Last year we decided to use the popularity of RAB for some good, creating a pledge drive dedicated to raising money for The Jorge Posada Foundation. We based the pledges on the number of strikeouts recorded by The Big Three of Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy, and even though things didn’t go according to plan we still raised $1050 for Posada’s cause.

The pledge drive was so successful last year that we’re going to do it again this year, except we’re going to change things up a bit. Instead of strikeouts from young pitchers, we’re going with offense baby. Basically what we want to do is have you guys, the readers, pledge some amount of money for every run the Yankees score this year. SG’s projection blowout has the Yanks scoring somewhere around 850 runs this year, so if you pledge $0.03 per run, that’s just a $25.50 donation on your part. I know we’re in a pretty brutal recession, but any pledge is welcome, even if we’re talking just one penny per run.

All donations with year will benefit Joe Torre’s Safe At Home Foundation, which is dedicated to “educating to end the cycle of domestic violence and save lives”. You can learn all about the Foundation at it’s website, and you can also watch a message from Torre explaining why he started Safe At Home by clicking here. No child should ever have to be in fear at their home, and we hope you’ll help us support Joe in his fight against domestic violence.

Last year we collected the donations at the end of the year via PayPal,  personal check or money order, and we’ll do the same thing this year. That’s something to worry about at the end of the season though. If you wish to pledge – and we hope you do – just send an email to me at mike (at) riveraveblues (dot) com, letting me know how much you wish to pledge. Please put something like “Pledge Drive” in the subject line to make the admin work easier.

Thank you in advance, and let’s go Yankees!

Back in March we announced our plans to run a pledge drive during the season to benefit The Jorge Posada Foundation. RAB was growing at an exciting rate, so we decided to take advantage of the increased popularity and do something for the good of mankind.

The terms of the pledge drive were simple: For every strikeout Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy recorded during the season, readers would donate some fixed amount of money to Jorge’s foundation. Most pledged $0.05 per strikeout like I recommended, but others pledged more, including a kind few who pledged $0.50 or even $1.00 per strikeout. All told we received twenty-three pledges, not including the three of us.

The problem was that The Big Three didn’t exactly cooperate with our noble cause. All three pitchers spent time on a disabled list, plus Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy pitched their way out of the bigs by May. At the end of the season, the three combined for just 168 strikeouts at the big league level, 118 of which belong to Joba. Thankfully, just about everyone agreed to boost the strikeout total by counting Hughes’ & Kennedy’s strikeouts from the minor leagues and winter ball towards their pledge. That boosted the K total up to 357.

I collected everyone’s pledgess over the past few weeks, and last night I made the donation to the foundation. When it was all said and done, the total donation made to The Jorge Posada Foundation was $1,050 (I rounded my pledge up to make it nice even number). Despite the holidays and the struggling economy, most people donated more than their pledge called for, and we are grateful. To see a screen cap of the confirmation page, click here. I did add a note saying “Donated by the readers of River Ave. Blues, a full service Yankees fan site,” but apparently that doesn’t get noted on the confo page.

Thank you again to everyone who pledged their hard earned money to this cause, and thanks also the many other bloggers who linked to RAB to spread the word about our efforts. We greatly appreciate all of your guys’ support.

If you missed out on the pledge drive but are interested in making a donation, visit The Jorge Posada Foundation website.

At the outset of the season we announced our plan to raise money for The Jorge Posada Foundation with The Big Three K’s Craniosynostosis Pledge Drive, where readers pledge a certain amount of money for each strikeout recorded by Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Ian Kennedy. The response we received was better than I expected: 24 pledges totaling $4.94 per strikeout.

Even though The Big Three haven’t performed as well as we hoped, they’ve still helped us raise $266.49. We’re on pace to pull in over $980 over the course of the season, and obviously we all hope Phil, Joba & IPK right their respective ships and make that number even bigger.

If you haven’t already pledged, please consider doing so. We’re very flexible about this and can start your pledge today, retroactive to the start of the season, any time really. You set the terms and everyone wins. Whether you think the Yanks should traded for Santana or not, we can all agree that this is for a good cause. Shoot me a line at mike (at) riveraveblues (dot) com, stick Pledge Drive in the subject line, and we’ll get you all set up.

The three of us here at RAB try our best to make the site as fun and informative as possible, and judging by how popular it’s become, it’s safe to say that we’ve done a pretty good job. Usually we take that popularity and use it to rub our egos while wallowing in our own self-righteousness, but it’s about time we did something constructive with it.

Craniosynostosis is a birth defect characterized by the premature closure of sutures in an infant’s head, which causes an abnormally shaped skull and in severe cases, places excessive and damaging amounts of pressure on a growing child’s brain. One in every 2,000 children are affected, with males being affected three times more than females. Jorge Jr., son of Yankee great Jorge Posada, was diagnosed with craniosynostosis when he was just ten days old, and has since undergone five surgeries to the correct the condition.

The Jorge Posada Foundation was launched in 2000 with the goal of providing emotional and financial support to families with children affected by craniosynostosis, as well as to provide funding for research and create further awareness of the condition. Since it’s inception, The Jorge Posada Foundation has raised millions of dollars and provided immeasurable support to those in need, but there’s still so much more that can be done. And that’s where we come in.

This season we’re going to hold a pledge drive where readers of RAB agree to donate an amount of money (set by them) for each strikeout recorded by The Big Three. At the end of the year we’ll collect the pledges and donate all of the money to The Jorge Posada Foundation in the name of “The Readers of River Ave. Blues.” So say that Hughes, Joba and IPK combine to rack up 500 strikeouts on the season, and a reader agrees to donate five cents per strikeout, then 500 K x $0.05 = a $25 donation. That’s it, piece of cake. Any denomination is welcome, and all donations are fully tax deductible.

If you’re interested in pledging, shoot me a line at mike (at) riveraveblues (dot) com. Please put “Pledge Drive” or something to that effect in the subject line, and be sure to provide an email address that I’ll be able to contact you at for the forseeable future. I’ll keep track of the pledges throughout the season, and contact everyone when the time comes. PayPal transfers seem to work best, but we’ll also accept donations in the form of money order or personal check. Until we get a better system figured out we’re going to have to do this on the honor system, so please, serious pledges only.

Eventually we’ll get a permanent link up on the site somewhere where you can read about what we’re doing whenever you please. We’re not going to have any strict limitations on this, so if you get the urge to pledge in August for the rest of the season, that’s fine. If you want to pledge but not have your contribution exceed a set amount, that’s fine too. We’ll get it to work so that everyone wins. The more pledges the merrier, and this gives all of us another reason to root hard for The Big Three.

Jorge’s been there for the Yankees and their fans since 1995, so it’s time to be there for him. Come join us in fighting this terrible condition, and if nothing else, do it for Jorge Jr.