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The kid was a natural.

He joined Smith's baseball team as a sophomore a few years ago and found himself in the starting lineup within a few games. Derrick Johnson, the Golden Eagles' head coach, salivated at the thought of watching the kid develop for the next two years.

He never got a chance. The student transferred after the season in search of a place where he could make the basketball team. He got his wish, but rarely made it off the bench.

"Now, what's wrong with that picture?" Johnson said.

It's a common scene these days -- African American children passing on baseball due to lack of interest.

Johnson is one of several local activists trying to change that. This weekend, he'll lead three local teams to play in the Black World Series, a four-day event that's expected to draw more than a thousand people at Benedict College in Columbia, S.C. It's sponsored by the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League, a national organization that promotes the sport to inner-city youth.

"If nothing else, it gives these kids a chance to play on the big stage, get some exposure," Johnson said, "and hear some things they need to hear."

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Johnson and his friends spent what felt like their whole childhood on the sandlots. These days, those fields see more tumbleweeds than grounders.

"We'd play from 9 to 12, go home for a baloney and cheese sandwich and some Kool-Aid, then go back and play 'til the street lights came on," Johnson said. "There's so much going on now that kids don't know what to do. We're living in a faster world."

Not surprisingly, that's pushed many kids away from baseball. Why get 18 people and a bunch of equipment together when you and your buddy can take a basketball to the park and play one-on-one?

"You've got to have a passion for it to be in it this long," said A.J. Allen, a former Dudley player who will be on Johnson's team in South Carolina.

But even those who do have an interest in baseball often have trouble finding a place to play. The summer destination for the area's top talent used to be the all-star teams run by the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department, but they've been replaced by AAU and other travel teams that carry price tags much too hefty for kids who can barely afford a nice pair of cleats.

The problem is compounded at the college level, where scholarships for baseball are fewer and less comprehensive than for other sports. For students whose ability to attend college might be entirely tied to a scholarship, baseball doesn't present the best odds. N.C. A&T's student body is more than 90 percent black, but a majority of its baseball team last season was white.

"I never thought a sport would come down to pay to play, but that's what it is," Dudley head baseball coach Larry Farrer said. "And when it's those terms, blacks just can't afford it."

So how do we even things out?

"That's like that $2 million question right there," Allen said.

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The MJBL and other grassroots activists hope they have a $2 million answer by keeping kids exposed to the game and providing opportunities for those who want to pursue it. Thanks to local sponsors, the kids from Greensboro heading to the Black World Series will only have to pay about $20 apiece. Part of their experience will be a symposium on black baseball moderated by former New York Met Mookie Wilson.

"Once you get the awareness of kids and the numbers accumulate," Johnson said, "then you'll be able to make a difference."

The weekend is part of a broader effort by MJBL to secure funding for baseball programs at historically black colleges and universities. In the past four years, four of Johnson's players at Smith earned scholarships to play at an HBCU. Would that money have been there 10 years ago?

"I doubt it," he said. "I really doubt it."

When Farrer took over at Dudley six years ago, his home field was in shambles and he could barely field a team. Now the Panthers have their own batting cages, and Farrer routinely has more than 50 players try out each year.

"It's great. I'm just afraid if I don't carry all these kids, I'm going to lose them," Farrer said. "My mom is always on me that you can't save them all. Well, I'm going to try."

At one of Farrer's first tryouts, a player showed up without cleats or a glove. Farrer would have sent him home had he not been so desperate for bodies.

The player's name was Donald Robertson. He also played football and basketball at Dudley, but he wanted to give baseball a try. Once he had some success and started calculating the odds of a career in each sport, he focused on baseball. He's now on scholarship at Shaw.

Robertson will play on Johnson's team in South Carolina this weekend. No one's sure how they'll do. At this event, though, the score might not be the most important thing.

"We need to give them the opportunity," Johnson said. "There's enough baseball for every kid."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com