A diamond in the city: Jacobs, Delaware North bringing baseball back to Boys & Girls Clubs

As a child in the 1960s, Jerry Jacobs Jr.’s summers were filled with visits to baseball stadiums, thanks to the concession stands run by Delaware North, the company his family owns. The sensory overload is still familiar. The smell of the grass. The sight of the stands filled with men in fedoras and trench coats. The feel of his father’s hand gripping his.

“There were birds nesting in the beams, and men smoking cigars,” Jacobs said. “Everything was different, but it was the same in that you smelled the fresh-cut grass. You were outdoors. You were energized.”

Jacobs wants more kids and teens to have their own baseball memories, and he’s putting money behind that wish.

Building on a decadeslong relationship with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo, the Jacobs family and Delaware North are donating $500,000 to start a softball and baseball program in East Buffalo.

“When the Jacobs family and Jerry came and said, ‘We want to bring baseball back,’ it was like a dream,’ ” said Shari McDonough, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo.

Delaware North, a $4.3 billion company with 40,000 employees, has a decadeslong history with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo. The company has had a representative on the organization’s board of directors for years, and donates $50,000 annually to support operations. Two years ago, Delaware North committed to donating $250,000 – and the culinary expertise of its chefs – to help the organization develop an enhanced daily meal program.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Buffalo – which operates as a separate nonprofit from other Boys & Girls Clubs in the region – has five city locations, called “clubhouses.” Delaware North initially focused its support on developing a practice field Masten clubhouse, which is on Northland Avenue on Buffalo’s East Side.

“We said, ‘Look, we’d love to help,’ and East Buffalo, for us, was a focus where we thought we could do some good,” Jacobs…