South Side-based travel baseball team is uniting youth across Chicago for fall season

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Coby Kamish was on the opposing team last Sunday when he and his family were impressed by the strong community and quality of play at The Show - one of the premier travel baseball teams from Chicago's South Side.

"I started talking to some of the parents and started hearing about all the wonderful things about this program, and started hearing that it was a major, major baseball institution here on the South Side," said David Kamish, Coby's father.

So right after the game, which the Show won, David requested a tryout for his son.

"It was kind of shocking to me, but I had open arms," said Daccarius Chapman, The Show's under-16 coach.

Coby impressed during his tryout, which Chapman called "brief and unorthodox." And he joined the team two days later.

"I'd never heard that before, that a parent would ask for a tryout right after the game," said Ernest Radcliffe, The Show's manager and founder. "But I understand that (Coby) has a very electric fastball."

Coby, who is Jewish and lives in West Rogers Park, became the team's first white player. But the coaches said none of that matters on the field.

"Black race, white race, Jewish, all races, can play together," Radcliffe said. "Baseball is just a positive vehicle for that."