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Tag: David Robertson

PodcastsYankees

Podcast: John Jastremski

John Jastremski of WFAN joins me to talk about what life will be like without Derek Jeter on the Yankees and all of the question marks and unknowns with the 2014 Yankees.

Derek Jeter made it official that he is leaving after this season and he is never coming back. I waited and waited for Jeter to return to the podium and say, “Just kidding!” in what would have been an elaborate, yet mean and hurtful joke. But it’s not a joke. This is the last season for Derek Jeter.

WFAN host John Jastremski joined me to talk about Jeter’s press conference, what life will be like without Jeter on the Yankees and all of the question marks and unknowns for the 2014 Yankees. We even talked about his Syracuse basketball losing for the first time in what is expected to to be a national championship season.

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The Joe Girardi Show: Season 4, Episode 2

The Yankees are fighting to keep their postseason aspirations alive, but that isn’t stopping Joe Girardi from giving players unnecessary rest.

Michael Kay: “How many games do the Yankees need to win the rest of the way to get into the playoffs?”

Joe Girardi: “Thirty-five, maybe. It might take 35 to get in.”

That’s what happened on an actual episode of The Joe Girardi Show on YES on Saturday night after the Yankees lost to the Tigers, leaving the team with a 58-57 record. If Girardi truly believed on Saturday night that a 93-69 record was needed to make the playoffs, that would mean the Yankees would have go to 35-12 the rest of the way. That’s a .745 winning percentage for a team that through Saturday’s loss had gone 28-39 since starting the season 30-18.

Do you see where I’m going with this? It’s time for another episode of my version of The Joe Girardi Show. Let’s call this episode “Unnecessary Rest.”

What the eff was that lineup on Tuesday night?
You said on Saturday the team had to win 35 of their remaining 47 games to make the playoffs. You won the first two games after saying so and with the team feeling good about itself for the first time in five weeks, here’s the lineup you put together on Tuesday:

Eduardo Nunez, SS
Alfonso Soriano, LF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Alex Rodriguez, DH
Vernon Wells, RF
Curtis Granderson, CF
Jayson Nix, 3B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Austin Romine, C

Brett Gardner had been 6-for-18 (.333) over the last four games with a home run and 3 RBIs and two walk-off hits against the Tigers in three days. He was on the bench on Tuesday.

Ichiro Suzuki had been 6-for-16 over the last five games. He was on the bench on Tuesday.

Eduardo Nunez had one multi-hit game since July 23 in Texas and is hitting .184 against left-handed pitching this season. Let’s have him hit leadoff against a lefty!

Jayson Nix is hitting .232, .261 against lefties and is 3-for-17 (.176) since coming off the disabled list. Let’s have him in the lineup at all!

Now the Yankees put up 14 runs, which tied a season-high (they also scored 14 on April 9 in Cleveland in the eighth game of the season), and me questioning the lineup after such a win seems ridiculous, but I have to because I questioned it when it was originally announced and after the game started, so I have to here as well to stand my ground.

But you caught a break, Joe, because of a terrible call by home plate umpire David Rackley on Chris Nelson for leaving early on an inning-ending double play in the sixth, which would have tied the game at 4. This led to Mike Scioscia deciding he was going to make Rackley make as many trips to the mound as possible to break up mound visits for the rest of the game as Scioscia used four relievers over the final 3 2/3 innings (though Girardi would have used six over that time without being furious with an umpire). You caught a break, but don’t let it happen again. Don’t let me see Jayson Nix starting another game with A-Rod and Nunez healthy.

Was it really necessary to give A-Rod a day off on Saturday?
On Friday night, Miguel Cabrera fouled a 1-2 pitch from Mariano Rivera off his leg and limped around, wincing in pain, enough pain that Jim Leyland and the Tigers trainer had to come out and check on him. And then he fouled the next pitch of the at-bat off his leg as well. Two pitches later he hit a 427-foot two-run home run to straightaway center field, reaching the net in Monument Park.

On Saturday, Cabrera was back in the lineup and went 3-for-5 with another home run.

And on Sunday, Cabrera beat Number 42 again, on a 2-2 pitch to lead off the ninth inning in what would end up being a third straight blown save for Number 42.

Since fouling those two balls off his body on Friday night against Rivera, Cabrera is 8-for-18 with four home runs and five RBIs and has started all the games since for the Tigers. (Update: He hit another home run on Wednesday.)

On Saturday, Alex Rodriguez wasn’t in the lineup. Why? Here’s what you said about it, Joe:

“It’s a day-by-day. You think about that we had a real late night last night. If we didn’t have that late night, maybe I play him today. It would have been the first day game after a night game. I’m just trying to be proactive in this and make sure that we don’t run him into the ground, where he ends up hurting something else.”

DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW MANY GAMES ARE LEFT IN THE SEASON? DO YOU NOT SEE THE DEFICIT THE YANKEES NEED TO OVERCOME TO WIN THE DIVISION OR A WILD CARD? IS THIS THE FIRST DAY GAME AFTER A NIGHT GAME HE WOULD BE PLAYING IN HIS CAREER? WHAT ARE YOU BEING PROACTIVE ABOUT? WHY AREN’T YOU TRYING TO RUN HIM INTO THE GROUND? YOU OWE HIM $28 MILLION THIS SEASON! HE JUST HAD A 10-MONTH BREAK! HE IS APPEALING A 211-GAME SUSPENSION! HE MOST LIKLEY ISN’T PLAYING BASEBALL IN 2014 AND MIGHT NEVER PLAY AGAIN! RUN HIM INTO THE GROUND! RUN HIM INTO THE EFFING GROUND!

Sure, Cabrera is 30 years old and the best player in the world and A-Rod is a 38-year-old declining star coming off a second hip surgery in four years, but Jim Leyland had no reason to put Cabrera in the lineup the day after a scary incident like that (which could have destroyed the Tigers season) with the Tigers holding an eight-game lead that day over the Indians. Meanwhile, A-Rod had an off day on Thursday, two days prior to Saturday’s loss, and had played in just four games in 10 months. And he gets a day off for an afternoon game like some backup catcher? Are you effing kidding me? Keep on resting everyone, Joe. Keep on resting everyone like it’s September 2010 again because you have such a big lead on a playoff spot.

