"This thing is building fast and furious," said Karin Morris, executive director of the Texas Rangers Baseball Foundation.
Kershaw, who is from Dallas, partnered with the Rangers, MLB and the Players Association to join together with Mercy Street, a West Dallas community organization, to finance the academy. Both Hamels and Fielder are making significant contributions to the project.
"I was very fortunate [growing up] to have a community center that had four or five fields that somebody put together," Hamels said. "This is how you play the game of baseball. It's not as easy as basketball or soccer.