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Founded in 1991, the No Bats Baseball Club is
a non-profit club dedicated to promoting the game of baseball and helping those
who honored the game with their abilities, class and humility. The Club's
Mission Statement reads as follows:
"The No Bats Baseball Club (the "NBBC") is a
self-perpetuating club whose primary mission is to promote and foster
friendships using the game of baseball as a focal point. In addition to
this primary goal, NBBC actively suppors charities and foundations that either:
a) Themselves promote the game of baseball or
b) Are personally endorsed and supported by baseball players or clubs, whose
own actions have exhibited the civic ideals and character to which baseball
professionals should be held accountable
Through these actions, NBBC views
itself as a global advocate of the game of baseball and goodwill, encouraging
and supporting programs and individuals that in turn encourage and uspport
baseball and friendship."
While many of us in the club are in
contact throughout the year, we only get together one weekend per year to play
baseball, typically the first weekend in October. The No Bats Baseball
Club is non-competitive by nature, not design. Our concession to age (and
varying degrees of ability) is that we pitch to our own teams, the object being
to try and hit the ball. The members of the club consist of a group of
middle-aged guys from about 30 states and three foreign countries. The
fellows range in age from the mid-30's to 72, and have backgrouns and vocations
from all walks of life.
We generally limit each year's
attendance to 56, which allows us to split into four teams of 14. While
playing a few games of baseball is the excuse we make to gather each year, the
focus of our weekend is the financial (and moral) support of the charity chosen
for that year. We do not charge admission to our games. In fact, we
do not advertise or otherwise open up our exhibitions to the general
public. All donations come from monies raised amongst us or on behalf of
our club.
By way of illustration, a sample of
the Club's fundraising activities are outlined below:
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In 1997, the club traveled to Birmingham, AL
to play on historic Rickwood Field. Rickwood is the oldest ball park in
America (since the demolition of old Comiskey Park in 1991), and hosted some of
the greatest players ever: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige,
Burleigh Grimes, Pie Traynor and Josh Gibson to name a few. The club
raised money for the preservation of the ballpark, and presented a check to the
Friend of Rickwood for their efforts.
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For 1998, we traveled to Alvin, TX where we
played baseball on the fields of Alvin Community College. The beneficiary
of the clubs financial efforts that year was the Nolan Ryan Foundation.
Mr. Ryan was impressed with our effort and sincerity sufficiently to cancel an
appearance he was scheduled to make at a country music concert. Instead,
he spent the afternoon sitting in the aluminum bleachers talking baseball with
some of us while the other half of the club played on the field for the "World
Championship of No Bats".
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In 1999, our destination was Hertford, NC,
the home of the late Jim "Catfish" Hunter. We played on local fields
where Jimmy's two sons and a daughter had played baseball and softball.
Jimmy was enthusiastic about our visit to the point that he asked if he could
bring the beer for dinner. Mr. Hunter passed away shortly before our
visit to Hertford, but his wife Helen insisted we continue to use a building on
the farm for our "headquarters". We presented a check to the foundation
that represented the largest single supporter of the Jimmy Catfish Hunter ALS
Foundation -- more money than had been donated by either the New York Yankees
or Oakland A's.
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We traveled to San Francisco Bay-area in
2000 to support Dave Dravecky's Outreach of Hope - the nation's only outreach
program supporting cancer amputee victims. Mr. Dravecky lost his pitching
arm to cancer, and the Outreach of Hope is a charity that helps those faced
with the reality of continuing their own lives after similar tragedies.
Mr. Dravecky and his old playing buddy Atlee Hammaker attended the entire
weekend. We played at new Pac Bell Stadium on Friday, and followed that
up by taking the field at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday, immediately after
the conclusion of the A's-Ranger's game. Our efforts yielded a donation
to the Outreach of Hope in excess of $47,000.
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In 2001, we were scheduled to play on
Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. Unfortunately the events of
September 11th adjusted the schedule of Major League Baseball and the Cubs
ended up playing in Wrigley Field the weekend that we were scheduled to
play. One of the members of our Club passed away as a passenger on the
plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The club adjusted it's schedule and
ended up playing at Alexian Field, the home of the Schaumburg Flyers. The
NBBC designated charity was Cubs Care. Two of the primary target areas of
Cubs Care are Youth Sports and programs for athletes with disabilities.
Cubs Care has state that there will be no administrative fees for any of the
monies we raise, so that 100% of the money we donated went directly to the
charities. In addition, we received a 50% matching gift from the
McCormick Foundation on all of the monies we raised. This matching gift
significantly increased the impact our donation had on these programs.
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