Speaking of Cabrera and those home runs against Number 42 …

Why didn’t Mariano Rivera pitch the ninth inning on Monday?
There are 44 games left in the Yankees season today, which means there are 44 games left in Mariano Rivera’s career. But really there are way fewer games left in Rivera’s career because he won’t pitch in all 44. That should mean that it’s time to empty the tank and the right arm of the best relief pitcher in the history of baseball, but for some reason you’re saving Rivera’s right arm for a postseason that might not happen and a 2014 season that’s not happening. Now isn’t the time to count Rivera’s pitches and worry about his innings. I’m pretty sure Mariano Rivera would rather his last game ever be in a postseason setting rather than in the final home game of the season against the Rays on September 26, and even if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs, I’m sure he wants to do everything possible to try to.

On Monday night, the day after Rivera had blown his third straight save, with the Yankees leading the Angels 2-0 in a must-win game at the Stadium, you decided to give your closer a rest and gave the ball to Boone Logan to start the ninth before going to David Robertson for the final two outs of the game. The Angels scored a run to make it 2-1 and with the bases loaded and two outs and a full count on Chris Nelson, Robertson got Nelson to swing at a pitch that would have cleared the backstop betting if Nelson had taken it. Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win! But if anyone else other than Chris “Designated For Assignment” Nelson had been up, the game is likely tied or the Angels are ahead and we’re probably talking about the most obvious second-guess of all time.

I don’t care that Rivera blew a save against the White Sox on Wednesday night and I don’t care that he gave up two home runs to the best hitter on the planet and a fellow first-ballot Hall of Famer and blew two saves against the Tigers in three days. I don’t care that Rivera has blown three straight saves for the first time in his 17 years as a closer. If the Yankees have a lead in the ninth inning and it’s a save opportunity and the starter isn’t going for a complete game then Number 42 better be in the game. No exceptions.

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A State of Worry for the Yankees

The Yankees have basically played .500 baseball in the second half and the constant worrying about their division lead led to an email exchange with Jake Strasser of Barstool Sports.

On Wednesday, July 18, the Yankees finished a sweep of the Blue Jays with a 6-0 win at the Stadium and they finished the day with a 10-game lead in the division. Today their lead is 3 1/2 games.

The Yankees have gone 22-21 since the All-Star break and 18-20 since they held that 10-game lead on July 18. The injuries are mounting and now the team will enter September without Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira in the lineup. I haven’t pulled the alarm yet on the 2012 Yankees and avoiding the one-game playoff, but I have shattered the glass and my hand is on the lever.

With constant worrying and scoreboard watching each day, I thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone who I know is going through the same thing. And that’s how this email exchange with Jake Strasser of Barstool Sports started.

Keefe: On Tuesday night, Steve Pearce hit fourth for the Yankees. Russell Martin hit fifth. If you didn’t watch the game, I could probably sell you on the idea that I hit sixth and the doorman in my apartment building hit seventh. That’s how bad things are right now for the Yankees due to injuries.

With A-Rod already out, Mark Teixeira went down on Monday night and Joe Girardi said he could be out “seven, eight or 15 days.” (The man who counted like that actually went to Northwestern University.) So yeah, if our starting pitching right now doesn’t do what Phil Hughes did on Tuesday night then it’s going to be really hard to win games. And if Rafael Soriano does what he did on Monday night it’s going to be even harder.

The reason the Yankees lost in five games to the Tigers last year was because of their hitting. Their pitching could have been better, but it was their hitting with runners in scoring position and the heart of the order that did them in. This year I’m scared that the same thing might happen. Actually I’m not scared … I’m petrified. And it’s not even the ALDS I’m scared of. It’s the one-game playoff. I have already been stocking up on bottled water, canned foods, flashlights and batteries in the event that the Yankees have to play in that one-game playoff.

It wasn’t too long ago that the Yankees had a comfortable 10-game lead in the division and I was laughing and watching games with a spring training mentality. Now with a month to go I feel like every game is Game 7 and I’m scoreboard watching Tampa Bay and Baltimore. Things have unraveled quickly. I don’t think I will truly be nervous until the lead gets to two games (if it ever gets there), but the current state of the Yankees is enough to cause for a test of the emergency broadcast system.

With a month to go, what is your take on the state of the Yankees and how worried are you of the possibility of a one-game playoff, if you’re worried at all?

Strasser: The Yankees are an enigma. I have never seen a club traverse the spectrum of success quite like this year’s team. There are points throughout the course of the season when they coast through series after series with what seems to be zero resistance. And then you have the stretches of poor play when the Yankee offense channels its inner Astros and the lineup looks anemic at the plate. The Yankees are a team built to crush mediocrity. Aside from the game’s top-shelf arms, along with any double-A pitcher lucky enough to make his debut in the Bronx, the Yankees are a near-sure bet to put up at least five or six runs on any given night. But what happens when they run into the buzz saw arms of the Verlanders and Weavers of the league? Well, we’ve all seen it a million times. How many 4-1 or 6-2 losses can we take?

As demonstrated the other night in Cleveland, the Yankees live and die with the home run. In a game where they let myriad scoring opportunities slip through their fingers against Indians pitcher, Corey Kluber, they ended up pulling out the win with a late two-run home run by Swisher. I’ve never been mad about a Yankee win, but I’d be lying if I said that one didn’t infuriate me. The ball that Swisher hit not only cleared the right-field wall, but the team from getting questioned about their inability to manufacture runs as well. The big blast consistently overshadows the offensive woes. This is great for the regular season, but aces on playoff teams don’t generally give up the long ball. The Yankees don’t move the runners, they don’t play small ball, and they don’t hit in the clutch. So where does that leave them? A couple games behind the best record in the AL. It’s both perplexing and frustrating how a team can look so good on paper, but instill a much lower level of confidence on the field.

So you ask me how nervous I am for a potential one-game playoff? Let’s put it this way- I’m letting my fingernails grow out until that day so I have plenty to pick for all nine innings. My cuticles will look like a teen slasher horror movie by the sixth. It all depends on the pitching match up, but anything can happen. And that’s what scares me. Given the roster (and the payroll), the Yankees should have the edge over any team, but as was stated in Moneyball, statistics go out the window when it comes to one game. For the Yankees to have any sort of success in this year’s playoff run, it will come from one or two guys getting hot at the right time circa 2009 with A Rod and Matsui. And if that doesn’t happen, well, let’s hope for a relevant Jets team, because it will be yet another early round exit for the pinstripes.

