Florida foundation overcomes tragedy to make baseball dreams happen

Jul. 9—Cooperstown Dreams Park sees thousands of young baseball players and their families pass through its gates every summer. Regardless of where they come from or how much talent they possess, they're all bound by a shared love of the game.

It's no different for Minde Reinhart and the Rex & Brody Foundation team from Gainesville, Fla. But their trip up to Cooperstown this July is about so much more than the game.

On May 4, 2021, Reinhart's sons Rex, 14, and Brody, 11, died in a murder-suicide involving the boys' father. Both boys were baseball fanatics with promising careers ahead of them. Brody spent countless hours in the dugout of the University of Florida's baseball team.

So when Minde decided to honor the memory of her sons, she knew there was only one way to do it.

"I was still in the clouds," she said, recalling the days after the tragedy. "It was within a week that we started the foundation and started getting donations immediately. I wanted to do something for the baseball community because they lived and breathed baseball, and I live and breathe baseball now."

Both Rex and Brody had gotten to travel to Dreams Park in 2019. Reinhart said that as young as age nine Rex was watching live streams of games and talking about wanting to play himself.

He finally got his chance, and was able to have his younger brother join him after another player's last-minute drop-out.

"Everyone kept saying you drop them off as a child and you pick them up as a young adult," Reinhart said. "And I kept thinking, 'How can that even happen?' I didn't really wrap my head around what it really was."

She said that both boys were changed by their Cooperstown experience in just one week.

"Brody was loud, he was the hype man, so funny and confident," Reinhart said. "He was tiny and played with 12-year-olds and he was not intimidated by anyone. Rex was a pitcher; he was very quiet and [kept] to himself. His demeanor was a lot different than Brody's. When I picked him up, I picked him up as a young man the first week. That's when he really got into his groove of pitching, I swear, was here."

Rex got to come back a week later with another team, allowing him to progress even more both on the field and off.

"I sat up there on that little rock when we left after the second week and I cried my eyes out," Reinhart said. "Because it was so emotional; I didn't want to leave."

After the boys passed away, Dreams Park contacted Reinhart to inform her they were presenting her with a certificate. It was at this moment — coming up on the year that Brody was supposed to make his own trip to Cooperstown as a 12-year-old — that she said the foundation's purpose became clear.

"When Cooperstown called and said, 'We have a certificate for you,' I said I didn't really know what to do with it," Reinhart explained. "I hung up the phone and I cried for a minute and I said, 'This is what the foundation's for. We're going to do this forever.' I called them back five minutes later and I said we're going to get a team together and we're going to go in honor of Brody and we're going to do this every single year for kids that can't afford to make this trip."

It didn't take long for the Rex & Brody Foundation to take off. Donations started pouring in almost immediately after rexandbrody.com went online. A kickoff party in May brought in contributions from nearly 500 people. A week later, a tournament featuring over 200 teams from across the Southeast resulted in a check from the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) for $20,000.

All told, over $200,000 was raised to send 15 players and five coaches to Cooperstown, with all uniforms, equipment, and travel paid for. Many of the players are Brody's former friends and teammates.

"The support of the baseball world has been amazing; it has been crazy," Reinhart said. "We've been getting support from all over the Southeast. We're about to do a donation for a team out in Arizona and another one in south Miami. Our ultimate goal is to spread it nationwide"

The support in the baseball-crazy town of Gainesville has been especially meaningful. The coach of the team making the trip this year is Austin Langworthy, a former standout for Florida who currently serves as an assistant coach for the Gators. UF head coach Kevin O'Sullivan also made the trip north to support the team.

Reinhart said Brody's time in the dugout left a mark on Florida's players, many of whom have gone on to play professionally.

"I run into moms and dads all the time of former players of UF or current players and they give me support, and they say, 'You don't know what your boys meant to my son,'" she said.

The Rex & Brody Foundation is one of more than 60 teams competing in Cooperstown Dreams Park's seventh tournament of the season, which runs from July 4-10.

Reinhart said the trip has helped the boys bond as a team, channeling their exuberance into some impressive play on the diamond.

"This team has gelled completely," she said.

"They're screaming and yelling and everyone's hitting home runs."

Meanwhile, a trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday was about as impactful a team-building exercise as you'll find for a baseball team of 12-year-old boys.

But the team and their families have come together even when there's nothing on the trip itinerary.

"Two nights ago I said, 'Why doesn't everyone take their child home and give the coaches the night off.' No one wanted to leave; they all wanted to stay together, they wanted to stay in the barracks," Reinhart said. "They are just having the time of their lives and I'm so proud that our foundation could do that for them."

The success of this year's trip and the excitement and support it has elicited in her community has Reinhart looking ahead with the hope of sending more kids to Cooperstown to live out their baseball dreams.

"I want to make this big," she said. "I have a void in my heart and I want to fill it with helping other children, so I want to take this foundation and run with it and it's giving me a purpose. I love baseball, the boys love baseball, so we might as well do it as big as we can and help as many kids as possible.

"Losing my boys is the worst thing in the whole entire world, but now I have thousands of boys that I'm going to take care of and provide for and hopefully give them an opportunity to smile."

Contact Nick on Twitter at @NickSonofDave