Still reminiscing the commissioner's visit, progress continues at the Nats youth baseball academy

The day after a visit from the commissioner of Major League Baseball, the work and progress goes on for the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in southeast D.C.

Executive director Tal Alter has been here since the academy was just an idea, and has watched the facility grow from its first shovel in the dirt to a living, breathing entity that is making an impact on the lives of dozens of school-age children in the surrounding neighborhoods.

"We are a start-up, that's for sure," Alter said. "We are learning every day. One of our core organizational values is continuing to learn. We emphasize that with the scholar-athletes that are here and with us it's the same thing. With that in mind, we feel like we've been a big success. It's been very successful."

Softball teams from Georgetown and Howard practiced on of the many baseball diamonds available Wednesday afternoon. During the tour, students worked with teachers and coaches in several activities including baseball games, batting practice, social bonding and more. It was 3 p.m., just the start of their day at the academy.

Alter said he is seeing results in the way the students and scholar-athletes handle themselves and learn.

"The children are voting with their feet as far as we're concerned," Alter said. "They are here and they are consistently here with energy and enthusiasm. If you were to see the difference in just the knowledge of, but also aptitude for the game, that's been extremely exciting.

"We feel very strongly that baseball players will emerge from this because of the process, but we also feel that we're much better equipped to help young people reach proficiency academically, to help them build life skills if they are playing baseball. So it goes both ways. Baseball and softball are the vehicles that we're using. I think if anything the last year has been a testament to the possibilities that (we're working to) make happen."

Alter said to have commissioner Rob Manfred tour the facility was a very special moment for the kids. At the end of the tour, the youths gathered around as Manfred handed out official major league baseballs to each student and told them to read the named signed on the ball. Some struggled to pronounce "Manfred," and that got a chuckle from the commissioner. They thought it was so cool that the name on the baseball was the same as the man who was speaking to them at that moment.

"They knew he was someone who was important in the world of baseball. For them, that is a growing area of interest," Alter said. "So to have someone important from baseball here got them very excited and they wanted to impress him. But I think they were impressed by him, just as much in his sincere, clear interest in them as people and what they were doing. You could tell it was very natural for him to ask those questions, so they had great back and forth throughout the tour, as you saw."

The meeting was just the beginning for these kids, really, as is the work they are doing at the academy.

"I think they are going to remember this probably forever," Alter said.