Keefe: You said it all depends on the pitching matchup, but we shouldn’t worry because a wise man once told me in a podcast that “Ivan Nova will become a big-game pitcher.” Actually that wasn’t a wise man … it was you.

OK, maybe that’s a low-blow, but I don’t think it is since you did disregard Hiroki Kuroda, who I talked up on that same podcast and now he’s become the Yankees’ best pitcher. Before we go any further, I think you owe No. 18 an apology.

(This is ne waiting for your apology…)

Let’s continue and let’s say the Yankees don’t completely fall apart between now and Game 162 and reach the ALDS and that Andy Pettitte returns and is healthy enough to pitch in the postseason. Who’s pitching Games 1, 2 and 3? Hopefully they don’t need a Game 4 starter, but eff it, let’s put a Game 4 starter in there too. And I know we have talked about it before, but I think it’s important for an update since it changes all the time.

I’m going with CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte, Hiroki Kuroda and then … umm … hmm … uhh … I guess … Phil Hughes? I would love to say David Phelps there, but we both know that’s not going to happen, and I don’t want Freddy Garcia anywhere near a playoff game again let alone on the postseason roster.

Strasser: Yeah, so I put myself out there with a bold prediction. Strasser took a shot, and you know what, Strasser missed. But at least I’m in the game. You’re sitting over there on the sidelines observing and reporting while I’m risking my reputation on a daily basis. You’re the douche bag with the combover in Good Will Hunting and I’m Matt Damon. I may be serving your fries on the way to your ski trip, but at least I’m original. So enjoy your bland perspective of watching and relaying, while I take a leap of faith and throw my heart into something I believe. I’d rather falsely predict something with 100% conviction than sit in the shadows and play it safe any day. I dare to dream, Neil. I dare to dream.

The postseason rotation depends entirely on the situation. It’s CC first, and then either Kuroda or Pettitte. If CC loses game 1 for instance, assuming a healthy Pettitte, I want Andy on the mound. He’s a big-game pitcher and going down 0-2 is a death sentence. I do owe Kuroda an apology, and I have gained a lot of faith in him, but the playoffs are a different world.

It also depends on the breakdown of home and away. It’s no secret that Kuroda is a better pitcher at the Stadium. That plays into rotation decisions, as well. Ask me this question when the ALDS schedule is set, and I’ll have a more definitive answer for you. Until then, Nova4Life.

Keefe: Being called the scumbag in the Harvard bar in Good Will Hunting is as bad as it gets, so move over “me wanting Ubaldo Jimenez last year” there’s a new low point in my life. And I don’t think it was a bold prediction or anything that out there since Nova did win Game 1 of the ALDS last year before getting pulled early in Game 5. So let’s hold patting yourself on the back for a second there. It’s not like you told me that CC Sabathia would go on the DL twice and Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez would also hit the DL and Mariano Rivera and Brett Gardner would be out for the year and the Yankees would still be in first in the division. That would be something to be proud of.

The Yankees are in a weird spot with the looming luxury tax penalties. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that they would sign Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson to long-term deals and let Nick Swisher walk away. But a funny thing happened on a way to that plan. Actually, it’s not funny. What happened is Granderson has become Adam Dunn-like and Swisher has carried the team offensively through August. (Granderson is still a great defender while I don’t trust Swisher on routine plays.) Now there is talk that Swisher wants Jayson Werth’s $126 million, which is unlikely, but he will at least get a solid deal given his performance this year and the weak free agent market.

It’s no secret that I’m not that big of a Nick Swisher fan, if I’m one at all, which I don’t think I am. I know it will all come down to what he does in October, which is likely nothing, but it seems more and more likely that Swisher and his phony personality and his disgusting arguments on called third strikes might not only be back in the Bronx for 2013, but maybe a few years after. And it doesn’t help that the Red Sox’ impending interest in him will likely drive his price up and force the Yankees to make a play for him.

If Nicky Swish (sorry to go John Sterling on you) finally hits in the postseason and the Yankees make a long run, that’s one thing. But if he fails to hit elite pitching for the fourth straight postseason I don’t want to see No. 33 in right field in 2013 unless the new right fielder also wants to wear No. 33.

Strasser: I like the idea of Swisher. What does that mean? Well, this. Fake or not, he helps the clubhouse – one that up until his arrival in 2009, had been publicly documented as stiff and stale. His boisterous personality is good for the team and even better for the fans. That being said, he doesn’t really do it for me on the field. Outside of this year, which so coincidentally happens to be a contract year, he hasn’t been anything special in my opinion. He targets the short porch far too frequently, often times resulting in a pop out to short when a ground ball to second would have moved the runner over.

If the Yankees commit the amount of money Swisher will want, and the basic fundamentals of supply and demand will allow, it will result in an overpaid outfielder clogging a spot that could be used for future acquisitions. I love his on-base percentage, I love his occasional power, but I don’t love his price tag. Let him walk.

Keefe: There’s going to come a time in October when Joe Girardi decides, “Hey, these people paid to come see me manage and insert myself into this game and not to see the players on the field” and he will likely turn to Clay Rapada or Cody Eppley to get a big out. Let’s just hope they get that big out.

The bullpen pecking order is all out of whack right now aside from Rafael Soriano and David Robertson. I think Boone Logan is probably viewed as the third-best reliever (that feels weird even thinking about let alone typing) and then it’s a mess between Cody Eppley, Clay Rapada and whoever that guy wearing No. 62 and pretending to be Joba Chamberlain is. I really only trust David Robertson out there even though Soriano has been great, and I don’t want the other three putting their hands on the game. Actually there might be one guy I don’t mind.

For some reason and I can’t explain this, I still have this thing about Joba in that I trust him. Or I want to trust him. When I see him out there I have flashbacks of the summer of 2007 and unhittable fastballs and devastating sliders. I see fist pumps and scoreless innings. In reality, he is basically Chad Qualls right now (actually he’s statistically worse). This pains me and I don’t want it to be like this, but the guy is also coming back from elbow surgery, having his appendix removed and a brutal ankle injury. I think he will find it, I just don’t know when.

Strasser: I’m pretty much in agreement with you on the bullpen issue. Robertson I trust, and Soriano I’m warming up to. Joba will hopefully come around because like you said, I want to trust him. I want to remember being at the first game he ever pitched in at the stadium (Section 434B … I splurged) and seeing the Bronx sky erupt with amazement at the spectacle we had all just witnessed. But is that guy still there, or are we just reaching for something that doesn’t exist like an image popping off the screen in a 3D movie? You know those a-holes swiping at the air in front of them … are we those a-holes, Neil?

