To help inner-city kids, Gerald Bolden goes Extra Innings
The Monarchs, representing North Portland, are in their third year of operation in Extra Innings PDX (courtesy Antonio Harris)
The sun breaks through the clouds on an early Saturday afternoon at Farragut Park in North Portland, where Team Rad of Washougal, Wash., is facing the pride of “Extra Innings PDX,” the Monarchs, in a duel between teams of 11- and 12-year-olds.
Parents, family members and a few other observers sit in camp chairs along the baselines of the diamond that has been lined by a Portland Public Parks employee.
The boys on both teams are competitive, but not overly so. There is some talent, but not an excess of it. The coaches bark instructions and maintain discipline, but in a respectful manner.
No score is kept. That is the program’s way.
“The biggest goal is the players having fun and seeing smiles on their faces,” says Mario Appling, the coach of the Monarchs. “It’s summertime. Them showing up at the park and giving it their all — that’s the greatest thing to see. And the kids learning the game, of course.”
Monarchs coach Mario Appling talks with his players after their game against The Rads of Washougal, Wash. (courtesy Antonio Harris)
“Extra Innings PDX” is the brainchild of benefactor Dave Gunderson and Gerald Bolden, the latter general manager of the youth baseball program designed to introduce inner-city children to the game. A former Benson Tech catcher and now an assistant coach at Jefferson High, Bolden has the street cred and the know-how to put together a league that is growing like bamboo in a cultivated field.
Gerald Bolden is general manager of Extra Innings PDX, a program designed to introduce inner-city children to the game of baseball (courtesy Antonio Harris)
If there is a feature player for the Monarchs on this day, it is probably 12-year-old Ja’Meer Taylor, who has two hits at the plate and an impressive performance on the mound, yielding no runs and no hits with four walks and eight strikeouts over three innings.
J’Ameer Taylor, the Monarchs’ pitcher, shows he can hit the ball, too (courtesy Antonio Harris)
How much baseball had Taylor played before he joined the Monarchs?
“Zero,” he says. “But I wanted to play. I reached out to coach Mario and he put me on the team. It has been a lot of fun.”
What has he learned?
“That it doesn’t always go your way,” he says. “You have to accept the fact that if you strike out, you keep your head up and stay in the game. When one head goes down, the whole team’s heads go down.”
What would Ja’Meer be doing if he weren’t playing with the Monarchs?
“I’d be playing basketball,” he says.
But baseball it is, as one of more than 450 players on 31 baseball and softball teams under the Extra Innings PDX umbrella in North Portland.
And it is free to participants. Donors — including Gunderson’s Hopscotch Foundation, Dan Segal’s Knights Baseball Club and DeMarini Sports through marketing director Jerry Garnett — cover all salaries, equipment, uniforms and operational costs.
“To play youth baseball today costs a ridiculous amount; we don’t charge the families a penny,” says Gunderson, who founded Hopscotch, his charitable organization, in 2015. “We have had to win them over, all the kids and parents. They couldn’t believe (the program is) free. The parents were asking, ‘You are doing what for my kid?’ A whole lot of those kids had never played the game before.”
Nobody is happier with the program’s early success than Bolden, whose lifelong love of baseball is now being passed on to hundreds of boys who were once in his shoes.
“Major League Baseball has invested millions of dollars to build baseball academies in Latin countries,” says Bolden, 55. “They haven’t invested those millions in their own backyards, in the inner cities. That was part of the motivation for me. I didn’t want Jackie Robinson’s whole being to die in vain. I want to get black and brown players to participate in a game that has priced them out.”
But, he is quick to add, “producing Major League players isn’t our goal. This is about the life skills to be learned in baseball and softball.”
I might add, Extra Innings PDX isn’t all about minorities. The Monarchs’ roster is about evenly divided between black and white youngsters, working together as one. That is one of the great things about sports. It brings people of all races and cultures together.
Bolden is the maestro of all this. And if you question his love for baseball, consider this: He is still playing the game. On Sunday, the resident of the West Kenton district in North Portland played in back-to-back games in the Southwest Washington Adult Baseball League — for a 45-and-over team, and a 55-and-over team. And lived to tell about it.
