Rays Teach Baseball Math to Over 100 Students

Staff from the Rays brought math and science to life for students at three Academy Prep schools in 2024. This marks the fourth round of their Science of Baseball program, which has packed in 4,800 hours of hands-on learning since 2022.

"We were teaching kids how math can apply to real life," said Isha Rahman, Rays' coordinator of baseball operations, to ABC Action News. "We did that through baseball. I talked a little about how I use math in my job, and we went through some of the statistics in baseball and how to calculate them."

At the St. Petersburg campus, students dove into baseball statistics. They picked up skills for working out key metrics like on-base percentage and strikeout rates. Basic algebra problems, pulled straight from actual games, brought the math to life.

The staff connected classroom concepts to the field. Students learned to add on-base and slugging percentages to find OPS, putting their math skills to work in exciting ways.

“It was cool when they were learning how to do something for the first time, and seeing them figure out how to do it and then apply it to the next problem,” Rahman said to St. Pete Catalyst. “There's definitely more math in baseball than in other sports.”

Academy Prep steps in where standard schools leave off. Their middle school program aims to turn students from lower-income backgrounds into tomorrow's community leaders.

The team spends a week at each location. After wrapping up in Lakeland, they'll head to Tampa next. Each student got a backpack during the visits.

"You are always looking for opportunities to show children how real-life experiences impact them when it comes to math and science," said Academy Prep teacher Gina Burkett. "A lot of times, they don't see that in the classroom. This opportunity the Rays have brought us has been fantastic."

Through their Foundation, the Rays support these three schools with yearly scholarships. This partnership dates back to the school's first days.