You’re leaving out one incredibly important detail as far as playoff bullpen pitching goes. One man, three syllables: David Phelps. I loved this guy in the bullpen earlier in the season, and I like what I’m seeing from him as a starter. Throwing him back in the bullpen for a late September push and on into October could be that bridge the Yankees need to get to Robertson and Soriano.

Keefe: I forgot about your man crush on David Phelps and I hate to break it to you, but I think it’s a love triangle. That’s right, I’m joining this party, so I hope there’s room for three. I have loved everything Phelps has done for this team, and if he isn’t given a postseason start (which he very well could if he continues to impress and dominate) then he will be a huge addition to the bullpen.

You have told me that Raul Ibanez is your sleeper pick to be huge for the Yankees in the postseason, and I’m onboard with that decision. Ibanez has that “thing” about him that exudes confidence especially when the at-bats are the biggest the setting is most important. Granted, we could both be way off and he could have a Swisher-like 2-for-15 ALDS and the Yankees could be home in five games, but let’s just hope that’s not the case.

The other guy I think is going to be huge in October is Ichiro because of who he is and what he wanted out of going to New York to win and getting out of Seattle, the only place he ever knew in the majors. Ichiro hasn’t played in the postseason since Game 5 of the 2001 ALCS on the other side of the River Ave. Now he has a chance to chase that elusive championship, pick up the one thing missing in a Hall of Fame career that boasts a Rookie of the Year, MVP, batting titles, single-season hits records, Gold Gloves and All-Star Games, and a chance to earn a multiyear deal at the end of the season.

Why do you think Ibanez will be big in the postseason and what are you thoughts on Ichiro returning to October?

Strasser: There’s something about Raul Ibanez. He’s got that look. It’s a combination of focus, clutch, and ugly. The first two are going to be huge in October. Well, huge in my mind at least. In my mind, he has already hit two of those majestic moonshots to right in the first game of the ALDS. Okay, that may be a bit hopeful, but I really do get that vibe from him. That oddly unexplainable Jeterian vibe. But hey, I could be wrong. It’s happened before … cough … Nova … cough.

As far as Ichiro goes, I see him doing a lot of the little things for us in the playoffs. I’m not gonna sit here as a delusional Yankee homer and tell you that he’s going to rediscover his MVP form and hit .450 in the ALDS, but I do think he can provide some important benefits for the team. His baseball instincts are great, and sometimes a playoff win and the subsequent advancement to the next series can come down to one play. Whether it’s an astounding defensive play, some 2009 WS Damon-esque base running, or some other sort of contribution, I could see Ichiro having one or two “Yankee moments” in October.

My final prediction for the playoffs revolves around one of the most inconsistent cold weather bats in the league. No. 24 in your program and probably right around that number in our hearts, Robinson Cano has the potential to carry the Yankees to a ring. He’s just nonchalant enough to sleepwalk through a postseason line of .390 with eight home runs and 21 RBIs.

Keefe: Everyone keeps asking me if the Yankees can win the World Series, and I keep telling these people that I think they can. Right now there’s isn’t one team that really stands out in the AL, but if Pettitte returns healthy then a rotation of CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Hiroki Kuroda is as good as any 1-2-3 punch this postseason.

But to win the World Series it’s going to take winning the ALDS first (and hopefully not the one-game playoff first). I think the Yankees’ best chance of advancing would be if the Orioles make the one-game playoff and win it. The Yankees have loved playing in Camden Yards since it opened and no matter the year or roster turnover, the Yankees continue to win there, and with the first games of the division series on the road, that’s a big deal. I don’t want to see the Rays since the Yankees can’t win at the Trop anymore, or the Tigers since they seem to have our number or the White Sox since the Yankees had enough trouble winning a game there last week, forget October. Even the A’s scare me with their starting pitching and the idea of going 3,000 miles for the first two games of the ALDS isn’t exactly enticing. Give me Baltimore!

Strasser: The best option for the Yankees to play in the ALDS is the not-Angels. I think the Yankees can really expose some of the weaknesses of the not-Angels and capitalize on their shortcomings. Seriously though, the one team I’m terrified of is the Angels. I have no idea why they aren’t running away with the West, but if they get into the playoffs, look out. Mike Trout is just young and naive enough to not even realize that he’s having this historic season that could easily carry into October. They are the one team in the AL I most certainly don’t want to face.

To be honest, there isn’t one team that I would sign up to play right now. If anything, it would be the Rangers and their mediocre pitching staff, but we all know what can happen when Josh Hamilton or Nelson Cruz gets hot. Still, if I had to choose, I’ll take a matchup with the Rangers and their antler nonsense.

As much as I bash the Yankees’ deficiencies, I think they will hang on to win the division. Pettitte and A-Rod are coming back, CC looks sharp after his 12th DL stint of the year and Kuroda continues to mock me. I don’t think Tampa has the offense and I’m still not sold on Baltimore, despite their success this season. I also hate Buck Showalter and refuse to give him any credit, but the O’s are a good team. Another scary group of inexperienced guys playing above their heads. Is “above their heads” an expression? If not, it is now.

Keefe: You want to play the Rangers? In real life? I don’t think I can even given you a chance to respond to this after that.

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Yankees-Red Sox Weekend Diary

The Yankees dropped two of three to the Red Sox, but with a 7 1/2-game lead in the division, it’s not a big deal.

“Maybe they [the Yankees] won’t get in [the playoffs]. Who knows? Crazy things happen in this game.”

Those words are from a real man in real life. Those words are from Bobby Valentine after Sunday night’s game.

I’m in a surprisingly good mood for a Monday in which the Yankees lost two of three to the Red Sox in the Bronx. Why?

But the only thing keeping my mood from being as good as it could possibly be is knowing that Bobby Valentine went to bed last night and woke up today with a smug grin on his face after his team won an extra-inning game at the Stadium following his ejection. If you don’t think he has a smug grin on his face today then you didn’t watch the game last night. If you need a recap of the game just re-read the above quote.

There’s a 100-percent chance that Bobby thinks his antics following a botched, but difficult hit-by-pitch call was the reason for his team’s win rather than David Robertson walking Jarrod Saltalamacchia to lead off the 10th and then giving up two singles. It was Bobby Valentine’s charisma and geniusness (no, that’s not a real word) that led to Will Middlebrook’s line-drive single and Pedro Ciriaco’s bloop to right field. Orel Hershiser even said, “This is a way to get his team inspired.” Once again, the Red Sox are 51-51.

