Going to Bat with State Farm & Cal Ripkin, Jr. for the Boys and Girls Club

I have picked up a baseball bat a grand total of four times in my life.  So you can imagine the immense talent I possess. Picture it with me just for a second.  Yes, I know…. Epic embarrassment. You are about to see video evidence to support this in just a moment.  And?  Said video just happens to include pitches and coaching from one of the greatest in the game: Cal Ripkin, Jr.  To his credit, he refrained from telling me that my 5 year old son was more talented at bat than I am. (he would have been correct, but I digress)

The truth is…  my lack of talent notwithstanding… I had FUN…. and even more to the point, each swing of my bat was accomplishing something good.  Watch and I’ll explain….

 

This past week, my family and I were in Phoenix with State Farm for the Home Run Derby and the kick off of the Go To Bat Program – which combines the tremendous batting talent of people like me  (don’t judge) with the Big League-rs during the Derby…. all to benefit the Boys and Girls Club, on both a local and national level. I have another post coming on the entire experience – which included the efforts of Cal Ripkin, Jr, Mandy Moore – and, of course, the Major League Power during the Derby itself.

For each Home Run during the Derby, State Farm and Major League Baseball donated $3000.  For every Home Run hit after the ‘golden ball’ – which is after each of the eight batters reached their 9th out… State Farm and MLB donated $18,000….  95 Home Runs and 11 Golden Ball HR’s combined for a $450,000 donation…. and that wasn’t all.  Each Major League batter was paired with a child from a local Boys and Girls Club Chapter….  the child paired with the Derby winner – in this case, New York Yankee, Robinson Cano, would see a donation of $50,000 to their chapter with each other chapter receiving $10,000.

State Farm and MLB raised $603,000 total for Go To Bat Charities on the day of the Home Run Derby.

And because I KNOW you like to help your favorite charity and you are ALREADY online….  you can get a piece of the Go To Bat action – playing a version of the Home Run Derby and helping the cause of your choice to get to a ‘better state’.  It is simple….  you choose one of more than 40 participating charities, you ‘Go To Bat’ for them….  (hopefully your swing is superior to mine), the better your score, the better your charity will do.  Oh… and did I mention you have a chance to go to the 2011 World Series?  Well, you do.

Get there now.

I was in Phoenix on behalf of State Farm to cover the Home Run Derby and the Go To Bat initiative. Though my trip was covered by State Farm, the opinions and experiences shared in this post are mine alone.