Inside MLB’s Dream Series, where 7 Illinois high school players spent 4 days at the annual showcase for diversity programs

Over Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in January, 80 of the nation’s prime novice baseball gamers — together with seven from Illinois — attended Main League Baseball’s Dream Sequence at Tempe Diablo Stadium, the spring coaching dwelling of the Los Angeles Angels.

The four-day, invitation-only occasion yearly showcases a rising variety of variety applications aimed toward rising Black participation within the sport. The Dream Sequence, which was established in 2017, is operated by MLB and USA Baseball and is designed to additional develop the talents of pitchers and catchers.

“It was born from a dialog in an article Dave Stewart had with Bob Nightengale in USA At this time relating to the dearth of Black pitchers and catchers within the sport,” Tony Reagins, MLB’s chief baseball improvement officer, advised the Tribune. “I learn that article and felt like to ensure that us to do one thing about that drawback, we would have liked to do one thing about it on the youth stage.

“The idea of the Dream Sequence is targeted round Black pitchers and catchers and round MLK weekend and Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream for our nation. And so these parts — mixed with Arizona being the final state to undertake the MLK vacation — we determined to place it in Arizona.

“Main League Baseball is actually offering a dream alternative for younger males to be one of the best that they are often each on the sector and off the sector.”

This 12 months’s Dream Sequence included seven highschool gamers from Illinois:

• Adison Worthman, OF, Bloomington: Class of 2023, signed with Missouri
• Dillon Head, OF, Homewood-Flossmoor: 2023, signed with Clemson
• Zion Rose, C, IMG Academy (previously Brother Rice): 2023, signed with Louisville
• Sir Jamison Jones, C, St. Rita: 2024, dedicated to Illinois State
• Kevari Thunderbird, LHP, Kenwood: 2024, dedicated to Japanese Kentucky
• Justyn Hart, LHP/1B, Marian Catholic: 2024, dedicated to Missouri
• Brandon Stinson, C, Kenwood: 2025, undecided

Dream Sequence members obtain what Reagins known as “a big-league expertise.” They keep in a resort, follow and prepare at a major-league facility and obtain instruction from present and former major-league gamers. The entire gamers’ bills are paid for.

“My ego nearly goes out the window once I present as much as these occasions, particularly Dream Sequence, as a result of everyone seems to be on the identical stage as you,” Hart stated. “Everyone seems to be attempting to get to the identical aim, so all the gamers click on instantly.

“There was no awkwardness or shyness with any of the gamers once I was in Arizona. We practiced and labored out from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it felt like an precise week of spring coaching at knowledgeable stage. They speak to you and deal with you want skilled athletes.”

Head, a top-50 prospect for the 2023 draft, known as this 12 months’s occasion “bittersweet” as a result of it was his final alternative however stated he’s grateful for the expertise, instruction and relationships he has constructed through the years.

The entire Dream Sequence athletes have been concerned in baseball since they have been toddlers. Gamers are advisable by scouts and group organizations across the nation which have relationships with MLB. Some are advisable by family and friends, together with by way of video submissions.

Notable attendees this 12 months included Cincinnati Reds pitchers Hunter Greene and Justin Dunn, Los Angeles Angels outfielder Jo Adell, former Chicago Cubs shortstop Shawon Dunston and Chicago White Sox government vice chairman Ken Williams.

“We’ve been by means of a number of iterations of it, and every year we expect that we’ve improved the expertise,” Reagins stated. “We had some twists this 12 months. Hunter Greene had the children over to his dwelling for dinner. And the children bought to play and put together for his or her seasons.

“That’s actually what the aim of the Dream Sequence is, to essentially put together them to satisfy their desires of being baseball gamers and to organize developmentally for the season.”

Along with the shock go to to Greene’s dwelling, gamers took batting follow to the sound of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and attended seminars on King, Jackie Robinson and different trailblazers. Although baseball was on the occasion’s heart, the seminars have been meant to tie in historical past with the game’s legacy.

“From this expertise I discovered you could by no means take taking part in the sport of baseball as a right,” Hart stated, “since you by no means know when it’s the final time you step on the sector or you’ll be able to throw a ball or swing a bat. I additionally discovered that it’s important to play this sport with ardour and you’ll’t let your feelings get one of the best of you. You’ve bought to remain humble or the sport will personally humble you itself.”

Jones stated the expertise allowed him to study from not solely the coaches, but additionally his friends.

“It’s not each day that you simply get to overlook college to go play the sport that you simply love,” Jones stated. “From the baseball facet, I picked up extra nice instruments from the legendary Mike Scioscia and all of the catching coaches on the camp.

“One quote that has actually caught with me was from Shawon Dunston’s speech the place he stated, ‘Play the sport like a marathon, not a race.’”

Jones, Hart, Worthman and Thunderbird have been members of the White Sox groups that received 2022 RBI World Sequence championships — Hart and Worthman within the senior division and Jones and Thunderbird within the junior division. Hart pitched a no-hitter in his crew’s first sport to set the tone for the match.

Hart, Jones, Thunderbird and Stinson additionally performed collectively within the Discipline of Desires youth sport in 2021 for the White Sox Newbie Metropolis Elite (ACE) crew.

[ [Don’t miss] Chicago White Sox participant improvement employees consists of Blake Hickman — a graduate of Simeon and the crew’s ACE program ]

The gamers from Illinois stated they appreciated the break from the January chilly and snow in Arizona. They talked about classes discovered from professionals they beforehand had admired from afar. They left with keys for easy methods to proceed to excel at their positions — and likewise with mates they hope in the future to see within the huge leagues.

For the seven gamers representing Illinois, the Dream Sequence was really that.