“May we all step into the batters box of our faith and hit a home run for Jesus!” reads a quote by Mike Sweeney,former Major League Baseball (MBL) player and the face of the Mike Sweeney Catholic Baseball Camp, in a promotional video of the aforementioned (see featured video).
As Sweeney explains on the camp’s official website, “While playing for the Kansas City Royals, I’d host a camp where we would play baseball all day and conclude with me sharing with the kids my real love in life. Baseball?? No…JESUS! Yes! These camps were very popular and were attended by as many as 350 kids annually…”
It was this very same camp then, and its success, that would come to result in the introduction of the Mike Sweeney Catholic Baseball Camp being held here at Cathedral Catholic over this summer, from June 24-26, after “God brought the idea of doing something similar under the California sun,” said Sweeney, who has relocated just north of San Diego after completing his time with the Kansas City Royals.
Consisting then, of daily Mass and prayer, held by Cathedral’s Spiritual DjirectorsFather Richard Castro, MC, and Father Martin Latiff, MC, from the Miles Christi Religious Order; “Baseball Field Rosary”; daily testimonies from MLB players; the fundamentals of playing the game; and daily scrimmages, among a plethora of other itinerary, the three day Baseball Camp/Retreat “will be an authentically Catholic experience where kids will learn from men who combined over 100 years of Major League Baseball experience,” said Mike Sweeney
Although the camp is limited to only 150 young boys between the ages of 7-14, it is simply to ensure that they are given the best instruction and one-on-one attention. After exclaiming how much he wishes for others to join the camp and remarking on how the event is something to be a part of, Sweeney ends his introduction to the camp by reminding all that “Our goal is to hit a home run for Jesus!”
