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PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: For Immediate Release: Contact Frazier O'Leary, Cardozo High School (202) 236-2184 cell ph#([email protected])

LA Dodger great MAURY WILLS to inaugurate the 2004 Maury Wills Invitational Tournament, hosted by Cardozo Senior High School Baseball Program and dcbaseball.org.

Baseball is back in the city during the weekend of April 3rd through 6th. That crack of bats and the pop of mitts will be coming from the diamonds at Benjamin Banneker Recreation center on Georgia Ave. NW, as DC high school teams face off in the 2nd Annual Maury Wills Invitational Tournament, hosted by Cardozo Senior High School and dcbaseball.org. LA Dodgers great, Maury Wills, will kick off the tournament event with a players clinic on April 3rd, and April 4th will be dedicated as "Maury Wills Day" in the District.

Along with Cardozo High's baseball team, the other DC schools invited to play are Eastern Senior High School, Archbishop Carroll and Charlotte Amalie High School from the US Virgin Islands. This event will be a wooded bat tournament - a new experience for DC public school baseball teams, and one these teams often don't get due to tight school budgets and difficult conditions of baseball programs in the inner-cities The tournament is named after Maury Wills, the Dodger baseball great, Washington, DC native and alumni of Cardozo Senior High School. Maury Wills is an important part of baseball history and an important part of DC's sports history. Wills and members of his family-- who still reside in DC-- will be there and are participating in the organization of this event. Today, Cardozo High is a multicultural, urban, public school serving the District's Latino and the African-American communities. Concessions will be provided by Cardozo High School.

This year the tournament also plans to include a 4-team DC public high school girls fastpitch softball format, including Cardozo High, Eastern High School. On Saturday Aril 3rd, Maury Wills will run a baseball clinic for youths in the DC area from 1pm to 4pm. On Sunday April 4th, the day will be Maury Wills Day in the District of Columbia, by proclamation of the DC City Council. Proceeds raised will go toward Cardozo Senior High School athletic department, as well as to the DC public school/DCIAA to alleviate budget problems in their baseball and softball programs. Please don't hesitate to contact either Mr. Frazier O'Leary - Cardozo High's head baseball coach - at (202) 236-2184 -cell ph / [email protected], or John Vocino (202-997-0554 -cell ph / [email protected]) you have any additional questions.