Big 5’s WellnessAd Helps Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy Make Baseball Dreams Come True in Southern California

Compton, CA, May 6, 2013 /3BL Media/ – New uniforms are coming to ballplayers participating in the upcoming summer leagues at the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy in Compton thanks to EcoMedia’s WellnessAd purchased by Big 5 Sporting Goods on CBS Radio. The financial support by Big 5, along with their additional donation of new baseball equipment is helping the MLB Urban Youth Academy’s summer high school and collegiate baseball and softball leagues suit up the more than 600 players expected to participate.

A special check presentation was made on Saturday morning with Rick Gridley, Public Affairs Director for Big 5 Sporting Goods delivering the funding to MLB Urban Youth Academy Manager and former MLB All-Star, Don Buford, along with Hall of Famer and 18-time All Star, Rod Carew.  Many young ballplayers were on hand to show their appreciation.

“We are very grateful for the financial support Big 5 Sporting Goods has offered our young men and women,” said Don Buford, Manager of the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton. “We know our ballplayers can compete and belong at the highest levels in baseball and softball, but now with these new uniforms and equipment, they will look the part as well.”

In addition to it’s WellnessAd funding for the uniforms and equipment, Big 5 Sporting Goods is offering a Dream Baseball Experience contest with the winner invited to participate, along with his or her baseball or softball team, in one of the Saturday baseball or softball workshops held at the MLB Urban Youth Academy.

“Big 5 Sporting Goods is thrilled to have this unique opportunity to provide funding and new baseball equipment to the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton,” said Rick Gridley, Public Affairs Director for Big 5 Sporting Goods.  “We recognize the community benefits of youth sports programs and the importance of supporting MLB Urban Youth Academy’s quest to promote youth baseball and softball skills development in southern California.”

The Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy is staffed by former Major and Minor League players, instructors, collegiate coaches, scouts and certified athletic trainers, and has two Major League sized fields consisting of one show field, one auxiliary field and two youth fields to facilitate youth baseball and girl's softball.  The entire Academy complex is designed to offer baseball training at the highest possible level.

“It’s been our privilege to partner Major League Baseball's Urban Youth Academy with our advertising sponsor, Big 5,” said Paul Polizzotto, President and Founder of CBS EcoMedia. “Thanks to the generous financial support Big 5 has provided through our WellnessAd Program, young athletes will receive the instruction, infrastructure, and inspiration they need to stay fit and healthy and to strive for more education and opportunity. It's EcoMedia's mission to bring exactly these kinds of education and health programs to communities nationwide; we're proud and gratified to help the Academy reach out to kids with the important message that they can be anything they want to be."

About Big 5 Sporting Goods
Big 5 Sporting Goods (NASDAQ: BGFV) is a leading sporting goods retailer in the western United States, operating 414 stores in 12 states.  Big 5's full-line product offering includes athletic shoes, apparel and accessories, as well as a broad selection of outdoor and athletic equipment for team sports, fitness, camping, hunting, fishing, tennis, golf, winter and summer recreation and roller sports. For more information and a complete list of locations, visit Big 5 Sporting Goods online at www.big5sportinggoods.com and join us on Facebook and Twitter at:  www.facebook.com/big5sportinggoods  and www.twitter.com/big5since55 .

About the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academy
The MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton is part of Major League Baseball’s Urban Youth Initiative. Encompassing more than 20 acres on the campus of El Camino College, Compton Center, the Academy is a state-of-the-art facility featuring four fields, including a show field complete with scoreboard, grandstand seating, dugouts and lights; an auxiliary field; softball field; youth field; and a 12,000 square-foot clubhouse consisting of a weight room, locker room, and other training facilities, as well as batting cages and pitching mounds. The Academy operates on a year-round basis, offering free baseball and softball instruction and clinics to youth throughout Southern California. MLB is committed to providing opportunities to play baseball and softball to young people in urban America through the establishment of the Major League Baseball Urban Youth Academies. In addition to the first Academy in Compton, MLB has established and is operating the Houston Astros MLB Urban Youth Academy at Sylvester Turner Park, the New Orleans MLB Urban Youth Academy at Wesley Barrow Stadium, and the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Gurabo, Puerto Rico.  MLB has also announced plans to build academies in Cincinnati, Ohio; Hialeah, Florida; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  For additional information regarding the MLB Urban Youth Academy, or any other upcoming clinics and seminars, please call the hotline at (310) 763-3479, or visit the website at:  www.YouthBaseballAcademy.com

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2008, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change. Please visit ecomedia.cbs.com to learn more. 

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.