“We are excited to help Kansas Citians learn about the incredible story of the Negro Leagues,” Luis Maes, Royals Vice President of Community Impact, said in a news release. “It’s a story about baseball as well as American history and our struggles and progress in civil rights. The NLBM is the only museum in the world dedicated to bringing this incredible story to life and we are fortunate to have it in our backyard.” The Kansas City Royals Foundation (formerly Royals Charities) paid $120,000 last year after more than 14,000 people visited the NLBM, the team said.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/for-petes-sake/article284661760.html#storylink=cpy
KansasCity.com
If you’re in Kansas City next month, I hope you take advantage of the offer.
Pedro Martinez is building a sports charter school in the Dominican Republic. The school will offer vocational training in sports related areas. Most of the students will fall short of becoming a professional athlete, but the school will give them the training to work in other aspects of the sports industry.
“Education gives you the confidence to face the world. That’s what I want for the next generation. That’s what I want for my legacy.”
Boston.com
The Dominican Republic is doing well economically, and schools like this will only help. A number of ballplayers from the island brought money back to try to improve things, which no doubt is a piece of the story.
My family went to visit old friends that day, a couple that was very close to my grandmother. Both my mom and aunt worked as baby sitters for the couple’s children. One of the sons-in-law had received a copy of the second edition of MacMillan’s The Baseball Encyclopedia for Christmas. I was fascinated by the book, and as I was leafing through the pages, the son-in-law asked if we had heard that Clemente had died. My dad and I were both shocked.
Clemente was near the end of his career when I started watching baseball. I mostly saw him during the 1971 post-season, in which he played well during both the NLCS and the World Series. Mostly I remembered his great arm:
The article speaks with people who remember so much more about the man, not just the ballplayer.
Astros star Jose Altuve and his wife Nina are hosting a charity wine event Aug. 8 to benefit The Astros Foundation.
…
Tickets for the event, which are limited to guests 21 years and older, are $375, and include food, drink, premium wine tasting and an autographed bottle of Altuve’s 92-point 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon. Only one barrel of the wine was produced for the event.
The book was brought to my attention by a friend of Youman Wilder, who runs The Harlem Baseball Hitting Academy. The story of Wilder and the Academy is featured in the Mays book. Their web site is http://HARLEMBASEBALLACADEMY.ORG/, but is down as they are in the process of upgrading. Here is their Facebook page.
New York Sports Connection conducted an extensive interview with Wilder a few years ago, and he brings across the good work of the academy. The just don’t teach baseball, they teach hard work and require players keep up a good grade point average in high school. When asked what makes his program different, Wilder points to the success of his charges:
I also think we have been successful because we stress hard work. We’ve had players on five of the last eight PSAL city baseball championship teams and three of the last five NCAA Division I baseball National Championship teams. One of our former members was on the Boston Red Sox 2013 World Series team and we’ve had 20 kids drafted into the MLB. Having our alumni come back and help also sets us apart. These graduates return with Masters degrees and MBAs. They come from the same backgrounds as those in our program now so can relate to them. We like to stress that just because you live in the projects does not mean that you have to stay in the projects. “Preparation prepares you to succeed.”
NewYorkSportsConnection.com
He also tells a great Dellin Betances story, one of his favorite sports memories:
But I guess the biggest memory was when we were asked to play in a showcase in Brooklyn. We had never played as a team because we were (and still are) an instructional program. Still, we went to Brooklyn and there were about 200-300 scouts and college coaches there to recruit Dellin Betances (now an All-Star pitcher with the Yankees). He was warming up in the bullpen throwing 95/96 mph before starting against us and no one paid any attention to us. We scored four runs against him in the first inning and four more in the second and knocked him out of the game. That was the moment I knew that what I was doing here in Harlem had significance and from there we have never looked back.
Mays, of course, was involved with the youth of Harlem during his early years with the Giants. Wilder continues that involvement and takes it to the next level.
Here is their Go-Fund-Me page. As I face my first father’s day without a dad, a donation in his honor to the sport we both loved seems appropriate. Maybe you spare a few dollars to help someone’s son also.
Will Brunson pitched ten seasons in the minors and reached the majors briefly. He died on Saturday, Nov. 23rd, of a sudden heart attack.
I am Will’s brother, John Brunson. We have had such an outpouring of love and support at the news of Will’s passing. Will left a lasting impression on everyone he met. Will grew up in Desoto, TX. He played baseball for Eastfield Juco and Southwest Texas State (Texas State) where he met his wife Dana Huneycutt. Will played many years of minor league baseball with the Reds, Dodgers, Tigers, A’s, and Angels; with some time in the Big Leagues with the Dodgers and Tigers.
