Playing college baseball had long been a dream for Tanner Kim, but the Farragut native soon realized that he wanted to do something more with his life—something to help others.
After playing baseball at the University of Kentucky for two seasons, Kim left college baseball behind and came back home to Knoxville. “I wanted to be back home with my family; UT is a great school, and it was just the right fit,” says Kim.
Once back in Knoxville, Kim found what he was looking for when he created the League of Angels, a nonprofit organization that gives individuals with special needs an opportunity to play baseball.
The league seeks to make the games feel like a big event for the players, who could be as young as six or as old as 40.
“We throw in the fog machines, the LED lights, and the loud rap music with the DJ, and just make it this really cool environment that they would never really get to encompass,” he says.
“We have an ‘angel’ of the game and make a college highlight video like you would see when you turn on the TV. We have a production crew out there with the cameras, and we really just try to dress it up as much as we can to give these amazing individuals the opportunity that they don’t normally get to have.”
Kim, who will graduate in May with a degree in management from the Haslam College of Business, says he has learned a lot since his return to UT.
“I knew nothing about the special needs community, and I knew nothing about business,” he says. “I brought people in that knew finance as well as therapeutic recreation students, and then I went to certain teachers who pointed me to different faculty to get paperwork done in the law school,” he continues. “There were a lot of connections, and networking was the biggest thing.”
As he looks to the future of the league, Kim’s goals are high. He and his partners are exploring collaborations with college and Major League Baseball stadiums, hosting in-state and out-of-state events, and perhaps even building a stadium of their own in Knoxville.
“I think that if the Lord wants me to do the League of Angels, he’ll make it clear. But I also think that if he wants me to step into a different job or a career path while still running the league, he’ll be able to equip me to do both.”