The 2019 CDMSBL Equipment Drive has come to a close. However if I missed you, Frozen Ropes (3 Interstate Ave. Albany) has an ongoing collection and items can be dropped off there directly. Speaking of Frozen Ropes we owe a huge thank you to Bill Farrell, Q (Quentin Jensen) and Brenda Roberts for allowing us to warehouse items there and coordinating the distribution to Roberto's Kids Foundation. All items will be sent to them to be further distributed to needy kids around the world so they can play the game we all love. They will now use real equipment, instead of using a stick to try and hit bottle caps like many do. No wonder they are so good. If you can hit those you could hit most anything. Others have no gloves and use bare hands or try and fashion a glove out of cardboard.
I want to thank Lex Herrlett who collected from the 33 division for me. Most of all I want to thank the league members who generously donated piles of equipment. In fact Bill Farrell told me they have more than 4 pallets of equipment at Frozen Ropes awaiting pick up. I personally collected the following, but this does not count what was dropped off directly to Frozen Ropes;
34 bats, 25 gloves off all types, 18 pair of spikes, 14 equipment bags, 9 helmets, 6 sets of catchers gear, 1 set of bases, numerous assorted uniforms, hundreds of baseballs and many other miscellaneous baseball items. With the help of John Reel and his pick up as well as my wife's SUV, we were able to load up (and I mean FULLY LOADED) 30 or more plastic tubs of uniform pants. Special acknowledgement to Tom Maslanka Jr for donating those hundreds of pants as well as 8-10 sets of catchers shin guards. We joked if some International team shows up in the LL Word Series wearing maroon shin guards (they were all maroon) we'll know where they got them from. Tom is the owner of Accent Promotions on Western Ave. Guilderland. After delivering our load to Frozen Ropes, John inspected all the pallets of equipment our league had donated, looked at me and commented, "I think we've done a good thing". I couldn't agree more. I'm glad we could forward a torch that Mike Hart ran the the initial relay leg on many years ago. Thanks to you as well Mike for starting the first league equipment drive years ago.
Once again thanks to all who without your generosity none of this would have been possible. It makes me proud to be a member of this league that has been such a huge part of my life these last 29 years. In speaking with Ted Poleto yesterday at the Matinee game yesterday, he commented that this is truly one of the finest Leagues in all of the MSBL. I concur. I am so blessed that I am healthy enough to be playing at my age and that thanks to this league there has always been an age appropriate league available for me. Thanks to John Reel and all the previous board members who have given so much and helped this league to grow to where it it is now. No one should take this for granted.
I wish our tournament teams well and a safe and healthy off season to all.
God Bless, CB Abrams CDMSBL/BOD
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Proverbs 3:5-6New King James Version (NKJV)
5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct[a] your paths.
www.copsforchristny.com
Chris approached me last fall, saying he'd like to set up another equipment collection drive, and asked for information about our last ones. I told him it would likely be a lot of work. It was, it is, but he and the others he named were determined and they pulled it off.
So, you, Chris, along with the folks at Frozen Ropes (Bill, Quentin & Brenda), Lex Herrlett, Tom Maslanka Jr, Chris' wife (and her SUV) and Mr. Reel (he's always there, isn't he?) in his pickup, have done us all proud.
The people at Roberto's Kids in Oneonta, Steve and Lisa Pindar and their volunteer helpers (in something like 20-plus states now and Canada, along with a number of major and minor league teams) who'll be collecting equipment, will ship it to poor kids in Latin America. One figure I found was that in 2012, Roberto's Kids distributed 45 tons (several ship containers worth) of equipment. Wowser!
Before this round, the Pindars collected equipment twice from us, in 2007 and 2009, I believe. Then, the men and women in our league, in each age division, were very generous, and we sent off a small truck full of stuff each time. From what I read, this drive has exceeded that. That's great.
If you'd like to see more about Roberto's Kids, you can go to their website, https://robertos-kids.org.
I like their mission statement, which is based, of course, on the humanitarian approach to life of Roberto Clemente, who died in a plane crash taking medical supplies to Nicaragua after an earthquake in 1972. The statement is simple and to my eye eloquent: " The mission of Robertos Kids is to teach social responsibility through baseball."
I echo all that Chris says about being proud to be a member of this league.
-Mike
-- Edited by mikehart on Friday 11th of October 2019 03:21:42 PM
