Ross and Harrison excited to join Pull Up Together campaign

The Nationals today announced their continued partnership with the Players Alliance and a stop coming up Saturday in Washington, D.C.

The Players Alliance includes more than 100 black former and current professional baseball players who use their platforms to help baseball become a more inclusive environment for the next generation of players by building equitable systems to change the trajectory of diversity throughout the sport.

The Pull Up Together campaign provides food, COVID-19 resources and baseball equipment to underserved communities at 30 different stadiums across the nation.

Current Nationals players Joe Ross and Josh Harrison are two of the 143 active members in the Players Alliance, which has helped to contribute $41.7 million to black communities across the nation. Harrison will be promoting the effort at a stop in Cincinnati on Thursday, Dec. 17, and Ross will be at the stop in Oakland on Friday, Jan. 22.

Harrison said getting all the players together for one common cause that helps a lot of different communities at the same time was important to him.

"What the Players Alliance is doing is something that was really easy for a lot of us to get on board because after realizing everything, a lot of us had already had the same ideas or things that we wanted to do back in our communities," he said. "We may do things in the cities that we play in, but a lot of us, we do things at home.

"This summer we were able to put our heads together and the Players Alliance was something that came together, and it's a way for us to support each other but at the same time help those that are in need across the globe in things that we wanted to do, and sometimes you need more thoughts, more ideas pushed around. It's kind of the beginning stages, but we are headed in the right direction and a lot of guys have been excited."

Ross agreed that, specifically, this month's Pull Up Together initiative can have a local impact in D.C. and across the country.

"We all kind of do things at home in the offseason or during the season at our local facilities," Ross said during Friday's Zoom video call with reporters. "We have the Youth Baseball Academy in D.C. I just think that whenever everyone comes together collectively it kind of makes it easier to take even further steps to push forward, putting this whole tour together and hitting certain cities, they are doing Oakland and San Francisco.

"It's great to be able to get back and have an impact on the younger generation's lives as far as sports, but then also the community as far as everything that has been going on with the pandemic."

The local Pull Up Together event will take place on Saturday, Dec. 5 at the Temple of Praise, 700 Southern Ave. SE, Washington, D.C., highlighted with appearances from Tigers prospect Troy Stokes Jr. - a Columbia, Md. native - and Dodgers prospect Errol Robinson, who comes from Boyds, Md.

The event runs from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., is free to the public and will be in compliance with guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), meaning that mask-wearing and social distancing will be enforced. Local residents can get Food Pantry - Cap City food kits and vouchers, baseball gear, COVID-19 resources and Nationals apparel and other giveaways.