Bolden was born on an Air Force base in Japan, where his father served. He fell in love with baseball as a child watching his dad play the game. “I would take my mom’s broomstick and hit rocks into the sea,” Gerald says. “From that point on, baseball has been in my blood.”
When he was 10, shortly after the family moved to Portland, his parents divorced. Gerald and his two younger brothers were left to live with their mother.
“My dad wasn’t around,” he says. “Baseball was there to pick up the pieces for me. It helped me develop pro-social connections with my peers. It kept me out of trouble. My coaches wrapped around me and served as surrogate fathers. It saved my life.”
Living in North Portland as a pre-teen, “I was in the middle of gangland,” Bolden says. “The gang members and the wannabes left me alone. They said, ‘This kid might have a chance to make it.’ They wouldn’t try to recruit me, or beat me up. They gave me a pass. Love of the game of baseball saved me in so many ways. It is more than a game to me.”
The sport was a safeguard for Gerald at Benson, too.
“High school was turbulent for me, but baseball kept me in school,” he says. “My coach was understanding with me in terms of a broken home and how kids can go down the wrong road. If that wouldn’t have happened, I wouldn’t be here. I might be in a gang, or in jail, or dead.”
Bolden’s coach was Bill Ranta, the man in charge of Benson baseball from 1974-90.
“Gerald played three years of varsity for me,” says Ranta, 79 and retired. “His senior year, he hit .500. I had only one other kid ever do that. Besides being skilled, he was a great kid, with dedication and determination.”
Bolden played two years for Canada Junior College in Redwood City, Calif., coming home each summer to play for Taylor Electric in the Portland City League. His coach there was Jim Coffman, the former Portland State pitcher who rose as high as Triple-A in a four-year minor league career.
When Coffman got a job as manager of the Johnstown (Pa.) Steel of the Independent Frontier League, he offered Bolden a tryout. Bolden not only made the team, he excelled.
“He was a really big part of that team,” Coffman says. “He made the (Frontier League) All-Star team. He was an all-around utility guy who swung it well.”
When Coffman moved over to the Richmond (Ind.) Roosters the next year, Bolden followed along. Batting left-handed, he hit a collective .296 in 134 games over two seasons.
“It was the best time of my life,” Bolden says today. “Jim gave me a chance, and I came through. I was divinely protected.”
After that, Bolden wrote letters to every Major League club. The Marlins and Dodgers offered spring training tryouts. He didn’t make the club either time. But in 2000, he landed a job with MLB International, teaching the game to youths abroad.
“For four years, I would go to London and South Africa for 2 1/2 months apiece,” Bolden says. “My time in South Africa was the most humbling experience ever. It made me appreciate America. I was in rural areas there. I stayed in the villages. They never had running water. Every week, I would go to a different province teaching kids baseball. They didn’t know anything about the game.”
After that, Bolden went back to school, getting his degree from Portland State in 2009. For 14 years, he worked as a para-educator with Portland Public Schools, working with students in behavior rooms “and motivating them to the importance of education,” he says. He put in a six-year stint working with Friends of Baseball, a Portland non-profit organization founded in 2005.
“He ran our after-school and baseball development programs,” says Nova Newcomer, then executive director of Friends of Baseball and now CEO of the Seattle Mariners Care Foundation. “What I love about Gerald is he is phenomenal with kids. It doesn’t matter what skill level, he can teach them about baseball and help them develop their skills. He has a deep appreciation for the game.”
During Covid, Bolden created an on-line class for students to play baseball video games from home.
“He would always incorporate Negro League history into his classes, so the kids learned that important history,” Newcomer says. “With his (Extra Innings PDX) program today he is making sure kids are playing baseball during the summer. That is an important piece for kids who are still developing, to get that extra time on the field.”
Extra Innings PDX teaches baseball fundamentals, but it is also about having fun, as Karter Lewis displays here (courtesy Antonio Harris)
In 2022, Bolden became acquainted with Gunderson, who hired him for Hopscotch.
“Dave said, ‘I want you to do what you did with that non-profit for my non-profit,’ ” Bolden says.
“I have worked heavily with the Jefferson community for some time,” Gunderson says. “Baseball had totally disappeared in the area. I wanted to watch something that would teach the game to kids, a game they had never been exposed to before.”
