Can baseball reduce crime?

Attorney General Robert McDonnell thinks so.

McDonnell will send off a group of about 40 Virginia children today for the Cal Ripken Academy in Aberdeen, Md. The group will leave at 10 a.m. from the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Richmond's central office at 2601 Kensington Ave.

The trip is part of a program called Badges for Baseball, a crime-prevention initiative of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation, named for the father of Hall-of-Fame player Cal Ripken Jr.

Partly funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, the program reaches out to at-risk youth and teaches them about teamwork, character, integrity and leadership.

In Virginia, McDonnell partnered with the Ripken Foundation and the Virginia Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs to offer the first statewide "Badges for Baseball" program. In this yearlong program, volunteer law enforcement officials and local Boys & Girls Clubs staff mentor and coach youth across the state.

The children leaving for the academy today are from the metro Richmond area (including Petersburg), the greater Hampton Roads area (including the Peninsula and Norfolk), the Northern Neck and Danville.