The STRIPES (Sports Teams Returning In the Public Education System) program brought interscholastic baseball and softball competition back to middle schools and junior highs in the Memphis City School System that lost those programs as part of a 1992 budget cut. All the start-up costs, more than $180,000, were financed by the Memphis Redbirds Baseball Foundation which now pays for the program's annual operating costs. Partnering with the Redbirds as the STRIPES exclusive sponsor is Ineos Acrylics.