About Us

About the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy

The Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy is a nonprofit organization with the mission to empower Kansas’s City’s youth through baseball, softball, academic and social opportunities to be the leaders of tomorrow.

The vision for the Academy originated from Dayton Moore, former General Manager, Kansas City Royals, and city leaders. Through the support of Major League Baseball, leaders in Kansas City, the State of Missouri, and many generous donors, the Academy became a reality and opened in March 2018.

The purpose of the Academy is to provide our community’s youth with a dual opportunity to develop into high-character members of society and, at the same time, learn the skills of baseball and softball.

The vision for the Academy is to become the epicenter for youth baseball and softball throughout the Midwest, beginning with the urban community and its location in the backyard of the historical 18th & Vine District.

Located at 1622 E. 17th Terrace in Kansas City, Missouri, the Academy sits just one block from the site of a dramatic change in baseball when, in 1920, the Negro National League was founded in the Paseo YMCA building. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum also sits one block south of the Academy.

The Academy is committed to providing a positive environment for our youth. We educate players on what it means to be ‘Major League citizens’ while surrounding them with coaches and mentors who teach the skills of baseball and softball while serving as good role models. Through our athletic-focused training, education, and character development programs, we build a strong foundation for youth based on work ethic, leadership, responsibility, accountability and moral principles. The foundation will allow Academy student-athletes to acquire the unwavering strength of purpose that is the key to individual success.

The complex features four outdoor fields, a press box for educational programming, and a 38,000 square-foot facility. The indoor facility houses a MLB-sized turf infield, four batting tunnels, four classrooms, and an athletic training room.