Athletes in Action in the FCSL

(From Florida League site)

The Florida Collegiate Summer League is pleased to announce a new partnership with Athletes in Action (AIA), who will operate a team in theleague for the 2006 season and beyond. AIA was founded in 1966 by Dave Hannah, a member of the world-wide student movement of Campus Crusade for Christ, whose goal was to spread the gospel through the platform of sport.  Their first project was to send a team of wrestlers to Japan, where they shared their faith through competition and via television.  Organizing a team of “missionary” athletes proved to be an effective way to spread their message, and during the next few years they began fielding teams in many different sports, including baseball.  Having grown into a worldwide organization with over 300 full time staff members, their ministry now emphasizes three different areas; working with collegiate athletes on university campuses, serving as chaplains to professional athletes, and organizing competing teams.

In 1999, AIA expanded into stateside collegiate summer baseball leagues by developing a team for the MINK League. This team, located in Kansas City, Missouri provided an outstanding experience for their college athletes, and was so successful that over the next six years they expanded into three more stateside leagues - Alaska, New York, and Texas. This summer, buoyed by the positive results of their other three teams, they have decided to place a 4th team in the Great Lakes League, as well as make the Florida Collegiate Summer League home to their 5^th team, which will be nicknamed the Orlando Hammers. The Hammers will play their home games only minutes from downtown Orlando at The First Academy’s Hershiser Field, a brand new stadium named after former Major League pitcher and 1988 Cy Young award winner Orel Hershiser.  The team will be managed largely independently of the rest of the league by John McLaughlin, who comes to central Florida all the way from AIA’s main office in Xenia, Ohio.  We at the FCSL wish them as much success in our league as they have had in all their previous baseball endeavors.

After only two seasons of play, FCSL is one of the top summer leagues, as recognized by Baseball America.  We exist to advance college players towards their futures in professional baseball. Fourteen of our 2005 players were recently drafted and five of our alumni have signed this summer with professional organizations - numbers we expect to rise as our league strengthens.