GoFundMe.com
My thoughts go out to his family and friends.
Brunson was a AAAA pitcher. He did well in the minors, with a good ERA and decent three-true outcome numbers. He pitched poorly in his brief appearances in the majors, however, and never stuck.
The above link goes to a Go Fund Me page where you can donate to help his support his family.
More than 350 supporters and 50 celebrities joined David Ortiz at the Ritz-Carlton in Key Biscayne, Fla., for the Red Sox legend’s 12th annual David Ortiz Celebrity Golf Classic this past weekend. The event raised more than $2 million for the David Ortiz Children’s Fund.
Boston.com
There are plenty of photos at the link. Ortiz looks very good, as he did during his appearances during the post-season. A few months ago his life was on the line as a result of a shooting. We can all be thankful his recovery went so well.
They didn’t see any reason to move everything back home to Cincinnati. They didn’t want to put it in storage and move it wherever Harrison signs this offseason. They didn’t want to sell it or even give it away to someone who would. Finally, they settled on a solution.
“We just wanted to make sure that those who need it had an opportunity to get it,” Harrison said.
That giving spirit ultimately led Harrison and Brittney back to their house last weekend, when they donated a truckload of furniture, supplies and more to Pittsburgh’s Light of Life Rescue Mission, which serves the city’s homeless and hungry.
Before leaving, the Harrisons found one more way to make a difference in the Pittsburgh community.
“That was home for us for the past however-many years,” Harrison said in a phone interview this week. “Considering where we were, we were like, ‘Man, we know there are people in Pittsburgh that can use it.’ It was just a matter of finding somebody.”
I suspect Harrison will always be welcomed warmly when he returns as a visiting player.
Here is the sad and lovely story of Maria Hartmark, the dining room manager of the Dodgers press box. She gave of herself to make people happy, and those people are now giving back in her time of need:
For the many writers, broadcasters and engineers who cover the Dodgers on nights that wildly swing from boredom to hysteria, Maria is the rock, our rock, a woman who keeps the soda machine running, the coffee pot full and our heads from exploding.
All of which made it so chilling when, on the first Thursday in October, before the Dodgers’ first postseason game against the Atlanta Braves, this most valuable of players was not in the lineup.
Maria wasn’t there. A day earlier, she had been plowed over by an SUV while crossing a street near her home. She had a fractured skull, fractured ribs, ruptured spleen, broken arm and fractured leg.
So people are stepping up. Her children started a GoFundMe page:
The family, still unsure of what to expect, randomly asked for $20,000. And suddenly the woman who would help anyone was being helped by everyone, 211 donations and counting, $24,705 and counting — in a month. Along with phone calls of support, the money poured in, from top Dodgers officials to Dodgers organists, from Dodgers broadcasters to visiting announcers, from local writers to visiting scribes.
When Rosales read her the list of names, Maria cried out in appreciation and shock.
“Why? Why? Why?’’ she wondered.
“You have to ask?’’ Rosales asked her.
By the time the money slowed and a count was made, a surprising milestone was reached.
After all these years of creating a home for the Dodgers media, Maria was given a most appropriate gift in return.
The donations allowed her to pay off her house.
With no mortgage, she can now better handle the costs of her recovery.
In doing so, the Hamels are donating a 32,000-square-foot home in southwest Missouri to charity. The home, on Table Rock Lake, is being given to Camp Barnabas.
“There are tons of amazing charities in southwest Missouri. Out of all of these, Barnabas really pulled on our heartstrings,” Hamels said in a release. “Seeing the faces, hearing the laughter, reading the stories of the kids they serve; there is truly nothing like it. Barnabas makes dreams come true, and we felt called to help them in a big way.”
The house is worth nearly $10 million. It’s a wonderful Christmas present.
On Tuesday Major League Baseball announced in Texas it would build its ninth urban youth academy in West Dallas.
And there on the stage in Dallas to announce the new facility with the Texas Rangers, Commissioner Rob Manfred and others, was none other than Kershaw.
Kershaw, a Dallas native, made a personal donation to the project and will have one of the four new fields on the 17-acre site named after him.
This is the tenth Mother’s Day Major League Baseball and Louisville Slugger team up to raise money for fighting breast cancer. Here’s the Louisville Slugger press release:
When Louisville Slugger® and Major League Baseball® first gave players the option of using pink bats on Mother’s Day 2006, there was no telling how big the initiative would become. Now in its 10th season, Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer is a mainstay of Major League Baseball games on Mother’s Day, as players step to the plate with pink bats to raise awareness and funds to fight and prevent this disease.
