Former Phillies Player Helps Young Batters With Their Swing

Here at the All-Star Sports Academy in West Chester, as the entire camp today is getting ready for the Home Run Derby. Out of here! Let's go to Chester County. What do you say? Back to the batting cages. Bob Kelly. Hi, Bob. You got it. Tonight's Home Run Derby has the entire area all fired up, especially the Little Leaguers. I'm here at the All-Star Sports Academy, where they're taking hit and practice, trying to hit some balls out of the park under the direction of a former Philly. When we come back, we're going to tell you all about it. Oh! Duck! Live from West Chester. Come on, get in there. Live from the All-Star Sports Academy, baseball fever is upon us in Philadelphia. We've got the Home Run Derby tonight, the All-Star game tomorrow. Let's give everybody in the field a wave. Come on, here we go. Everybody's ready to catch some fly balls. And, of course, our ace pitcher here, Jeremiah. How long have you been playing baseball? Since I was 12, so about 10 years now. 10 years? Okay. He's going to start firing them away. What's this guy's name in the batter's box? We've got John right here. Come on, John, you're up. Batter up. Let's see what you've got. Come on, these guys have been practicing, trying to put them out of the park here. Oh, baby! That's what we're talking about. Come on over here. Gene, how are you, man? Good, Bob. How's it going? First of all, a former Philly. Tell me about your Phillies background. Oh, a long time ago. Don't age me too much. That's okay. Back in the 90s, I was drafted by the team out of Villanova and came up through their system and played with them in the mid-90s for a little while before I got traded to the White Sox. So you're in charge, basically overseeing the whole program here. Tell me about it. All-Star Sports Academy. Yeah, All-Star Sports Academy. We have comprehensive programs for our players from what you see right here is one of our camps that are going on here during the summer where kids can get some instruction but also a fun environment. We have team programs. We have individual and advanced pitching, catching, hitting programs, and we even have private lessons. So we have a number of different things that really connect for the players. It's very similar to what I did when I was with the Phillies after I came off the field. We take it very serious in player development, and we sit down every day. We meet about what the players are doing for their development, where they're standing, what their progress is, just so we can keep everybody on the same page. So what are the age bracket of the players we see out here now? What you see in this camp is ages between 7 and 12. It runs Monday through Thursdays here, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oh, there we go. Boom. That's a homer. Right over the fence. And we still have a good five weeks of our camps left from that side, so there's still time to get involved with this, and it's a great program. Yeah, so folks that are watching at home, they have their sons, they want to play some baseball, there's still slots open. How do we get a hold of you? You can go to our website, allstarsportsacademy.com, and you'll see all our programs listed there. You can look at the registrations and what might fit into your schedule, and just sign up online or just give us a call here at the Academy, and we'll get that taken care of. Oh, he caught it. Yeah, we're right off of 202, right in Westchester, not that far at all, convenient to Wilmington. Westchester, the main line, even Philadelphia, you come right down 95, and boom, you're here. Absolutely, and with this facility, we have nine other facilities that also run very similar programs. So if this isn't a fit for where you live, there's a number of other locations that can accommodate you. This is great. George is running over behind the pitcher here. Let's see if we can get one more in there. There you go. Out of here. Home run derby tonight. The kids are ready. Hurry up, George. Get back over behind that before you get smacked. All right, guys. We're ready for the home run derby tonight. I know all these kids are as well. Back to you guys. They did great. Those kids are powerhouses. Way to go. Man.