lined back up. Let's go. We have kids from Contra Hocking here. We get the word out and they show up. All right, come on guys. Let's go. Here we go. Give them the shout out. Ready, set, trigger, fire. Boom, ground ball. There you go. That's it. There we go. So what are the different stations? Obviously this is hitting. Yeah, we hit off a tee. Over there we teach them how to throw, actually how to hold the ball and how to throw it properly over into the barrels over there. We were just recently at great catch. And before that we were on the agility ladder and sliding. All right, let's see what you got. Come on guys, ready? Hit them with it. Ready, set, trigger, fire. Boom. Guys, try to hit the top of the ball. Now do we eventually work our way to pitching as opposed to the tee? We do not teach pitching. No, we think it's a little too advanced for what we have here. What are the age brackets that we have here today? Okay, we have kids as young as five and as old as 12. These guys are the middle group, so they're eight, nine, and tens. All right, hold on. You know what? Let me ask you, pal. Who's your favorite baseball player? Your favorite baseball player? In this group? No, on the Phillies. On the Phillies. Who's your favorite baseball player? Kyle Schwerber. Schwerber, all right, we'll come back to you. Who's your favorite baseball player? Trey Turner. Trey Turner, all right. Who's your favorite baseball player? Bryce Harper. Who's your favorite baseball player? Bryce Harper. Who's your favorite? J.T. Remuto. J.T. Remuto, all right, he's got it now. Who's your favorite? James Wood. Ah, there we go. All right, so we're gonna be here the rest of the morning out here in Plymouth meeting. Are you guys ready to do another hit? Here we go. Let's go out with a bang. Go ahead, hit him, Bob. Ready, set, show me your fingers. Trigger, fire. Back to you guys at Convention Center. How fun. Red carpet event, Independence Hall, getting ready for that two o'clock ceremony where all the National and American League players will come out right in front of Independence Hall. We'll be there, of course, as we will before the big game tonight here on Fox 29. Back here live, the Richie Ashburn, Harry Kalas baseball camp. We've been going from station to station with each group of kids. Bob, what are we doing here in this group here? We're just kind of practicing fielding? Yes, we're working on our ground ball skills, practicing our clam hands for our infielders. So in other words, the key is getting the ball, putting your hand on top of that. Yes, stay in front of the ball, working on using two hands so you can step and throw to first base. All right, let's see what we got here. All right, let's see what we got. Here you go. How old, what's the age of these guys here? These guys are eight, nine, and ten. Eight, nine, and ten. All right, get ready. Here we go. Look alive. Look alive. You're on TV. Now, we couldn't get... That's good. Step and throw. Great play. Out! That's how it's done. All right, looking good. Now, we tried to get the Philly Fanatic here, but that didn't go too well. Next in line, we have... You're the St. Joe's Hawk! Yes, I am. What's your first name? Chris. So what's it like being the Hawk? I mean, do you have to... Is it true you got to constantly be waving your arms the whole time? Yes, the Hawk's known for its constantly flapping motion, especially during our basketball games in Hagen Arena. Now, how many times, how many flaps do you think you do in the course of a game? So the national broadcasts have us at about 3,600, but personally for me, I feel like that's way more. Yeah, I think that's, it's gotta be higher than that. Yeah, it's lower. So how does it work? You got the gig now, and how long do you keep it? So I tried out when I was entering my junior year, and I had it my junior and senior year, and now I'm lucky enough to still be it for my grad year. So as long as you're there, you get to be the Hawk. I mean, as long as I'm doing my job and flapping my arms. As long as you keep flapping, that's pretty cool. Cool, well, good luck this season on all the flapping. All right, let's get back to hitting here. All right, Eli, here we go. All right, let's go, guys, look alive. Now, if you look over, let's see if we'll give this guy a chance to get the ball. We're trying to get all the kids on TV. I promised our moms when they dropped them off, we'll give them all a chance to get on TV. This is a great camp. They're here all week from nine to noon, and then that's it, Monday through Thursday. Next week, or I think the week after, they're going to Ocean City, but that camp is sold out. And again, Richie Ashburn, Harry Kallis Baseball Camp. We're out here in Plymouth meeting, and these kids are really having a grand old time, and they're real careful, too. They get plenty of coaches. They have plenty of shade here as well. Now, what, coming up at 11 o'clock, we got a game going, right? Yes, after this, we have our scrimmages where the age groups will play against each other, so yeah. Okay, all right, so we're going to do that during the 11 o'clock hour. Let's go, guys. Come on. Look alive. Mom and dad are watching. Let's go. Oh, that's all right. That's all right. You still got it. Keep it going. Oh! All right, well, we're going to work on our fielding. Come on. One more. One more. And again, coming up during the 11 o'clock hour, we're going to have a game out here on the field, and these kids are excited. You know, last night, they watched the Home Run Derby. They were hitting. They're trying to hit it over the fence, and of course, they're fielding here just like they're going to be later on tonight down at Citizens Bank Park. So again, the Harry Callas, Richie Ashburn Foundation baseball camp. Mike and Alex, it's getting hot out here. I can tell you, it's getting hot out here just when we're standing in the sun, and we take a little water break, just like they do at FIFA. What do they call that? A mandatory break. Hydration break. Hydration break. Yeah, like FIFA, the hydration breaks, yeah. Let's get to Bob because he's at baseball camp. I haven't seen this many balls. We're having a little scrimmage with the team at it. Come on. Let's get them fired up. You ready? We're meeting at the Harry Callas, Richie Ashburn baseball camp, which is run by Bob. You know, the foundation puts it all together. Oh, there we go. Out of here. Home run! Classic timing. Run those bases. Ring that bell. As the shirts for the Phillies last night were clearly... This is unbelievable. What a perfect timing to be up here. So, Bob, tell us about the program here. So, what we do now is we're playing games, and we're taking what we learned in the drills out into the field, and as you can see, the kids are having a ball. Well, you know, and when you look at what right there says it all, you know, this game started on a sandlot. These kids are just having fun, and we talked about it earlier. They can come, and they can do the drills, but they just want to play. Right, right. So, that's the most exciting part of the day is when they come out here, and they get to play the games, and you see some great smiles. These kids are having a great time. They're cheering each other on in the dugout. A lot of them are friends, and some of them may not even know each other, but after a week here, they're going to have friends. That's true. That's true, and one of the things we enjoy is we like seeing kids come back, and we get to know their names, and we get to see them grow, and we get to see them get better. So, we've been here. This is going to be, what, Monday through Friday? This is Monday through Thursday. Okay. We break it off at noon because it gets a little hot. Correct. All right. Now, in a couple of weeks, you're having another camp. That's in Ocean City. It's sold out. Yeah. But where can folks go for next year or the next camps that are open? You have a website or anything? So, in February, we go to the Richie Asprin-Harley Catalyst Baseball Foundation website. You can just Google it. Easy to find, and you'll see our schedule for the whole year. And then they can sign up from there? They can sign up online. That's what we prefer. All right. Here we go. Call it. Call it. There's nobody in our field. That wasn't me supposed to be getting that, was it? No, no. I'm just making sure. Now, this doesn't cost the kids anything. No. It's only 100 percent free. Always has been. That's great. How many kids do you have here all together today? So, we're here. We're about 60 kids. Our largest camp this year was 70. That was down in Delco. Well, listen, thank you and the rest of the guys for all that you guys do, keeping these kids busy and keeping the game of baseball alive. Out here in Plymouth meeting. You know, we're going to have some fun. They're learning. They're making friends. And most of all, they're having fun. Look at the smiles on their faces. All right. Back to you guys at the convention center.