MAJOR LEAGUERS IN ACTION
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Meet the Action Team Players: Seattle Action Team

Talking with Seattle Mariners’ Miguel Batista

“My whole philosophy is this: To have better, we need to be better. So to have a better world, we all need to be better. We need to face problems in our communities and do what it takes to fix them. If you have the ability to help, then why don’t you?”

As you can tell from those powerful words, Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Miguel Batista is passionate about service. Last spring, he joined the Seattle Action Team as an Action Team player. Long before then, he has been volunteering in his native country of the Dominican Republic, where the needs are great. There, one in ten children dies before the age of five. Batista is working with programs that deliver medicine and provide education to impoverished families, as well as other efforts.

“I go to the people in the community, because they know what the needs are,” explains Batista, whose hometown is Santo Domingo. “You can’t help people if you don’t know who’s out there and what they need.” But once you do, “Then you can put many hands together to help. It doesn’t take a miracle [to improve people’s lives]. It takes determination.”

Seattle Mariners’ pitcher and Action Team player Miguel Batista (on the right) congratulates Seattle Action Team Captains during a recognition ceremony at the Mariners’ Safeco Field in June 2008. With him is fellow Action Team player and pitcher, Brandon Morrow. On the far right is Action Team Captain Mackenzie Hammon, profiled in Teens In Action.

Start Young – Start Small – Be a Team of Volunteers

As an Action Team player, Batista supports Seattle Action Team Captains as they plan and take part in service projects. While his schedule does not allow him to participate in all projects, he views the students as representing him in their efforts – as doing what he cannot always do. “I’m amazed at all the toys they help collect through the Stuff-a-Bus Project,” he declares. “I’m very proud to see what our Action Team Captains do,” he adds. “Little by little, they are helping a big community.” [Check Service In Action for more on the Stuff-a-Bus toy drive.]

When he meets with students, Batista stresses the importance of starting young as a volunteer. “Young people have so much energy to put into service. Plus, when they grow up volunteering, they gain wisdom and experience. They become leaders by growing in their leadership skills.”

He encourages students to recognize that every contribution makes a difference, no matter how small. “Some people only need a little help,” he notes. And the cumulative efforts of many volunteers can grow a substantial project. “It’s like grains of sand,” he explains. “One grain may be small, but altogether, you have a huge beach.”

Batista believes strongly in the concept of the Action Team – that Action Team Captains take leadership roles and recruit other teens as volunteers. “Young people relate to each other,” he explains. “When you learn the importance of teamwork, you start to see the truth of what it means. Working together, you will see how much impact you can have.”

Batista is committed to service activism to help people in need in the Dominican Republic, his native country. Here he works with staff from Medicines for Humanity in his hometown of Santo Domingo.