It was all Bobby Valentine. Well, maybe not all Bobby Valentine. The Red Sox might have also won because of Josh Beckett even though he didn’t throw a pitch.

Beckett joined Valentine in berating the umpires for a call that would have been hard for any home plate umpire to make, let alone one that was on the ground in pain because Middlebrooks couldn’t get a bunt down properly or pull his bat back in time.

“[Beckett wanted this win as badly as I did,” Valentine said. “He shows that a lot. I guess it was on national TV, so it’s even better.”

Beckett really wanted that game on Sunday night. Either that or he knows he can’t be missing from the dugout and back in the clubhouse during games anymore, but if he can’t be in the dugout by rule? Well, that’s a different story. But Beckett wanted this game bad. His last start in Texas when he blew the game on a wild pitch? Ehh, that one he didn’t “want” so much. (I like how Valentine had to “guess” that the game was on national TV even though it started at 8 p.m. on a Sunday and there were ESPN banners hanging down the lines and he was part of that same broadcast team last year and he did a segment with them during the game between innings. Good “guess!”)

Bobby and Beckett (potential children’s book title?) weren’t the only ones putting on a show for the the only .500 team to still regularly participate in nationally televised games. There was Adrian Gonzalez chirping the umpires from the dugout as he apparently found someone other than God and the nationally televised schedule to blame the Red Sox’ problems on.

It shouldn’t bother me that right now Bobby Valentine is somewhere smiling and maybe building a fence or a deck, thinking that he willed the Red Sox to a win. It bothers me a little less when I remember that despite losing two of three at home to the Red Sox, the Yankees still lead the East by 7 1/2 games and lead the Red Sox by 9 1/2 games.

I decided to go to the diary format that I used for the first part of the Subway Series back in June for this past weekend. Just pretend like you’re reading this in one of those black-and-white Mead composition notebooks.

FRIDAY
We’ll never know what would have happened if Mark Teixeira didn’t beat out that potential inning-ending double play in the first, which turned a scoreless inning for the Yankees into a three-run first. But let’s not pretend like Aaron Cook would have shut the Yankees out for the rest of the game.

There are pitchers that “pitch to contact” and then there’s Aaron Cook. Cook has thrown 40 innings for the Red Sox in seven starts. He has only walked four hitters, but he’s also only struck out four hitters. That might be a way to navigate through a lineup like Seattle, which he did on June 29 with a complete-game shutout, but when you’re trying to go through the Yankees lineup without an out pitch at Yankee Stadium you’re going to be back in the clubhouse early setting up the beer pong table with Josh Beckett.

Phil Hughes allowed three runs, but it should come as no surprise that the three runs came on three solo home runs. Hughes leads the league with 25 home runs allowed, and has matched his total from 2010 despite nine less starts and 55 fewer innings pitched, and he still has 12 or 13 starts left this year. I’m not sure if Hughes is going to get a postseason start this year, but if he does, it can’t be at Yankee Stadium. Even though he’s 7-3, 3.93 at home and 3-5, 4.27 on the road, Hughes has given up 17 home runs in 68 2/3 innings at home.

Thank you, Mark Melancon. That’s all.

SATURDAY
Every once in a while CC Sabathia has these starts where he can’t get it together and you get the feeling that every pitch is going to end up falling in somewhere. For some reason these starts seem to frequently come against the Red Sox.

Sabathia did a terrible job in his previous by allowing back-to-back home runs to the immortal Brandon Inge and Kurt Suzuki (who always hits CC well) and let the A’s back in a game they would come all the way back to win. There’s nothing really more to say other than chalk it up as another bad start for CC against the Red Sox, and I’m sure he’ll bounce back and cruise through the Mariners lineup this weekend.

If you read any Boston sports site on Sunday morning, you would have thought Jon Lester went out and pitched a complete-game shutout. “Lester can build off this start!” “Maybe Lester is about to get hot!” “Lester can save the season!”

Guess what Jon Lester’s line was on Saturday.

6 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR

He entered the game with an embarrassing 5.46 ERA and he left with a 5.49 ERA. That’s right his ERA went up, but somehow he has a chance to build off this start. Hey, whenever the ace of your staff is going to use the equivalent of 6.00 ERA to build off you know you’re in good shape. When you combine Lester’s fantastic six-inning, four-run start with Beckett’s Hall of Fame heckling abilities, maybe that big run Bobby Valentine has been talking about since April isn’t an empty promise or his version of Michael Scott’s “Scott’s Tots.”

I’m not sure there are any Vicente Padilla fans out there. Not one. And I’m only talking about him from his on-the-field antics, which include starting multiple bench-clearing brawls and frequent head hunting. I have yet to find a redeeming quality from Padilla other than he usually blows up in a big spot against the Yankees.

Padilla’s nemesis, Mark Teixeira, got the best of their battle on July 6 at Fenway with a two-run triple for which I awarded Teixeira 25 games of “Ladies and gentlemen” immunity. On Saturday night Teixeira tagged him for a game-tying, two-run home run and earned himself an additional 15 games of “Ladies and gentlemen” immunity. After hitting his mammoth blast deep into seats, Teixeira moved slower out of the box and down the first-base line than Jorge Posada ever did trying to break up a double play.  If I’m Joe Girardi, the next time Padilla enters a game against the Red Sox, I would make sure my guys are on the top step, and I would tell Mike Harkey to have the bullpen door unlocked and ready to swing open.

As for Curtis Granderson … a bad time to make a bad read.

SUNDAY
I can’t remember not being upset about losses to the Red Sox the way I was on Saturday and Sunday night. But if you want to win games in extra innings, you can’t walk Jarrod Saltalamacchia, a .233 hitter with  a .285 on-base percentage entering the game, to begin the 10th inning. You also might want to score more than two runs on seven hits and five walks. Just some advice for next time.

Hiroki Kuroda redeemed himself after that horrendous Fourth of July weekend start against the Red Sox that he made me sit through at Fenway Park. Kuroda lowered his ERA to 3.28 and now 11 of his 21 starts have consisted of at least seven innings and two earned runs or less. I had put the “Coin Flip” nickname on temporary hold, but I think the name is gone forever. In fact, I’m willing to forget that I ever created it in the first place.

