Minnesota.Twins.MLB.com

The summer of 2009 marked the 49th year the Twins and the Twins Community Fund have offered free youth baseball and softball clinics. This year, the program served more than 3,000 kids in 37 communities in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.

Created in 1961 by Twins scout Angelo Giuliani, the program serves as a way for the ball club to promote the games of baseball and softball to boys and girls throughout the region. Since the program's inception, more than 800,000 youth have taken part in Twins clinics in the Upper Midwest and Southwest Florida.

The Play Ball! Minnesota Youth Clinics are available to participants and communities free of charge. The Play Ball! Minnesota Youth Clinics format, which focuses on throwing, hitting and base running, was developed by Twins Senior Advisor to the General Manager Terry Ryan and former Twins executive and current Arizona Diamondbacks Special Assistant to the General Manager Bob Gebhard.

The clinics provide quality hands-on instruction for boys and girls ages 6-16. The format is broken down into two 1 1/2 hour sessions. The first session is for youth ages 6-9 years old and the second session is for youth ages 10-16. Participants are divided into three groups and rotated between hitting, fielding and throwing stations. Applications for summer 2009 host communities will are now available.