When Bolden was a youngster, there were eight Little Leagues covering the vast areas of North Portland. Today, there is one (Wilshire Riverside).
“We are talking about a big geographical area, with probably 20,000 kids,” Bolden says. “Not everybody has the opportunity to play baseball. If you don’t have the bread or the right zip code, you are not participating. From ages 5 to 15, if you don’t get the skills necessary, you are not going to be able to compete in high school.
“My mission is to get the (North Portland) kids out on the field. The way to do that is to develop a platform (Extra Innings PDX) and have families get involved, and the kids play for free.”
With Gunderson’s contacts, Bolden connected with people and businesses willing to help as donors. In early 2024, he began to get the word out to children and families in the areas, using his contacts in Portland Public Schools.
“I went to schools where I knew administrators and handed out brochures,” Bolden says. “I was cautious of marketing (Extra Innings) because it is free. Some people don’t value free, but if you bring out a quality product, they will value it.
“I wanted to make sure the lower socio-economic families had the most access. I went to the lowest Title I schools (that offer free or reduced lunch) and talked to the counselors and made sure we advertised and marketed to those families.”
Bolden rounded up volunteers to serve as coaches. He worked with Portland Parks & Recreation to locate fields for use. Through promotion and word of mouth — there was no website at the time — he pieced together five teams for the first season.
“We had 81 kids who showed up regularly, 41 who were black or brown, including four or five girls,” Bolden says. “The teams played each other. I pitched every game. We didn’t keep score. Nobody struck out. I didn’t want kids to worry about failure, but I also didn’t want the defense to be standing around swatting at bees. We put the T up so (the players) could hit the ball and run and the defense could get some work.”
One of the teams was the Monarchs, who had formed a year earlier and competed in the North Portland Little League.
“They were going to break that team up,” Bolden says. “I reached out to Dan Segal and said, ‘I want to keep these kids together.’ Dan gave the Monarchs $15,000 to play an independent schedule. They were getting pummeled, but they stuck together, and now they are one of our best teams. The rigors of getting beat but staying together made them better.”
Segal and Bolden go back to the mid-90s when they played together on what was then known as the Aloha Knights. Segal now runs the Corvallis Knights, who won seven straight West Coast collegiate summer league titles from 2016-23. Knights Baseball Club also operates the Oregon Prep All-Star Series and the Northwest Coaches Association convention in Portland every year. Segal now donates $10,000 a year to Extra Innings PDX.
“I love what they are doing,” says Segal, who lives in Northeast Portland and has three boys go through the youth baseball system in the area. “They are cutting across the grain. Baseball is such an investment if you want to play at a high level. The results of that is the Columbia corridor has taken a hit in terms of youth baseball. It used to be vibrant out here. I have seen the whole thing go down. When my kids were there, community support was strong and a lot of kids played. In recent years, surrounding leagues have just evaporated. Gerald has taken the lead with Extra Innings in trying to rebuild things.
“The underserved kids in the area have so many things working against them. You have all these kids who get left behind. If we can make a small difference, I feel good about that.”
Segal also feels good about the man leading the charge.
“Gerald has a great spirit,” he says. “He is a hard worker. He grew up in that North Portland community, where it wasn’t easy. He persevered, and baseball is one of the positive pathways. He is a very positive person, easy to be around. He is strait-laced. He is not a politician. It is not about him. He is selfless. He wants to use baseball to connect familles and enrich the community.
“Baseball brings people together. One of the highlights of his venture is they have been able to bring families out in the summer, get out of the house, get to know each other. They’re making it fun.”
Segal is friends with Randy Rutschman, who played with Bolden with Taylor Electric in the ‘90s. In 2021, USA Baseball sponsored a youth clinic that featured Randy’s son Adley, the All-Star catcher with the Baltimore Orioles.
“I ran lead on it,” the senior Rutschman says. “We had 150 kids attend at Walker Stadium. Gerald and Dan and I connected there.”
Two years later, Gerald spearheaded another camp — headlined and financed by Adley — that was conducted for inner-city youths at the Portland Expo Center.
“The next year, Dave and Gerald got Extra Innings going,” Randy says. “A flame got lit, and it took off.
