This is John "Duke" Young
John Thomas Young – Born February 9, 1949
John is a former major league baseball player for the Detroit Tigers. He enjoyed a 40 year Major League career as a player, instructor, scout, and executive.
Young is most notably recognized for founding and incorporating RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), a program designed to provide a quality youth baseball/softball program that encourages academic, community, and social responsibility in youngsters from economically challenged families ages 8-18.
Early Life
Young was born and grew up in the South Central District of Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Mount Carmel High School where he served as Student Body Vice President and was an All Catholic League Basketball and Baseball Player. Upon graduation, he was drafted by Cincinnati in the 1967 Major League Baseball June Free Agent Draft. Young declined a professional baseball contract offer by the Reds and twenty-six college basketball scholarship offers to peruse a collegiate baseball career at Chapman College in Orange, California. In 1968 Young led Chapman to the NCAA Division II College Baseball Championship. In addition, Young won the 1968 Central Illinois Collegiate Summer League Batting Championship while leading the Springfield Caps to the Championship.
Professional Playing Days
In 1969 after being selected by Detroit in the First Round of the
Major League Baseball Free Agent Amateur Draft, Young signed
a contract with the Tigers. He played six years in the Tigers
organization and reached the Major Leagues in 1971.
The “Heir Apparent” to the First Base position in Detroit, suffered a
career altering wrist injury during Spring Training in 1972. His
minor league experience included; 1969 Lakeland Tigers, where
he won the Florida State League Batting Championship and was
named League Most Valuable Player, 1970 & 71 Montgomery Rebels
(Double A – Southern League), and 1972-73 Toledo Mud Hens
(Triple A International League), After the 1974 season he was
traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for Ike Brookins and ended his
playing career as a player/coach for the Arkansas Travelers
(Double A Texas League) from 1975-77. Young’s international
baseball experiences include playing with the Culiacan Tomateros
(Mexican Winter Pacific League), Mexico City Diablos (Mexican League)
and the Mayaguez Indios (Puerto Rican Winter League).
Scouting Career
In 1978 Young became an associate scout for the Chicago Cubs in Montgomery, Alabama where the legendary John “Buck” O’Neil served as his supervisor and mentor. In 1979 he returned to the Detroit Tigers as Minor League Batting Instructor and Southeastern Regional Scout.
He was Major League Baseball’s first African American director of scouting when the Tigers promoted him to the position in 1981. Young also scouted for the San Diego Padres, Texas Rangers, where he worked in a variety of scouting responsibilities from amateur to lead scout on all major league transactions, Florida (Miami) Marlins where he was an original scout and assisted David Dombrowski in assembling the expansion club from scratch. During his tenure as an amateur free agent scout, Young signed twenty-one major league players to their first professional contract.
 JOHN "DUKE" YOUNGDetroit Tigers 1971 |
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Players signed by John Young
Coco Crisp and John Young
Austin Jackson, John Young
and Justin Upton
Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI)
While working as an MLB scout, Young noticed an alarming downturn in the number of athletes from South Central Los Angeles and similar inner-city neighborhoods across the United States. He found that children in economically challenged neighborhoods usually stopped playing baseball in their early teens because of the influence of gangs and drug use and a scarcity of resources for recreational and athletic programs.
Upon his return to Southern California he decided to follow up on thoughts discussed over ten years with Eastern based scouts. While serving as President of the Southern California Association of Professional Baseball Scouts, he solicited fellow scouts, Steve Flores (Cardinals), Damon Oppenheimer (Padres), Mike Sgobba, (White Sox), Dale Sutherland (Angels) and Ron Vaughn (Athletics). After several brainstorming sessions and research, the group forwarded a proposal to upgrade inner city baseball to Roland Hemond in the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Hemond walked the manuscript to American League President Bobby Brown, National League President Bill White, and MLB Commissioner Peter Ueberroth– then, with Hemond’s endorsement, Major League Baseball provided the seed money.
In 1988 John Young incorporated the RBI program. After speaking with Commissioner Ueberroth, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley approved a partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and the RBI program was off and running. 1989 was the inaugural year for RBI at Algin Sutton Recreation Center (formerly Manchester Park), the former home field for Young’s high school baseball team. In 1990 RBI received a grant from the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles (LA 84 Foundation) to sustain the seed money from MLB. In 1991 after assisting Harlem N.Y. and St. Louis, MO launch RBI programs John passed the baton to MLB.
Since then, RBI has expanded into an international operation covering more than 200 cities in the United States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Every year, the program provides more than 200,000 boys and girls the opportunity to play baseball and softball. Currently, 300,000 children participate in 240 RBI programs worldwide.
Some notable RBI participants include Michael Bourn, Carl Crawford, Coco Crisp, Yovani Gallardo, James Loney, Manny Machado, James McDonald, Anthony Rendon, CC Sabathia, Andrelton Simmons, Tyler Skaggs, Justin Upton and Chris Young among others. Since RBI’s establishment, more than 170 RBI participants have been drafted to the MLB.
Civic Contributions
Young initiated the building of several inner-city baseball fields including the Dennis Gilbert Field at Southwest Community College and Dodgers Dreamfield at Algin Sutton
Recreation Center, both in LA. He is actively involved in providing intercollegiate baseball teams for students and athletes at Los Angeles Southwest College, West Los Angeles College and El Camino College- Compton Campus.
Young is an active member of the Detroit Tigers Alumni Association and facilitated the 2013 All Time Tigers Reunion where 167 former Tigers players attended including Hall of Famer, Al Kaline, Detroit hometown legend, Willie Horton and the Tigers’ first African American player, Jake Wood. He is also an active board member on- Professional Scouts Foundation, founded to financially assist out of work scouts and Mount Carmel High School Alumni Foundation whose mission to support inner city Catholic grammar schools.
Awards and Honors
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Inducted into the Chapman University Hall of Fame in 1989
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Recipient of the Constitutional Rights Foundation Commitment to Youth Award in 1990
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Nominated for the Denver Kiwanis Club’s Branch Rickey Award by the Florida Marlins in 1991
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Awarded with a City Council Proclamation for his contributions to the City of Los Angeles as the Founder of the RBI program in 2011
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Presented with the Ovation Award by the Obliterate Renal Ailments (ORA) Alliance, in 2013. This award has been particularly meaningful to Young, who himself became a dialysis patient in 2009.
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Awarded the Spirit of Detroit Proclamation from the Detroit City Council
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First recipient of the Montgomery Alabama Baseball Legacy award 2013
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2014 recipient of the Professional Baseball Scouts Foundation’s Legends of Scouting presented at the annual Spirit of the Game Dinner