Belkis Lora: The baseball boss of East Tremont Avenue
BY JASON COHEN
Ever since she was a child Belkis
Lora always envisioned herself as a boss.
Today, she celebrates 10 years as a business
owner in the South Bronx.
Lora owns Grand Slam Foundation
and Grand Slam Banquet Hall at 478 East
Tremont Ave. Within the foundation,
there is the Grand Slam Little League
and Grand Slam batting cages.
“Everything I’ve always wanted it, I
feel I have it,” she told the Bronx Times.
However, her path to success did not
happen overnight. Lora, 48, was born
and raised in the countryside of the Dominican
Republic. While her grandfather
owned a farm, her grandma, Lucilla,
ran the family.
Lora hoped to one day be a strong
leader like her.
At 15, she immigrated to Washington
Heights, where she lived for a year before
moving to the South Bronx. Life in America
was not easy, as no one in her family
knew English.
“It was very diffi cult,” Lora said. “Going
to school you didn’t know a word of
English. It was very hard.”
With the guidance of her high school
teacher Ms. Perez, she slowly began to
understand the language. Lora described
her as patient and someone who made
her feel comfortable. While her parents
worked long hours in construction and at
a factory, Lora did her part, and in high
school took on jobs at McDonald’s and a
factory.
Lora obtained a business degree from
Bronx Community College and after fi nishing
school, began working at an offi ce
in a meat company. In her mid- to late-
20s she coached her son’s baseball team.
While she wasn’t a huge fan of the diamond,
her late brother, Jose Luis, passed
on the love of America’s pastime to her.
“My brother was a big infl uence,” she
said.
During that time, she began to ponder
her future and how she could help
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, 34 DEC. 10-16, 2021 BTR
the community. She had coached many
little league baseball teams and came to
learn fi rst-hand that these groups of families
and children needed many other
resources in order to be able to achieve
their goals of offering children opportunities
to be successful on and off the fi eld.
Therefore, she set out to build an indoor
batting cage so that children and
their families did not have to travel long
distances in order to access such practice
facilities. She spent about six months
looking for a spot, but rent was high everywhere.
Finally, she found a site on
East Tremont Avenue and knew it was
perfect. In 2008 — in the midst of a national
recession — the batting cages were
born.
“The kids in the Bronx deserve to
have a batting cage,” she said.
According to Lora, she could have
opened the cages in another part of the
Bronx or a different borough, but she
wanted to cater to the people in her community.
Not only did the building have
space for batting cages, but the fi rst fl oor
had an old church, which they converted
into the banquet hall.
“People were telling me this is crazy,
how are you going to open a business
now,” she said.
In 2011, she quit her job at the meat
company and devoted her life completely
to baseball. Dubbed, the Grand Slam
Foundation, it added the batting cages
and the Grand Slam Little League, which
also launched in 2011. The league has 14
teams for boys and girls ages 3-18.
Lora understood her community was
not full of affl uent people, so she made
the prices fair; for some people, she didn’t
ask for money at all. Over time, people
would tell her to get rid of the batting
cages because they weren’t bringing in
enough profi t. However, she was making
a difference, which mattered more.
Her success has become known boroughwide.
Since opening in 2008, Bronx
Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., has
helped facilitate the league playing its
championship games at Yankee Stadium
every year. “That’s something I’ve very
grateful to Ruben Diaz for,” Lora said.
In her 13 years in operation, she has
seen many kids mature on and off the
baseball fi eld and is still in touch with
them as they have gone on to college and
their careers. Knowing that she helped
so many children over the years is a
“feeling she can’t even describe.”
“Everything I’ve always wanted I feel
I have it,” Lora said. I love my family, and
if you work together as a family you can
do anything you want to do.”
Children in Belkis Lora’s Grand Slam Little
League.
Belkis Lora with Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., (left) and Congressman Adrian
Espaillat. Photos courtesy Facebook