BYB FRIENDSHIPS, GENEROSITY & THE YANKEES

After a truly successful HOPE week, an event the Yankees put together every year for the past 4 years, I got all fuzzy inside today. There's alot of love in Yankeeland.   The New York Yankees give back to communities that are less fortunate, and so many others do so much as well, it's pretty awesome.  Doing good things can be addictive.  I like seeing a complete stranger on a line at the supermarket give an old lady and extra dollar who's short cash at the checkout line.  I like it when I watch my twins share or when you hear about a kid's raising money at their lemonade stand, not for them, but for someone in their community who may have a serious illness. It's all hope, it's generosity and let's face it, it kicks ass.

HOPE week was really special, I was touched and watch it closely. The Yankees did a lot to make people smile and the most recent one was this picture of David Robertson signing autographs for members of the Children's Alopecia Project  (a disease that causes hair loss.) Many Yankees were there for that event at the Botanical Garden earlier that day as well. A nice ending to a great week.

Since September 2010 Bleeding Yankee Blue has been on the ride of a lifetime.  What started out as a gag between friends turned into something much more, we're a family.  It's large group of readers and true Yankee fans that want to read about and talk about the Yankees, the players and what we love, or hate about them.  We try to keep it clean, we try to keep it fun, and because of that, we've become mildly successful.

We've never taken ourselves too seriously.  I mean, we write with a passion for our team, but we are fans and like you, we react.  The best part about BYB is we've met many interesting people, like Natalie Niekro, the daughter of Joe Niekro who runs the Joe Niekro Foundation. Natalie spoke with us in ONCE A YANKEE, ALWAYS A YANKEE and she's giving back with her foundation to make people aware of brain aneurysms, the same disease that took her father's life.

We chatted with Laura Posada on Twitter and openly expressed our love for Jorge Posada as well as her family and the great work they do with the Jorge Posada Foundation.

 (In Photo: Tristin Greer / Doc Haveron with some Yankees) (Photo credit: Myrna Sharma)

We've met true fans that try and help others like Doc Thomas Haveron who runs the MVP Foundation and Haveron Total Health and helps kids' dreams come true by getting them to meet some true baseball greats.

We've interviewed Marty Appel, Jack Curry and Pete Caldera of the Bergen Record, guys that I personally wanted to be apart of the BYB family because I admire their writing and work so much.  Sure, that was a personal one for me, but hey, I run this thing, I'm allowed to pick and choose I guess.

Most importantly though, I was touched by something that happened back in April 27, 2011.  I don't what it was, but when I saw the pictures of the devastation in Tuscaloosa, Alabama of entire homes wiped out, families displaced with no food, shelter or memories, well, let's just say it got to me.

(Photo By: High Socks for Hope/after April 27th tornadoes: Tuscaloosa, AL)
 I have always believed in helping others, but as a guy who lives modestly and raising kids myself, money doesn't always come easy.  Then David & Erin Robertson came to the rescue and when David used his Yankee celebrity and pledged last year that he would contribute money to help the people in his hometown of Tuscaloosa, I realized something special was about to happen...national awareness.

Fast forward to last June when I simply asked David what we could do to help.  He put me in touch with Erin and we put together our first interview about what they wanted to accomplish in Tuscaloosa. Read  EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: HIGH SOCKS FOR HOPE, here's a small excerpt of that:

BYB: Tell me why High Socks for Hope was started?

David Robertson: High Socks for Hope was started right after the tornadoes hit Alabama on April 27, 2011. Tuscaloosa is my hometown; it is where I was born and raised, went to high school and college. It is a place that will always be home. Seeing it destroyed really affected me. I knew I had to do whatever I could to help fix what had happened. My wife and I discussed several options of what to do and where to donate money, but decided we wanted to make sure we knew where it was going and that 100% of it was going toward relief efforts. We opened the "David and Erin Robertson Foundation" to start collecting donations and then the High Socks website to start raising awareness of the devastation and needs that are present. We also went to Tuscaloosa to view the damage and meet some of the people that were affected by this tragedy.

(Photo By: High Socks for Hope/after April 27th tornadoes: Tuscaloosa, AL)
BYB: Describe your initial reaction when you saw the destruction in Tuscaloosa for the first time?

Erin Robertson: I was shocked to see the devastation. David and I had watched a lot of videos and spoke to a lot of people down there before we visited, but nothing could have prepared us for what we saw. There was debris everywhere and so many houses and buildings were destroyed. It was truly heartbreaking to see.

(Photo By: High Socks for Hope/after April 27th tornadoes: Tuscaloosa, AL)
BYB: What is the ultimate goal of your foundation?

David Robertson: Our goal is to help as many people as possible that were affected by the tornadoes in Tuscaloosa and the surrounding areas. We haven't set any monetary goals because the needs are endless. It will take billions of dollars to fix what was damaged. Our goal is to assist those that are in the most need. There are several families that we work with that are either homeless or struggling to make ends meet, and we are working hard to get those families in a safe place and back on their feet." 

This past March Bleeding Yankee Blue decided that we might be able to help more. Sure we made Bleedingyankeeblue.com t-shirts to expand our brand, but then we decided we'd actually try to give back too, not just bringing awareness to the cause, we'd raise alittle money. There were plenty of charities we could have chose, but we sat down and decided High Socks for Hope would be the first foundation that BYB would contribute to in our short blog life.

Again, I reached out to Erin to see if they wouldn't mind alittle extra help. She and David accepted and in a handshake agreement, we decided that when you buy a Bleedingyankeeblue.com shirt, money goes toward the High Socks for Hope foundation.  Sure, it's a $1 a shirt, it seems small, but we believe it's a worthy cause, a special cause, and everything helps. If not for the hard work and awareness of the Robertson's, let's just say, I'm not sure we'd realize the impact in Tuscaloosa. It's because of them, that we're all reaching into our pockets and giving back.  As fans, but as human beings too...we all want to help. BYB has now raised $283 because of the fans and that doesn't include the money we're also personally contributing for every strikeout and save David get this regular season.

Bleeding Yankee Blue is slowly becoming relevant and it's because of you, the readers that so many of us are coming together...it's pretty cool.  We're truly family.  I pleased with that, I think we all should be and I'm just glad BYB has become this meeting place and that you're all apart of it.  Thank you.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone.

 --Casey, Creator of Bleeding Yankee Blue
Follow me on Twitter: @bleednyankeeblu

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