Omar Minaya - he is the man who gives the contracts

Africa has problems. Big problems. Worse than pretty much every other place on Earth, given the dire poverty, treatable and preventable disease, wars, dictatorships, and massive debt, among other plagues. Can baseball help?

A contingent from Major League Baseball is there right now. Mets GM Omar Minaya, Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, former hated Yankees GM Bob Watson, former Giants and Cubs manager Dusty Baker, and former Major Leaguers Reggie Smith and Al Jackson (an original Met) are on the trip. According to TJ Quinn of the New York Daily News,

After prodding by a Ghanaian immigrant to America named George Ntim, who works in guest relations at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, Mets general manager Omar Minaya pulled together a group of African-American baseball men who he believed would find a sense of mission in Africa.

Quinn is blogging about the trip.
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