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:

• 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.
• 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".
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.