“Gerald does all of this for the good of others. He has such a heart for kids. He wants them to have the same opportunities to play baseball that he had. I can’t say enough good things about him. I am grateful to know him and call him my friend.”
This past winter, Bolden joined with close friend Mike Phillips — the acclaimed saxophonist — to manage a clinic conducted by former Major League outfielder Kenny Lofton. It was staged at an indoor facility that is leased by Gunderson and is now used year-round by Extra Innings PDX and Jefferson High baseball. Its nickname: “The Bat Cave.”
“It’s an old pig slaughterhouse off of Columbia Boulevard, a 10,000-square-foot building with an additional 2,000 square feet for weight machines and exercise bikes,” Bolden says.
Coffman donated baseballs for the Lofton clinic.
“Everything donated for that clinic was given to inner-city Portland schools,” Coffman says. “What Gerald has done and where he came from is a great story. I have been supporting him a lot these last few years. I admire what he is doing and trying to get accomplished with his program. He has a lot of people in his corner who want to see that thing succeed.”
Last summer, in Extra Innings PDX’s second season, there were 12 teams and 170 kids playing. This season, it has exploded into 450 kids on 31 teams — 7- and 8-year-old T-Ball, 9-10 coach pitch, 11-12 and 13-14 player pitch. Games are played Thursdays through Saturdays from June to August. Included this year are four girls softball teams — two 7-9 and two 10-12. Practice sessions are held once or twice a week through the summer. Each team has at least two coaches, all vetted by the league. There is an 18-game schedule, with games played at eight Portland parks.
“No playoffs, no all-stars, no elite teams,” Bolden says. “Just developmental stuff and having fun. We don’t step on Little League’s toes. (Wilshire Riverside’s) boundary runs from Pier Park to Williams Avenue. We’re talking thousands of kids. They can’t serve them all.”
Bolden has a slight ulterior motive in all of this. He is assistant varsity coach at Jeff in a program that lay dormant for 25 years until it played a JV schedule last year. Under head coach Clarence Richmond, the Democrats went 11-4 in PIL varsity play this past spring. Gerald hopes Extra Innings PDX can serve to solidify the feeder program for Jeff baseball in the future.
Bolden is grateful for Gunderson’s support.
“Dave is a giving, good-hearted dude,” Bolden says. “He is putting his money where his mouth is. He has helped recruit other businesspeople to make donations to keep us afloat.”
Gunderson says he has enjoyed working with Bolden and in helping Extra Innings PDX go from zero to 60 in a short time.
“Gerald has been a trooper,” Gunderson says. “When I first got to know him, he was timid. I am like a bull in a china shop. I wanted a little bit of that fighting spirit to rub off on him, and it certainly has. He loves baseball. He is so good one-on-one with the kids, and the kids love it.
“Gerald has done a lot, but there is a whole community that has done a lot to grow it. We have been told we are the only inner-city youth baseball program in the country during the summer that does not charge. It has magically just happened. We have grown so fast. Gerald did a lot of leg work, as did I, and it came to fruition.”
Many others have contributed — “a lot of volunteers are helping,” Bolden says — but Gerald is the fulcrum of the operation.
“I try to be at as many games as possible,” he says. “I have to make sure the games come off, that the teams have enough players for each game. Every game, we give water and non-GMO snacks to the kids.”
Bolden’s is a paid position, but “he doesn’t make a lot of money,” Ranta says. “For what he is doing for that community, it’s a pittance.”
Gerald’s reward, he says, “are the smiles and the thank yous and the appreciation of the parents who are so happy to see their kids having fun playing baseball. I love being a conduit to giving access to families who may not be able to afford baseball.”
Bolden says a parent told him, “If we didn’t have this, our kids wouldn’t have anything to do on Saturdays.”
“This is an event they can all go to for free,” he says. “The only thing it costs people besides gas money is their time. The care I am able to bring to those families is impactful more than I can feel.”
One of the parents is Phillips, whose son Tyson played the first two years of Extra Innings PDX and this year graduated to Wilshire Riverside’s “A” team, the Blue Sox. “He is probably the best 11-year-old in the city,” Bolden says.
Mike Phillips says a friend recommended Extra Innings PDX to him.