For a moment during the Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, Terry Francona had nothing insightful to add to the broadcast so he went to the recycling bin for the overused conversation starter of “The new Yankee Stadium isn’t the old Yankee Stadium.” Thanks for the observation, Terry. Is the “new” anything the same as the “old” anything? Everyone misses the Stadium from the other side of River Ave., but it’s gone and there’s a public park in its place now. The almost four-year-old Yankee Stadium is now Yankee Stadium, and no amount of conversations about it not living up to the old place are going to bring the old one back.

Francona complained about the atmosphere at the new Stadium and Orel Hershiser chimed in about the fans not getting as loud as they used to in the old one especially for a Yankees-Red Sox game like Sunday night. I would put my level of caring about the outcome of Yankees-Red Sox games up against anyone not playing in the games, and if I’m here saying that I wasn’t that upset with the outcomes on Saturday and Sunday night then I’m not going to expect the Stadium crowd to be that distraught about the Yankees’ AL East lead falling to 7 1/2 games and their lead over the Red Sox falling to 9 1/2.

The Red Sox haven’t won a postseason game since the new Stadium opened and the one time they came to the Stadium for a meaningful late-season series was in August 2009. The Yankees swept that four-game series and in the series finale on Sunday night, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira went back to back off Daniel Bard and I heard the Stadium as loud the old place would get for a regular-season game. The new place gets loud when it needs to (the way it did for A-Rod’s two-home run off Joe Nathan in Game 2 of the 2009 ALDS, and Teixeira’s walk-off homer in that same game), but it’s hard to keep getting excited about playing a last-place team.

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HOPE Week Reflections

Jerome Preisler looks back at HOPE Week 2012 and shares his behind-the-scenes experience from taking part in the events.

Last Friday afternoon, a few short hours after attending the Yankees’ final HOPE Week 2012 event at the Bronx Botanical Gardens, I was in the Yankee Stadium press box listening to a reporter go on about the whole program being a calculated publicity stunt. As the only writer to have observed HOPE Week planning sessions from behind the scenes, and the author of a book-in-progress about a previous year’s HOPE Week honoree, I’d seen and heard a lot of things that contradicted his assertions. But he visibly fazed me out when I tried to discuss it, and I thought that unfortunate.

HOPE Week is community outreach on a grand organizational scale. It recognizes individuals who’ve dedicated themselves to helping others or who’ve overcome great obstacles in their lives to set examples through their own optimism and perseverance. Each year the Yankees plan an elaborate series of surprises for their five honorees and their friends and families. All the events involve appearances the organization’s players, coaches and executives, and every active member of the team generally volunteers to participate.

The events are often elaborate. There have been surprise reunions on national television, meetings with the mayor at City Hall, celebrity appearances, a carnival on the Yankee Stadium field after a game, pizza deliveries to a New York tour bus from Derek Jeter, even a Staten Island block party with former Yankees pitcher A.J. Burnett getting dunked by local kids and swimsuit model Kate Upton posing for snapshots with beaming neighborhood guys.

I’ve been writing about HOPE Week since its inception in 2009, having stumbled onto it while I was in the press box gathering material for a regular baseball column. I’d wandered over to where various stat sheets and press releases are stacked for reporters to pick up, and saw a HOPE Week press release about the next night’s event acknowledging Camp Sundown, a summer camp for people with a genetic condition known as Xeroderma Pigmentosum. XP is a disorder that essentially makes the tiny percentage of kids afflicted with it allergic to sunlight. Their skin can’t repair the damage caused by normal exposure to ultraviolet radiation. Most develop malignant carcinomas. Their often brief lives are lead at night or behind blackout shades.

My initial motive for requesting a credential was admittedly selfish. In my seventh Tom Clancy’s Power Plays novel, Zero Hour, I’d decided to make the principle antagonist, Hasul Benazir, a wealthy businessman-terrorist who suffered from the XP mutation. When I wrote the book in 2003 or thereabouts, I’d known almost nothing about the condition beyond its most obvious symptoms. But I liked giving my villains traits that distinguished them from run-of-the-mill America-hating badguys and thought it would let me present Benazir as a richer, more textured character.

The HOPE Week event for Camp Sundown was a chance to see to see how close I’d come to capturing the reality of living with the disorder. The Yankees, moreover, would be surprising the Camp Sundown kids with a carnival on the field after a game with the Oakland Athletics. Stilt walkers, jugglers, rides, refreshments, and players cavorting into the late hours. The whole thing tugged at my interest.

It proved a magical experience. The midnight rides and costumed performers amid the empty grandstands, the joy of the kids and their families, the enthusiasm of the Yankee players. Magical, memorable, and poignant. Jose Molina, who was the Yankees’ backup catcher, would become emotional speaking with me. Pitcher Alfredo Aceves stayed until two or three in the morning playing guitar. Other members of the team played soccer with the kids. By then the handful of television crews and reporters were long gone.

After writing my story, I stayed in occasional touch with the camp’s founder, Caren Mahar, whose youngest daughter Katie had the disease. In the spring of 2010, I drove up to Camp Sundown in Craryville, New York, to hold a writers’ workshop for the campers and their families. It was a big success. That day Caren told me and my wife that Jason Zillo, the Yankees’ public relations chief, had been a supporter of Camp Sundown for a long time. While still an intern with the Yankees organization, he’d watched a segment about the Mahars on a televised news magazine and quietly begun doing things with the Yankees to benefit their cause. Caren recalled Zillo telling her that he wanted to someday be able to do more. Years later when his concept for HOPE Week was embraced by the team’s front office, Zillo at once thought of the Mahars and kept his word.

During HOPE Week 2011 I met the Trush family. Daniel Trush, the week’s first honoree, was twenty-seven years old at the time. When he was 12, an aneurism in his skull had burst, plunging him into a deep coma. Danny remained comatose for about 30 days. His family was told the odds were against his survival, and that if he did live, he likely wouldn’t lead anything close to a meaningful existence – which was another way of saying he would remain in an essentially vegetative state. But Daniel defied expectations. He emerged from the coma and gradually recovered. Although he’d suffered brain damage that left him with multiple disabilities, he would not only prevail but inspire others to move past adversity with his spirited optimism and wry, infectious humor. Music had been important to him before his traumatic brain injury, and was crucial to his healing, and his family would eventually start a foundation that helped heal others through musical interaction. Danny became its driving force.

