DENVER – National Pro Fastpitch will take part in Major League Baseball’s 12th Annual Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) World Series beginning this Saturday in Detroit, Mich.

The Detroit Tigers and local RBI League sponsor Think Detroit, Inc. will host the 2004 RBI World Series, which runs August 4-12. The nine-day event will feature 24 teams of inner-city teenagers from 13 cities in the United States, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

As part of the RBI World Series and Think Detroit, National Pro Fastpitch will be hosting clinics on August 8 and 9. The clinics will give over 200 girls who play on teams sponsored by Think Detroit and Major League Baseball’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) program the chance to learn from fastpitch’s premier athletes. Players from the Arizona Heat, Texas Thunder and Akron Racers will be present to help with clinics and other on-field activities.

Major League Baseball and the Tigers are excited about the chance to create opportunities for young women to play diamond sports and to be inspired by some of the top athletes in the world of fastpitch.

The participating teams in this week’s tournament competed in regional RBI tournaments in July to earn the chance to compete in the RBI World Series, the championship round of the RBI program.

RBI is a youth baseball and softball initiative sponsored by MLB, in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the official charity of MLB.

NPF, the world’s premier professional fastpitch softball league for women, consists of six teams located throughout the United States and features former USA Softball Women’s National Team members, collegiate All-Americans and all-conference selections. NPF’s 60-game regular-season schedule began on Tuesday, June 1 and will conclude Wednesday, Aug. 18. The 2004 season features the inaugural NPF All-Star Game, the first-ever NPF Championship Semifinal and the first NPF Championship Series.

National Pro Fastpitch is headquartered in Denver, and has been in operation since 1997 under the names Women’s Pro Fastpitch (WPF) and Women’s Professional Softball League (WPSL).

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