Tuesday, March 18, 2008

A Hokie for a Day

April 16, one year ago, was one of the darkest day Blacksburg, Virginia would ever witness. A psychotic gunman killed 32 student and faculty members at Virginia Tech University on that day, and an entire nation mourned. Almost a year later the healing continues, and the Yankees have tried to help the process, both financially and spiritually.

George Steinbrenner donated $1 million to the school and promised that the Yankees would play there this year. Today is that day. The Yankees players, coaches, and front office people traveled to Blacksburg for an exhibition game with the university's team at 3 pm today. The team also visited the memorial built in memory of the 32 who perished so tragically. It's done wonders for the school and the community.
NY Times
"Everywhere in life we've got guys that talk and guys that do things," (Peter Hughes) the second-year Hokies coach said. "And when the Yankees call and say, 'Hey, we want to help out. We've got to do something. Here's our idea: We want to come play and here's a million dollars.' How proactive is that? It blows you away, their generosity."
The game will be televised on YES and is available free online at mlb.com. The Yankees are wearing a special Yankees hat with VT colors for pre-game warmup and their in-game hat will have the VT logo on the side. Students were able to purchase facsimiles of the hat at the university.

It makes us proud to be Yankees fans and the Steinbrenner family's generosity is quite amazing. Give credit where credit is due.

Here's the lineup for today's game from Peter Abraham:

YANKEES
Damon LF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Rodriguez 3B
Giambi DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Duncan 1B
Cabrera CF

Pitching
Karstens
Britton
Ramirez
Patterson

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