The club plans to use the money to buy a HitTrax simulator, which records metrics such as where a ball travels and how fast it leaves the bat. The award came as the Milwaukee Brewers reached the World Series for the first time in 44 years. The club celebrated the donation Friday, Oct. 23, with players, former Brewers All-Star Larry Hisle Jr. and the team’s racing sausages.

For 15-year-old Amir Malik, who has played baseball for 12 years, the equipment could help identify what he needs to work on. “It’s gonna show us what our strengths are and what our weaknesses are, and how we can improve on them,” he said.

The Milwaukee Baseball Club trains at 1623 S. 38th St. Founder and CEO Julian Haliga started the program in 2009 as the Milwaukee Southsiders travel team, aiming to connect central-city and suburban baseball. The organization opened its community center in 2024; it also hosts the Milwaukee Brewers’ Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program.

Haliga said limited resources and training space have made it harder for the club’s players to compete with teams that have more amenities. He hopes the simulator will help narrow that gap and bring more people to the center.

“It’s going to drive more people in the building,” he said.

Sixteen-year-old Kabel Scott, who attends Ronald Reagan High School, said the simulator would let him follow changes in his hitting over time, including how far the ball travels and his exit velocity. Scott has played for the club for about a year and hopes to play college baseball.

Helping players reach college is a central goal, Haliga said. He said some children join the program at 12 with little experience catching or throwing, then develop enough to play at Division III colleges or junior colleges by graduation.

Another 16-year-old club member, Lucas Wall, said performance data can help players demonstrate their abilities when seeking a place on a higher-level team. The HitTrax system, he said, can track the statistics they need.