my celebrity pals around the country to join us at a baseball game if we could work out some scheduling issues. I also have a rolodex full of media friends, contacts and hosts who would help support our cause as our caravan pulled into each city.
More importantly than the swabbing stations in stadiums – we could only swab a limited amount of people – was the ability to tell the story of the bone marrow registry and how it saved my wife’s life. We considered it a “National Awareness Campaign” more than a baseball tour.
I started the process of reaching to some teams as early as November and was diligent about trying to find every executive I knew or might know, every community relations person and public relations and media director at every MLB team.
Along the way, I enlisted the help of a bevy of old friends and foes.
No one was more helpful, sincere or kind than former Orioles president Joe Foss, who is a wonderful man.
As you can imagine, it was a mixed bag of responses and questions and inquires once the MLB teams got involved. Some were warm and receptive. Others were simply dreadful to deal with at every level.
So, over the next two days I’ll be writing about beer and hot dogs. I’ll be examining stadiums and ballparks. I’ll be making some notes and comments about baseball franchises, merchandising, marketing and the business of baseball. I pay attention to that stuff because the lousy, miserly, miserable state of the baseball team in Baltimore has greatly affected my ability to feed my family over the years.
I’ll be writing about saving lives. I’ll be writing about being a lifer baseball fan, a world traveler and a constant curiosity seeker in a world of airports, hotels, rental cars and stadiums.
As expected, the 30-30 MLB #GiveASpit tour enriched my life experience. It was a “once in a lifetime” opportunity.
Many people asked me to document my journey so for those of you who are interested and have enjoyed my books on the Ravens and baseball, here it is…
Many people – friends, relatives, celebrities, listeners, fans, friends, followers – all said the same thing when Jenn was recovering: “What can we do to help? Just ask…”
Well, we asked a lot of virtually everyone in our lives as the 30-30 MLB #GiveASpit tour unfolded and it was truly one of the coolest summers of my life.
We have amazing friends and an extended family of caring folks in our lives. The tour really drove that point home in every city where we were joined by loved ones.
I’ll be chronicling my adventures and observations over the next two days. It took 46 years to wait, nine months to plan and 30 days to enact. I learned a lot. I saw a lot. I had a lot of fun, and hopefully, in time, it’ll turn into saving a lot of lives.
I hope you continue reading about our journey and our cause.
The pictures we shared on social media earlier in the summer were only part of the tale.
As Paul Harvey would say, this is the rest of the story…
LATER THIS WEEK:
PART TWO of the #GiveASpit journey will be released here at WNST.net.
