Most people do not know about Tracy Causey’s love of baseball.

The new local director of the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League’s Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program says he never set foot on a baseball field as a professional, amateur or even a student-athlete.

“When I was in school, I was in the band,” the 48-year-old Mississippi native says with a laugh.

While many baseball fans are introduced to the sport at a very young age, Mr. Causey says his love of the game was born out of boredom while stationed at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.

“When we had afternoons and weekends off, we were a group of guys looking for something to do, so we started going to Kansas City Royals games,” he says.

Years later, his oldest son, Caleb, started playing baseball. Caleb’s enthusiasm for the game deepened his own, he says.

Caleb is now 15 and has been playing baseball for 11 years. Mr. Causey got involved with the MJBL five years ago, volunteering for whatever the organization needed.

In his volunteer role as the local RBI director, he is charged with continuing the MJBL’s participation in Major League Baseball’s RBI program and promoting its efforts to encourage youngsters of diverse backgrounds to play baseball.

“I, too, have seen the need to increase African-American participation in baseball and the RBI program is an excellent pathway to encourage youths to play the game,” Mr. Causey says.

“MJBL provided an early platform for inner-city kids to play baseball, and having an opportunity to participate in this mission is a honor.”

The MJBL was founded in Richmond in 1966 when Little League was not open to African-American youths. The MJBL encouraged area youngsters’ interest and involvement in the sport.

The Negro League teams were ending around that time. The door began opening for more African-American players with formerly whites-only MLB teams.

In recent decades, interest in baseball in the Afrian-American community has declined. Today, less than 10 percent of professional baseball players are African-American.

MLB started the RBI program in 1991 because of the decline in African-Americans in baseball and to rekindle the interest and participation of youngsters of color in the game, Mr. Causey says.

Begun in Compton, Calif., RBI has a goal of increasing the number of minority ballplayers by giving young people an opportunity to play the game.

The RBI program’s mission complements that of the MJBL to bring baseball to inner-city communities across America.

“I think that many of our youths consider football and basketball as their opportunity to play a sport, and only a few look at baseball because there are not really many role models for them to follow,” Mr. Causey says.

Currently, there are eight MJBL teams in Metro Richmond. Mr. Causey says he’s looking into starting a softball program.

While team sports teach players important values, such as teamwork, relationship building, supporting one another and more, baseball takes a higher level of discipline, he says. “The value of being disciplined is a little more important and clear in baseball,” he says.

With the baseball season opening around the country this week, Mr. Causey says he wants to raise awareness of MJBL by coordinating with city and county recreation departments to offer youngsters an opportunity to participate in baseball.

Meet this week’s Personality and youth baseball advocate, Tracy L. Causey:

Occupation: CEO for the Capital Area Health Network.

Top volunteer position: Director of the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League’s local Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) Program.

Date and place of birth: Aug. 12 in Tylertown, Miss.

Current residence: Glen Allen.

Alma maters: Bachelor’s degree in biology, University of Mississippi; master’s in public health, Meharry Medical College; and MBA from Belmont University.

Family: Wife, Doris Causey, and children, Caleb, 15, Jillian, 10, and Joshua, 8.

Biggest challenge for MJBL in Virginia: Finding the support through funding and resources to offer a quality program so that we can develop our youths to be competitive with today’s players from across all sectors of the community.

How I plan to meet it: Raise the awareness of the need to continue developing the game of baseball for inner-city youths and continue promoting the sport as an option to play just as much as other sports.

Estimated number of youth players in Virginia: 150.

How MJBL differs from Little League: Both organizations strive to serve youth baseball players, but MJBL particularly serves inner-city youths who may not ordinarily have an opportunity to play baseball.

Why MJBL is needed: Because the experience, expertise and connections we are able to provide our youths is something most of our players would not have access to otherwise.

Why I love baseball: Baseball is a team sport but it comes from individual effort. I really relate to that in my business life. We promote teamwork, but individual effort makes the team what it is.

MJBL partners with: Major League Baseball and local area baseball programs.

Upcoming event: The 27th Annual MJBL Inner City Classic in Greensboro, N.C., July 14 through 18. We are expecting more than 45 teams from across the United States to participate. Richmond’s MJBL team won the 19u MJBL Inner City Classic in Chicago in July 2016.

Definition of leadership: Recognizing “people are more important than things” — from “The Art of Leadership.”

Favorite Major League Baseball team: Atlanta Braves.

Favorite baseball player: Greg Maddux, a retired MLB pitcher who played for the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres.

How young people perceive baseball: A sport that is not for them.

Reason young people do not play: Lack of financial resources to play, inadequate training, lack of physical resources, lack of adequate promotion to play the game, lack of quality instruction, lack of role models.

Suggestion to get more youths involved with baseball: Be able to offer more quality baseball programs to our younger children to begin playing at a younger age.

Outlook at start of day: It’s a new day with new opportunities, and I look forward to the day.

How I relax and unwind: My idea of relaxing is doing nothing and letting my mind wander in any direction and to any place that it likes to go. It’s like an open canvas and more ideas populate as I relax.

If I had more time, I would: Travel, but not to tourist attractions. I like to see where the local people live wherever I go.

Person who influenced me the most: My parents. They always said for me to treat people the way I want to be treated.

Book that influenced me the most: I like a lot of nonfiction, so there isn’t one particular book that has influenced me the most. I just finished reading “The Shack” by William P. Young that was made into a movie. It tells you how God wants you to have a relationship with Him and with other people.

If I’ve learned one thing in life, it is: Everybody is different — and that’s a good thing.

Quality I most admire in another person: Honesty.

Kindergarten taught me: Fundamentals are important building blocks to success in life.

Next goal: To develop city youths who are skilled and competitive in baseball so our high school programs have a pipeline of players who understand and love the game.