“In 10 seasons, more than 5,000 MLB game-model pink bats have been swung on Mother’s Day in honor of those who have been diagnosed or affected by breast cancer,” said Louisville Slugger Director of Professional Baseball James Sass. “It’s remarkable now to see how pro players, the baseball community and the fans have embraced this effort and pushed it to new levels each and every year.”
“Awareness has been our focus with this program. We hope that when people see those pink bats, they pause for a moment and think about those in their lives living with breast cancer and that they think about their own health as well,” says Sass. “If we can encourage people to talk with their doctors or get a breast exam, we, along with our MLB partners, believe that is an incredibly important and powerful message,” Sass says.
This year the brand is donating two hot-pink bats to each of its Louisville Slugger MLB players, made to each player’s individual specifications. The 2015 pink Louisville Slugger Mother’s Day bats will be stamped with the MLB breast-cancer-awareness logo, and the bats used by players in MLB games will be authenticated and auctioned exclusively on MLB.com to benefit the fight against breast cancer.
In addition, pink personalized bats will be available for purchase at MLB.com and sluggergifts.com. Louisville Slugger will donate $10 from the sale of each of these special personalized pink bats to MLB breast-cancer charities. Over the past nine seasons, thousands of pink Louisville Slugger bats have been sold, raising valuable dollars to support the fight against breast cancer.
Honorary Bat Girls for all 30 MLB clubs will also have personalized Louisville Slugger Going to Bat Against Breast Cancer bats as a symbol of their courageous fights in the face of cancer. And, for the third year, MLB home-team mascots will be sporting pink Louisville Slugger bats on Mother’s Day. Louisville Slugger will also be giving away pink bats through its social media channels: @sluggernation on Twitter, sluggernation on Instagram, and on Facebook at facebook.com/louisvilleslugger.
I took the ice bucket challenge. Alex Zmaczynski, a colleague of mine from when I worked at Bay Path College (now University) challenged me to do it in just my bow tie. Request answered!
The 2014 Saberseminar, which raises money for the Jimmy Fund, set the 2014 meeting for August 16th and 17th at Boston University. Any questions can be directed to saberseminar@gmail.com.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center sent out this news release:
SEATTLE – Legendary Major League Baseball player and manager Fred Hutchinson died of cancer in 1964, but his bravery and commitment live on through an annual award given in his honor.
Ten Major League Baseball players have been nominated for the 49th annual Hutch Award®, to be given Jan. 30 at Safeco Field in Seattle. The award, launched a year after Hutchinson’s death by three of his friends, is presented annually at the Hutch Award Luncheon which raises funds for cancer research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
The Hutch Award is given to a Major League Baseball player who demonstrates the honor, courage and dedication that Fred Hutchinson exemplified. The recipient is often someone who has overcome challenges in his personal or professional life.
The award is presented each January in Seattle, Hutch’s hometown and the location of the research center named after him and started by his brother. Major League teams submit nominations for the award and the winner is selected through a vote among past recipients.
New York Yankees legend Mickey Mantle received the inaugural award in 1965, and last year’s award went to San Francisco Giants pitcher Barry Zito. Other recipients in recent years include Tim Hudson (Atlanta Braves), Jamie Moyer (Seattle Mariners), Craig Biggio (Houston Astros) and cancer survivor Jon Lester (Boston Red Sox).
Lester, who was diagnosed in 2006 with anaplastic large cell lymphoma, is the award’s only winner to be treated for cancer by a doctor from the Hutch. He returned to the Red Sox in 2007 and helped the team win the World Series.
Hutch Award winners have included 11 Major League Baseball Hall of Fame inductees, 11 League Most Valuable Player winners and seven World Series MVPs.
Seattle surgeon William Hutchinson, Fred’s brother, founded Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center after Fred’s death at age 45, less than a year after he was diagnosed. The independent, nonprofit center works to improve the prevention, detection and treatment of cancer and related diseases.
I would not be surprised to see Breslow win the award. He started the Strike 3 Foundation, a non-profit charity that heightens awareness, mobilizes support, and raises funding for pediatric cancer research. Good luck and congratulations to all the nominees.
He and Avery, 77, are stalwarts of the Youth Enrichment Outreach Program. The size and reach of the effort for city children goes in fits and bursts, but it always involves youth baseball in the summer and basketball in winter. Avery held the first meetings for YEOP 20 years ago next month. He admits, in recent years, to sometimes wondering if the program will survive the men who founded it.
This year, he made a new alliance. He began working with Bettie Graham, who operates the Determination Center on West Onondaga Street. At 6 a.m., she opens the doors and takes in little children before they go to school, making sure they get their breakfast and help with their homework, if they need it. Every evening, she provides a refuge for bored teens.
The whole article is well worth the read.
