Hudson Valley Native Creates ‘Miracles Everyday’ for Kids Through Baseball
For Marlboro, NY native John Tumminia, the great American pastime of baseball is far more than just a game.
Tumminia retired from his longtime career of scouting for the Chicago White Sox after the 2018 baseball season. However, about seven years prior, he had founded a nonprofit charity called Baseball Miracles. The idea stemmed more so from Tumminia’s previous work in three different maximum security prisons, where he encountered inmates who he thought had had enough talent to make something much better of themselves. He wanted to give more kids the opportunity and open them up to the world of athletics as a positive path in life.
“My wife was my biggest supporter. She kept pushing me to do it at times when I thought I was going to back off,” Tumminia said.
The mission of Baseball Miracles is: “to bring the game of baseball to deserving children in underserved communities around the world.” The all-volunteer staff — working remotely across the United States under this common goal — organizes baseball clinics for children that would not otherwise ever have the opportunity to play the game of baseball.
“At the core of the values we aim to promote are servitude, teamwork, enjoyment and excellence for the deserving children,” Tumminia said.
By bringing resources into these communities and providing fully funded clinics for kids, Baseball Miracles looks to spread its message of service and enlightenment through baseball. Past trips have included: Kenya, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Argentina, and most recently the Philippines. Stateside, they have held clinics in Kentucky and South Dakota, as well as locally in the Hudson Valley in Carmel and Newburgh.
The mission trips feature baseball instruction from those close to the sport — scouts, players, managers, front office employees — as well as a day of service and devotional prayers. The clinics typically support about 200 boys and girls with full equipment to learn the fundamentals of hitting and throwing at no cost, while instilling values of teamwork and exercise.
“Religiosity,” as Tumminia puts it, was at the heart of the reason for founding the organization, and continues to be the driving motivation for the volunteers. The group is driven to carry out the Lord’s work through the sport of baseball, even participating in a weekly bible study email chain.
The maxim “Miracles Everyday” embodies the inspirational effects of teamwork and generosity that have long benefited their organization and its benefactors. “That short phrase has turned into a motto and way of life for those who carry out our mission in God’s vision. More than that, it has evolved into a standard we hold ourselves to,” said Communications Coordinator Kyle Bamberger. “Only by setting miracle expectations will we begin to see miracle results.”
In addition to generous donations from sponsors and supporters, Baseball Miracles relies on a dedicated staff to devote their time and energies into organizing donations of both funding and equipment, as well as identifying communities for future mission trips, and keeping in contact with those they have visited in the past. In building relationships with community members from their visits across the world, Baseball Miracles aims to keep those connections, often continuing to support them through donations such as through their annual winter coat drive to send to their past sites in Canada and South Dakota.
For Tumminia and his team, it’s always been about the kids. “Sometimes I don’t have the words to explain. The expression on the kids’ faces is like a light bulb,” Tumminia said. “This was our goal when we first started our mission: to go to the children of the poor who are rich in many ways.”
