The Brewers first trip to the World Series in 44 years brought an extra blessing to the Milwaukee Baseball Club: a $25,000 donation from MLB Together.
The South Side organization will use the funds to purchase a brand new HitTrax simulator that tracks players’ batting progress right in the cage.
Among those who can’t wait to use the state-of-the-art equipment is 15-year-old Amir Malik.
“It’s gonna show us what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are, and how we can improve on them,” he said.
Malik has been playing baseball for 12 years. Last year, his Beckman-Stapleton Little League team encouraged him to check out the Milwaukee Baseball Club, which trains at a facility on 1623 S. 38th St.
He and other team members were on hand Friday, Oct. 23, as the club celebrated the occasion with the famous racing sausages, former Brewers outfielder and All-Star Larry Hisle Jr., and others.
More opportunities
Milwaukee Baseball Club Founder and CEO Julian Haliga started the team, originally the Milwaukee Southsiders travel team, in 2009 to help bridge the gap between central city and suburban baseball teams.
One of the challenges in competing with other teams is a lack of resources and training facilities. Haliga and others addressed some of those challenges by opening their training facility, the Milwaukee Baseball Club Community Center, in 2024.
The facility is home to the team and the Milwaukee Brewers’ Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities, or RBI program.
Haliga said the award puts the team on more equal footing with clubs that already offer amenities like HitTrax.
“I think it’s going to drive more people in the building,” Haglia said.
Tracking growth
Kabel Scott, a 16-year old Milwaukee Baseball Club member and player at Ronald Reagan High School, said he’s excited to try out the new simulator. He said it will help him see where his hits go while batting inside, which is difficult in a typical batting cage.
“To see our improvement throughout the weeks that I’ve been practicing, seeing how the ball travels farther and farther,” Scott said. “My exit velocity too, that really will help me.”
Scott has played baseball for six years and said he would love to play on a college team one day. He started attending Milwaukee Baseball Club a year ago.
Haglia said getting players into college baseball is the club’s goal.
“The kids we get, usually we’re getting them at 12 that can’t catch and throw,” Haglia said. “By the time they graduate, they’re playing at colleges, [Division 3] or junior college.”
Lucas Wall, 16, said using equipment like HitTrax could help more players get to college.
“Playing [baseball] at a higher level, you need the numbers,” said Wall, a first baseman and pitcher. “You need the statistics behind what you do to prove that you can play at that level, and HitTrax is amazing at tracking those numbers that you need.”
Using the new equipment at a place like the Milwaukee Baseball Club is just another blessing for Wall.
“At my tryout, they were nothing but positive, nothing but nice,” he said. “They gave me tips; I saw immediate growth, and then I knew I was going to join from there.”
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