This is not the Avery Brooks who loved baseball so much in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
All of the official pink bats are supplied by Louisville Slugger, but not all players use Louisville Slugger bats. Among those who had planned to use bats made by another manufacturer are Baltimore Orioles right fielder Nick Markakis and Minnesota Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe. Both players’ mothers are breast cancer survivors, and both players use bats made by MaxBat.
Markakis’ had custom-made black bats with pink logos delivered to him this week, according to The Baltimore Sun. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes Plouffe received a shipment of the same bats. But MLB will not allow those bats to be used Sunday because of its exclusive agreement with Louisville Slugger.
I appreciate MLB supporting breast cancer charities, but in general I don’t care for all the symbolism. I’m very much like Cosmo Kramer in this regard.
How about MLB donates a large amount of money for every home run hit and strikeout recorded on Mother’s Day? The we don’t need to worry about all the marketing gimmicks that are going on the in background.
Akin to the sabermetrician who would argue that WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is the single comprehensive metric of a player’s total contribution to his team, nonprofit rating agency, Charity Navigator, cites seven financial performance metrics for measuring the financial health of a charitable organization. Mr. Borchers chose, singularly, program service expenses>65% as the performance metric used to define whether a charity loses in supporting “improving the health and well-being of children.” I, too, can partake in the remedial exercise of dividing Part IX Row 25 Column B, by row 12 on the IRS form 990, but as the brother of a childhood cancer survivor, it just doesn’t feel that simple. As a data driven individual who appreciates transparency and a balanced portrayal of information when forming an opinion, the unbalanced views of this article, are not only strikingly unsettling but potentially damning. As an example, the graphic that Mr. Borchers uses to illustrate his findings invites scrutiny. If we can assume that what is being portrayed is that 54% of the sample size of 50 athlete charities disburse >61% of their annual revenues to cause, we are left with the question of how does this compare to the other 1.5M actively reported nonprofit organizations in the United States? Further, 50 of 1.5M seems like an insignificant cross-section. Of the 50 charities evaluated in the Globe research, it is also unclear what consideration was given to whether the charity was in its first years of existence and/or whether disbursements were being strategically pooled over a specific span to fund a more substantive project.
We learn that Cole’s foundation is building a school in Africa. Kudos to Hamels for his good works. I wonder if when it opens, he’s going to plunk all the teenage boys with fastballs? 🙂 (Then again, this would be a new school.)
Over the past two months, I conducted a project having people vote on nine-player all-time dream teams. The idea was for voters to pick a team to win a one-off, sandlot game, the ultimate cosmic playoff. This wasn’t about a 25-man roster or designated hitters or relievers, just finding nine players to win a game. I received more than 600 votes in all from a mix of baseball figures, fellow writers, and others.
In looking at the final list, I get the feeling that old-time players dominate too much. Mike Schmidt and Johnny Bench are the only somewhat modern players to make it. Can you make a case for Rickey Henderson over Ted Williams? Can you make a case for Greg Maddux, Roger Clemens, or Randy Johnson over Walter Johnson? We’ve seen a number of fantastic shortstops play the game in the last 20 years. All were bigger, stronger, and likely faster than Honus Wagner. Joe Morgan or Rogers Hornsby? In general, we tend to romanticize the players of the early days. It was easier for them to dominate their leagues as the game developed.
In general, I believe the greatest players are playing right now.
826 Valencia is a non-profit based in San Francisco, with locations across the country that teach journalism to kids ages 6 to 18. While hundreds of volunteers regularly help out, more help is needed. An average of 85 students a day visit the various writing centers, and 826 constantly needs support: $100 buys a week’s worth of supplies for a writing lab; $500 can fund a workshop, and the list of necessities goes on. For more information, please visit 826valencia.org.
“There is an air of silence you have in the car when you drive through it and see it,” Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. “That’s just a small stretch. You picture that times 150 miles and its just pure devastation.”
Major League Baseball made a donation of $500,000 to the city to help in reconstruction efforts.
After a bus tour of the disaster zone, the players conducted a baseball clinic with students from the area, many of whom had homes destroyed or lost family members.
My family and I went to the Black Sheep Tavern in Niantic, CT. for drinks and dinner. There was a surprise performance by the New London Fire Dept. Pipes and Drums.
They were raising money for two hospitalize children as they were driving around to perform at ten local pubs.
As a part of the Stand Up to Cancer campaign and the release of the Star Wars Blu-ray release, the Mets will have special contest and prizes for all fans of the epic movie series. Fans are encouraged to dressed in their finest Jedi, Sith or whoever your favorite character is from the Star Wars series.
There will also be a very special photo opportunity with your favorite Star Wars Characters in the Bullpen Plaza.
I suspect the droids available for photo ops are not the droids you’re looking for. 🙂