The Trushes touched and impressed me. Their family bond was special. Nothing had ever prepared them for what happened to Danny, yet they never gave up on him or lost faith that he would continue to get better, and had innately known how to best support him through his evolving challenges.

I wrote a column about Daniel for YESNetwork.com, and subsequently met with him and his father Ken to discuss a book that would tell their family’s story at greater length. We found we shared the same vision for the project and moved ahead. Part of my lengthy book proposal involved getting better acquainted with the work the Trushes did through their nonprofit, Daniel’s Music Foundation. In the autumn of 2011, they invited me to a small cocktail party-fundraiser in Manhattan. I knew Jason Zillo would be there. DMF had grown tremendously owing to the exposure it had gotten from HOPE Week, and the Trushes had wanted to thank him with an honorific.

It came as no surprise that the entire Yankees PR department was in attendance. But I hadn’t expected that Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal, co-owner of the team, would be there too. She mingled a little with the other guests and then sat at a corner table watching members of the foundation perform. There were no cameras other than those used to capture the performance for personal remembrances. Steinbrenner Swindal stayed well out of the spotlight.

Shortly before Christmas, I attended DMF’s annual holiday show at a school auditorium. Again the Yankees PR department came, some with their families, to watch the performance. In May 2012, with a deal finally secured for the book, I observed rehearsals for DMF’s spring concert in their rented studio space. One night, Jason Latimer, a member of the Yankees PR department dropped by pushing his two-year-old in a stroller. He explained that he’d wanted to catch some of the rehearsals because would be unable to make the show, which would fall the same Sunday afternoon as a Yankees game. He stayed for about an hour.

A few weeks after their foundation’s spring concert, I contacted Jason Zillo to ask if could sit in on Yankees PR’s HOPE Week selection and planning discussions. Part of my narrative would involve the Trushes’ being chosen as honorees and I wanted a firsthand glimpse of the process. It was an unusual request, as these are closed-door meetings in Zillo’s office, but figured it would be worth a shot. Happily Zillo agreed. Although the picks had already been made, he told me I could observe the planning sessions. I later interested YESNetwork.com in a feature offering a behind-the-scenes look at HOPE Week and cleared it with Zillo. He placed no restrictions on what I could write about for YES, other than requesting that I keep a brief conversation about PR’s negotiations with a public figure off the record.

The group’s exchanges frequently concerned logistics and coordination. Some involved players: Which ones had signed up for particular events? Who was still undecided? There were also discussions involving celebrities, corporate sponsors and media outlets. But the subject always came back around to the HOPE Week honorees. Their needs remained at the core of the agenda. Could they help one man with his college tuition? With storage space for food? Or would a long-term supply of gas for his truck be more useful than the space? Is it better to get Costco or Hess into this? Beyond plotting HOPE Week’s highly public itineraries, the people in the room were determined to do what would most benefit the recipients when the cameras left and they returned to their everyday routines.

HOPE Week 2012 ran from June 25-29, coinciding with the Yankees’ final homestand before the All-Star break. I chose to attend three events, beginning with the second day. The Yanks had tagged it An Angel in Queens and it acknowledged a man named Jorge Munoz, who had dedicated himself to feeding the hungry. Munoz had very little in the way of savings or material possessions. He lived in a modest rental apartment with his mother, sister and young nephew and prepared over a hundred free meals a day in its tiny kitchen.

As Yankee players arrived to surprise Munoz with food supplies, the apartment was quickly packed with reporters and cameramen. I jostled my way inside and soon found myself in a small, cramped room facing one of two kitchen entrances. Packed into that tight space beside me was Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal. She stood away from the cameras, peering into the kitchen where the players were helping to cook that day’s meal of rice, beans and chopped ham.

After a brief exchange with her, I asked for an interview and she agreed on the spot. She shared her feelings about the initiative overall, and emotionally recalled a moment the day before that had brought her to tears.

Back outside in the Munoz’s concrete driveway later, I watched Jennifer speak to neighbors drawn to the scene by the media caravans. She cooed over their children and told a couple of kids about Munoz’s selflessness, standing well away from the television cameras. The reporters assigned to the story were busy interviewing players and more or less ignored her. The kids, and many of their parents, had no idea who she was.

That night at Yankee Stadium, Munoz would throw the game’s ceremonial first pitch and then hasten back to Queens to distribute his meals. Before tossing the ball from the mound, he’d attended a dinner in the press conference room outside the Yankees clubhouse. Previous years’ HOPE Week honorees had arrived from around the country, their transportation aided by the Yankees. The dinner was unpublicized, closed to reporters, but I was there as the Trushes’ guest. Brian Cashman spoke a few words of greeting to the alumni. Zillo and several members of his team spent time catching up with them. Jennifer Steinbrenner circulated around the room, chatting informally with everyone. The Trushes were moved when a 2010 HOPE Week honoree spoke of wanting to do volunteer work with their foundation. More connections were forming.

My next event was Thursday at a nursing home in the Bronx. The honorees were members of a nonprofit group called Glamourgals, high school and college-age volunteers who give manicures and makeovers to the elderly at senior care facilities. The cafeteria was full of residents sitting at long tables when the Yankee contingent showed up. Some knew the players, some didn’t. They were mostly looking forward to manicures and lunch.

Scenes from that day would etch themselves in my mind. I recall a woman in a wheelchair happily exclaiming, “A smile doesn’t cost a penny!” when Nick Swisher sat at her table to work on another lady’s nails. She had a Yiddish accent and would tell me she was a Holocaust survivor, showing me the number tattooed on her arm. She’d lost her entire family in the death camps but had somehow survived, married, had children. Now she was getting a kick out of Swisher. He was hamming it up, charming the octogenarian ladies at the table, and it had put her in a cheerful mood. I asked her how she kept smiling.

“The Nazis wiped out my whole family. I told myself I wouldn’t go down, that someone would live to remember them,” she said. “Sometimes, I cry when I think of them. I’m human. But I try to remember the good times. My smile means the people who killed them didn’t win.”

Elsewhere in the room, David Robertson had been talking to a man who’d had a severe stroke. He was in a wheelchair and largely unable to move or speak. His friend explained that he’d been a Yankees fan since 1952 and still watched all the games.

“Hopefully we’ll win this year, be like 2009 all over again,” Robertson told him.

The man’s face lit up. Lips that could no longer form words shaped a broad grin.

