Show 7 I r f r- r f J 4 Rounding the Bases Pink bats hit a J eren Senior Editor Who would have thought a pound professional baseball baseball baseball base base- ball player would ever use a pink colored bat and on national television no less Well it happened and not just one but over Major League Baseball players donned pink wristbands jerseys jerseys jerseys jer jer- with a pink ribbon and andu u used ed a pink baseball bat at atey ey every ry plate appearance Major League Baseball gave approval for players to show there support for the Susan G. G Koman Breast Cancer Foundation by using the pink bats on Mothers Mother's Day May 14 Many of those players who used d i 1 f Sl il is u l utI n ro g t ins f names of their mothers or loved ones on them Each team in the league had at least one player using the pink bats and each team was given four generic bats inscribed with only the team logo to be signed by the players Following the Mothers Mother's Day games each player signed their two personalized pink bats and they th the teams were put on corns auction site with all proceeds being donated to the Koman Foundation When the held a similar r fundraiser they raised over from selling pink hockey sticks could easily raise that same if not more Normal pink non-pink bats signed by only one player can garner Multiply that by the plus players that used the pink sticks and the Koman Foundation will likely get a million half-million dollars The pink bat promotion was partnered with another in which ba baseball fans could pledge a certain amount of money for every strikeout recorded by their team during the week preceding Mothers Mother's Day Over that week one stretch recorded 1362 strikeouts from all 30 teams The Koman Foundation was to receive percent of all proceeds from the Strikeout Challenge With his mother in the stands and her name on his bat Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies hit the winning game-winning in a game against the Cincinnati Reds Ken Griffey Jr had his mothers mother's name on his bat and said that a baseball bat has never fit so well Baseball made an incredibly incredibly incredibly bly great move in approving the use of the pink bats Alt Although ough they loo looked ed a litt little e es s stan ri 8 g r ii Jr from thet the t teley television si h eI I t tJ y showed that breast cancer affects many people including including including ing professional athletes Howard Smith vice president completed the perfect perfect perfect per per- statement to It takes a big man to swing a pink bat in a Major League game Not only does it take a strong man it also takes a anoble anoble anoble noble man to take a stand in support of such a cause For once in professional sports it wasn't about the money it wasn't about fame it wasn't about the player it was about the mom it was about fighting for a righteous cause Although the bats were only used for one day the impact they had on the world will be felt for many years to come Because I for one listen listen listen lis lis- ten up when a pound baseball baseball baseball base base- man is waving a pink ball bat in my direction |