Message from the President
The Clint Seymour “Play Ball” Fund (www.clintplayball.com) – a Message from Don Seymour, Founder and President
The Clint Seymour “Play Ball” Fund continues the legacy of Clint Seymour, who died tragically at the age of twenty-seven.
The Fund will enable other children to experience the positive impact that the game of baseball had on the development of Clint’s character and personality, by providing young baseball players with opportunities to nurture enduring character traits such as self-discipline, respect, determination and self-esteem. Our Fund will celebrate the pure joy of sprinting on and off the diamond, inhaling the special scent of a cowhide baseball, hearing the crack of the bat, and simply playing and recreating, with friends old and new. After all, at its core, youth baseball is a form of “re-creation” . . . a new opportunity for imagination, discovery and performance.
The Fund will fulfill its mission through funding for facilities for the safe and enjoyable youth baseball experience and through programs and communicative resources intended to perpetuate the joy of baseball and its opportunities for positive character development.
Of course the youth baseball experience is not unique. For centuries, children around the world have developed positive character and personality traits through other recreational activities, as well as marching bands, theater, scouting, church activities, and other programs too numerous to mention. For Clint the outlet was baseball, and so that is the vehicle through which his legacy will be preserved.
Clint’s baseball life began at a very young age, through youth programs in Mt. Lebanon, PA and the St. Louise Church in neighboring Upper St. Clair, PA. Those early experiences led to AAU baseball for the Steel City Wildcats (a team with no home field, requiring it to travel long distances every weekend to play games). He enjoyed a highly successful high school career playing four years with a champion Mt. Lebanon High School team (including first-team all-state honors in 2004). Then came BP and the Bulldogs, which won national amateur baseball championships in two consecutive years. Clint also played fall baseball with the Mid-Atlantic Rookies during his high school years. His baseball experience culminated with four years as a Division One scholarship player with Eastern Kentucky University.
The next six years of his tragically short life would be a testament to the enduring ways that baseball had shaped his character. He continued to mature. He found other outlets for his athletic talents and interests. His positive qualities blossomed. The self-discipline and the respect and the determination developed on the baseball diamond served him very well. Even more lasting, however, was the special quality baseball had forged in him over many years, an inner joy that Clint freely shared with all whose lives he touched.
Clint provided his “Play Ball” Fund the template for its mission:
No one plays baseball forever. Yet, the lessons learned last an eternity. And, among those lessons, none is more valuable than the capacity to bring joy to others, the most precious gift bestowed by baseball.
Don Seymour, Founder and President
2014