Minutes later, I watched one of the Glamourgals volunteers slowly overcome the guarded suspiciousness of a woman suffering from dementia. Her gentle patience struck me. The woman, looked ancient, and was holding something close against her body. I glimpsed what appeared to be artificial hair between her tightly folded arms and wondered if it was a wig or fall.

The volunteer was a beautiful, raven-haired teenager of South Asian descent. She spoke softly to the woman. Kindly. The gulf in age between them was six or seven decades. They were of different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds, and I could only imagine the variance in their experiences. The volunteer had noticed the object clasped in her arms.

“Is that a doll?” she asked.

The woman gave her a sharp, wary glance. Then, ever so gradually, she loosened her grip, the doll emerging into sight. “She’s my baby,” she said.

“She’s pretty,” the teenager said. “Can I hold her?”

The woman raised the doll off her lap. Hesitated. Pulled it close again.

The girl just smiled at her. Finally the woman relaxed her grip a second time, holding the doll out for her to take.

The volunteer told me afterward that it had been her second time out at the home with the Glamourgals. She explained that her grandparents lived far away, and that she rarely saw them, and that interacting with seniors helped compensate for their absence.

“It’s really being touched that means the most to them, the physical contact, so I like giving manicures,” the teenager said. “It takes longer, and you hold their hands.”

At Yankee Stadium that afternoon, Glamourgals organizers and volunteers would watch the Yankees’ batting practice outside their dugout. They cheered whenever a player raked a BP pitch, oohed and aahed as Derek Jeter appeared to sign baseballs.

“It feels good to be recognized,” one of them told me, a college freshman speaking for a group of three or four young women I’d interviewed. “We don’t do it for that reason, but it validates us.”

The following morning, Friday, I was back in the Bronx for the last HOPE Week event, held at the botanical gardens. The recipient of honors was an organization called CAP, or the Children’s Alopecia Project. Alopecia is a disorder of the autoimmune system that leads to childhood baldness, and kids who suffer from it suffer from self-esteem issues and are often bullied and ostracized by their peers. The lush green picnic setting, large player turnout, and planned activities for the kids – a scavenger hunt, head painting, other games – probably made this occasion the most fun.

For me it became the most moving. I was in the clubhouse where pizza was about to be served when I noticed one of the CAP kids, a teenage girl, sitting on a bench with a 30-something guy I assumed was a member of her family. She was completely bald, cute as a button, and had a mature intelligence in her eyes that belied her age. And she looked quietly happy.

I went over, crouched in front of her, and asked if she’d mind telling me how she felt about the day. She told me she was loving it. The whole thing had been a surprise. The guy sitting with her was her uncle, and he’d driven her and her mom all the way to New York from rural Pennsylvania. The population of her hometown, her uncle chimed in, was roughly equivalent to the number of passengers crammed aboard a Manhattan subway car. She had known there would be a CAP event but knew nothing about its scale or the Yankees’ involvement.

I asked the girl about living with alopecia. She said that if she had to suffer from a rare disorder, it was far from the worst. It wasn’t painful, life threatening, or physically disabling. It just made you lose your hair. Social ostracism wasn’t a problem for her, she said. Kids in her town didn’t make a big deal out of it.

Her uncle added that it had meant a lot for her to meet other kids with the condition, kids who could relate to the unique set of feelings that came with losing your hair at an age when boys and girls are very appearance-conscious.

As he spoke about that, her eyes moistened. On impulse, I patted the back of her hand, gave her a smile. I didn’t know what else to do.

A tear slid down her cheek. Another. I put my hand on hers again.

“We all have things in our lives that are hard to talk about,” I told her. “I have things in mine. And when I’m with someone else who’s had those experiences, it’s like there’s a bridge between us, and we don’t have to talk about them. We can just relax, and maybe let go for a while.”

The girl was crying outright now, softly, tears streaming down her cheeks. I felt awkward and guilty. I wondered if I’d said the right words. They were the ones that came to me. But I didn’t know. I was thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have said anything at all.

The girl’s mother appeared, saw her shiny wet cheeks, asked if anything was wrong. She shook her head no, but said she was going to the restroom. The two of them went off together.

I apologized to the uncle. He said it wasn’t necessary. “Trust me,” he said. “Those were tears of joy.”

I answered with some clumsy, defensive half-joke about it not looking a whole lot like joy when his niece started weeping. But he brushed a hand through the air. “It’s good for her to see that people from a big city like New York can embrace her,” he said. “It makes life less scary.”

I knew he was sincere. But I still felt lousy. On a day when she was supposed to be having a good time, I’d made the kid cry.

It must have been half an hour later when her mother came up to me. “Can I talk to you a minute?” she said.

Of course, I told her, and felt a coil of tension in my chest, thinking I was about to hear it, bracing for her rebuke.

“I don’t know what you said to my daughter,” she said, “But whatever it was, I want to thank you. It meant a lot to her.”

I exhaled from my toes up. My relief was tidal. At that instant, I probably couldn’t have recalled my words to the girl for a million dollars. I was just glad I hadn’t hurt her and blemished her memories of the day.

I thought of that girl in the Stadium’s press box later on, faced with the reporter’s vocal denunciation of HOPE Week. For me, it is the perfect fusing of corporate philanthropy and public relations, and what makes it so perfect is that it is honest and heartfelt. Everyone involved benefits. The superstars and bright lights, as one alumnus told me, are part of what make it special for the honorees. They can forever look back at the day as a shining moment of recognition and acceptance.

I didn’t have any issue with the reporter’s skepticism. It’s vital that people question what is presented to them. But he wasn’t asking anything. It was a one-sided tirade. He hadn’t known of the book I was working on when he launched into it, or been aware of my inside look at the planning sessions. When I told him, he just shrugged his dismissal. When I asked the basis of his opinion about HOPE Week, he offered nothing but a critical and personal assessment of an individual involved with it.

I’m not writing this to give vent to my thoughts on one person’s obduracy (I happen to like the reporter) or really even address a more general cynicism toward HOPE Week that arose from certain fan quarters this year. I just want to present a set of informed observations for those who might be interested. Skepticism should be a probative tool. A pick for extracting truth. When it instead becomes an impenetrable wall, then there’s barely any spitting distance to separate it from ignorance.

Nobody should tell you what’s straight or what’s crooked. But if we aren’t willing to look, weigh and measure before deciding it diminishes us as a society, and the main thing I’ve learned from four years of writing about HOPE Week is that open eyes – and, yes, hearts – can take us all to a better place together.

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