“He said, ‘There is a guy who has a program for kids who look like us,’ ” Phillips says. “That is the biggest thing about baseball. As a black boy, you can go through an identity crisis. You can be surrounded by so many people who don’t reflect what culture you are in, it could disrupt the foundation of who you are as a person.”
Tyson Phillips’ experience with Extra Innings “was really good,” his father says. “Tyson had a chance to play with people who look like him. The sport alone has a limited amount of African-American participation. Couple that with the demographics in Portland, that program was extremely necessary for Tyson to feel culturally at home but also grow in the game under Gerald’s energy of getting kids on the field and teaching them through instruction.”
After being introduced to baseball by Extra Innings, Tyson was all in.
“I am watching how Tyson is inviting (members of) his basketball team to play baseball,” the senior Phillips says. “They are all working out together now.”
Phillips says one word best describes Bolden: Authentic. Gerald has given private lessons to Tyson in “the Bat Cave.”
“Gerald cares about the kids,” he says. “A son is the highest commodity a father can have, so when I see how he gets the best out of my son, and is conversational. … they talk not just about baseball, but about honor roll. They are working out, but also talking. That is very important. … instructing the kids so they can be better players but also better humans who are going to contribute to society through the lessons of baseball.”
Quinice Jenkins is the mother of Chance Franklin, in his second season with Extra Innings. Chance played football and basketball but never baseball before.
“We absolutely love the program,” Jenkins says. “I love how Gerald puts so much of himself into the kids. He does everything — even if some of it has to come out of his own pocket — to go above and beyond to give the kids an opportunity.”
Bolden introduced Chance to the batting cages of the indoor facility.
“Chance goes once, sometimes twice a week, and practices there even in the offseason,” Jenkins says. “He loves baseball.”
With Extra Innings, Jenkins says, “I love that everybody is on a level playing field. A lot of kids ask, ‘What’s the score?’ Everybody wants to win. What I tell the kids is, ‘Did you have fun?’ They say, ‘Yeah.’ And I say, ‘OK, well, you all won.’ They are getting the chance to learn without worrying about who is winning or losing.”
Jenkins, a long-time North Portland resident, has become an admirer of Bolden.
“I haven’t seen anyone else out here worrying about these kids,” she says, adding, “I haven’t seen this type of activity offered for younger kids in at least 30 years.”
Jim Roth-Roffy has coached all three years in the Extra Innings program.
“It has been awesome,” he says. “Baseball is a vessel to get the inner-city kids together and build a sense of community. It is cool what is happening right now. Every Saturday when we have games, I see parents and family members of kids on the team who I haven’t seen before. We definitely have built this community around it. Baseball just happens to be the sport we are playing.
“Our program has grown exponentially. We have tons of new faces coming in. And Gerald, he is amazing. We couldn’t ask for a better person at the helm of it.”
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Bolden admits that sometimes, he feels overwhelmed by all the duties involved with running the program.
“When a season is over,” Ranta says, “he crashes. He needs more help at his level to sustain things, to make sure he doesn’t burn out from trying to do everything, which at times he does. But he still hangs in there.”
Bolden has never been married. He has no kids.
“But he is not a baseball nut who has nothing else in life,” Ranta says. “He was in education much of his career. He is a smart, accomplished guy who wants to see the kids have exposure to and a chance to play baseball, which he loved and learned so much from and has valued so much. He is in his element. These kids are enjoying it; the families are enjoying it. Good things are happening in North and Northeast Portland because of Gerald’s efforts.”
One day, Bolden got to talking with a pair of elderly men who were watching one of the kids’ games. They said they were impressed and, like Quinice Jenkins, hadn’t seen any activities like it in the park in many years. Gerald encouraged them to stick around and talk to the players.
“Our senior citizens have a lot of wisdom to share that our younger ones need to hear,” Bolden says. “I want them to be in front of mentors who have wisdom to impart to children.”
Bolden is a mentor, an organizer, a coach and, at heart, a baseball player.
“When you hit a round ball squarely with a round bat,” he says, “there is no better feeling. I want every kid to experience that, so they will come back and try to duplicate it. I want them to feel the joy of being outside playing a game they could possibly love.”
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