You
love baseball. I mean, you LOVE baseball. You play catch with a buddy when
you’re having a beer. You still play in a league. (Ok, maybe it’s softball now
because the years have started to add up on you, but still.) You follow the
Phillies religiously. Hell, you even watch a few innings of a Little League
game when you walk by one and you don’t know a single kid on either team.
So,
what if I told you that you can have your dream come true? You know which
dream. You dig your back foot into the ground at home plate
at Citizens Bank Park, cocking a bat above your shoulder just like Howard and
Utley and Rollins. A pitch is delivered. Your lumber meets leather
with a crack. You hit in a major league ballpark.
That
would be the greatest thing in the world, right?*
Wrong.
 |
| There's nothing better than swinging lumber in an MLB park. |
It
gets better.
You
can fulfill that dream and help people live at the same time. A great moment in
your life will give life to others.
On
May 6 & 7, the American Heart Association will hold their 16th Annual Richie Ashburn Home Runs for
Heart fundraiser on the field at Citizens Bank Park. This incredible
event ($400 per individual and $1,500 per team of four) is a must-do for any
baseball fan, allows participants the opportunity to swing at ten pitches from
home plate, win prizes—and bragging rights—for best hitting performances,
and shag fly balls in the outfield.
Sure,
the Phanatic bounces around, there are tours of the ballpark and the Phillies
ball girls will be there, but this is about hitting and fielding where the big
boys hit and field. This is the dream of every one of you who, like me, keeps a
baseball glove in your car.
And
those people you’ll be helping? Those aren’t faceless, nameless statistics.
They aren’t even the overweight, middle-aged guys you’re thinking of when you
think of heart attacks. It’s a guy like Derek Fitzgerald, a local guy I had the
pleasure of learning about last Wednesday at this year’s Media Day who was
active and healthy and still needed a heart transplant when he was 30 years old
due to a heart condition. And thanks to the procedures and care made possible
by the American Heart Association, he’s running road races and gearing up for
an Iron Man competition this fall. When we help guys like Derek, we’re
helping ourselves.
Take
it from me, hitting and fielding in major league ballpark is every bit as great as you always thought it would be. I’ve
been fortunate enough to participate in Home Runs for Heart’s Media Day for
several years now and stepping between those chalk lines never fails to
overwhelm me. Back in 2008, which seems like a lifetime ago, I was named “Best
Hitting Print Journalist” in Philly. Even though I haven’t had a sniff of that
title since, I still clear my schedule a year in advance to hear my name
announced over the PA system, to knock a few balls into left field, and to trot
on that spongy, perfect outfield grass and feel a fly ball pop into my glove.
So
come out to the Richie Ashburn Home Runs for Heart fundraiser. Better yet, put
a team of your buddies together and have the time of your life.
You’ll
be adding time to the life of others like Derek.
Oh,
and don’t worry about that line about your lumber meeting leather with a crack.
The ting of aluminum is acceptable as well.
Details: To
learn more or to sign up, go to heart.org/phillywalk or call 215-575-5218.
*Your
wedding day and the birth of your child/children are the greatest non-baseball
things you’ll ever experience of course. Hi darling!
(This story also ran in the Center City Weekly Press.)
(This story also ran in the Center City Weekly Press.)
