Yankees HOPE Week (Helping Others Persevere & Excel Week) is an annual program run by the New York Yankees that celebrates "individuals, families, or organizations worthy of support". [1] Every Yankees player participates in the program with the "goal [of] personally connect[ing] with individuals in the settings of their greatest personal accomplishments." [2] It was started in 2009 "with the purpose of performing acts of goodwill to provide encouragement to more than just the recipient of the gesture." [3] It takes place every year in the summer.
HOPE Week was started in 2009. The Yankees said "this event is unique in that every player on the roster, along with Manager Joe Girardi, will participate." [4]
In 2009, the program, which ran from July 20–24, honored a United States Army veteran of the 82nd Airborne Division who lost use of his arms and legs to Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS). The veteran and his wife and son were invited to watch batting practice from the field before the game. They were surprised by a party in a suite in Yankee Stadium with several players and their friends and family. [5]
Several Yankees surprised two men who overcame learning and developmental diseases at their place of work at a law firm in New York, where they are mail room employees. [6] Other Yankees visited a sixth-grade Little Leaguer who has cerebral palsy but helps coach his team. [7] [8] After the July 24th game, the Yankees hosted a nighttime carnival for people from Camp Sundown, which is for those who have Xeroderma Pigmentosum, a rare disease in which the body cannot repair cells damaged by UV light; those affected have to avoid exposure to sunlight. [9] The kids arrived at the game after sundown, but because of a rain delay, the game had not started, so they saw the game and did the event with the Yankees until sunrise. [10]
The 2010 program ran from August 16–20. Manager Joe Girardi visited Jane Lang, a blind woman who attends about 30 Yankees game a season, at her home and invited her to meet the players at that evening's game. [11] [12] A man from Sierra Leone, who has provided for his family since he was eight, immigrated to the U.S., and received a scholarship to go to college threw out the ceremonial first pitch before a game, while a 13-year-old quadruple amputee was thrown a pool party with several Yankees. [13]
In 2011, the Yankees held a barbecue with children from Tuesday's Children, an organization that supports children who lost parents on September 11th. [14] Several Yankees (including Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and CC Sabathia) took survivors of the 2010 Haiti earthquake on a tour of New York City and met Archbishop Timothy Dolan. [15] Other Yankees went to a Broadway performance by a 27-year-old who survived five brain aneurysms. [16]
In 2021, 70 year old Gwen Goldman became Honorary Bat Girl for the New York Yankees during HOPE Week after the general manager learned about her rejection to play for the Yankees 60 years ago because she was a girl. [17] [18] [19]
Donald Arthur Mattingly is an American professional baseball coach, and former first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball (MLB). He is the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays of MLB. Nicknamed "The Hit Man" and "Donnie Baseball", he spent his entire 14-year MLB playing career with the New York Yankees and later managed the Los Angeles Dodgers for five years and the Miami Marlins for seven seasons.
Alexander Emmanuel Rodriguez, nicknamed "A-Rod", is an American former professional baseball shortstop and third baseman, businessman and philanthropist. Rodriguez played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners (1994–2000), Texas Rangers (2001–2003), and New York Yankees (2004–2016). Rodriguez is the chairman and chief executive officer of A-Rod Corp as well as the chairman of Presidente beer. He is part owner of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Minnesota Timberwolves.
Derek Sanderson Jeter is an American former professional baseball shortstop, businessman, and baseball executive. As a player, Jeter spent his entire 20-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2020; he received 396 of 397 possible votes (99.75%), the second-highest percentage in MLB history and the highest by a position player. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) and part owner of the league's Miami Marlins from September 2017 to February 2022.
Joseph Paul Torre is an American professional baseball executive, serving as a special assistant to the Commissioner of Baseball since 2020. He previously served in the capacity of Major League Baseball's (MLB) chief baseball officer from 2011 to 2020. A former player, manager and television color commentator, Torre ranks fifth all-time in MLB history with 2,326 wins as a manager. With 2,342 hits during his playing career, Torre is the only major leaguer to achieve both 2,000 hits as a player and 2,000 wins as a manager. From 1996 to 2007, he was the manager of the New York Yankees and guided the team to six American League (AL) pennants and four World Series championships.
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Ralph George Houk, nicknamed The Major, was an American catcher, coach, manager, and front office executive in Major League Baseball. He is best known as the successor of Casey Stengel as manager of the New York Yankees from 1961 to 1963, when his teams won three consecutive American League pennants and the 1961 and 1962 World Series championships. In 1961 he became the second rookie manager to win 100 games in a season and third rookie manager to win a World Series. He was the first manager to win World Series titles in his first two seasons and the first manager since Hughie Jennings to win three pennants in his first three seasons.
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Benjamin Edwin Paschal was an American baseball outfielder who played eight seasons in Major League Baseball from 1915 to 1929, mostly for the New York Yankees. After two "cup of coffee" stints with the Cleveland Indians in 1915 and the Boston Red Sox in 1920, Paschal spent most of his career as the fourth outfielder and right-handed pinch hitter of the Yankees' Murderers' Row championship teams of the late 1920s. Paschal is best known for hitting .360 in the 1925 season while standing in for Babe Ruth, who missed the first 40 games with a stomach ailment.
Damn Yankees is a 1958 American widescreen musical sports romantic comedy film. It was directed by George Abbott and Stanley Donen from a screenplay by Abbott, adapted from his and Douglass Wallop's book of the 1955 musical of the same name, itself based on the 1954 novel The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant by Wallop. The story line is a take on the Faust legend and centers on the New York Yankees and Washington Senators baseball teams. With the exception of Tab Hunter in the role of Joe Hardy, the Broadway principals reprise their stage roles, including Gwen Verdon as Lola.
Martin Owen Ruby was an offensive tackle and defensive tackle for the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers in the All-America Football Conference, New York Yanks of the National Football League, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. He lived in Waco, Texas, while he was a professional player.
The Mets–Yankees rivalry refers to the latest incarnation of the Subway Series, which is the interleague rivalry between New York City's Major League Baseball (MLB) teams: the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. The Mets are a member club of MLB's National League (NL) East division, and the Yankees are a member club of MLB's American League (AL) East division.
The 2008 New York Yankees season was the 106th season for the New York Yankees franchise. The Yankees hosted the 2008 All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday July 15, 2008. It was the 83rd and last season at the original Yankee Stadium prior to the team's move to a new ballpark just north of the current stadium. It also marked the first season since 1993 that the Yankees failed to make it to the playoffs. Also, it would also be the first under a new team skipper, former team catcher Joe Girardi, who assumed the managerial role in the offseason.
The 2009 New York Yankees season was the 107th season for the New York Yankees franchise. The Yankees opened their new Yankee Stadium on April 3, 2009, when they hosted an exhibition game against the Chicago Cubs. The new stadium hosted its first regular season game on April 16, when the team played against the Cleveland Indians and their first playoff game against the Minnesota Twins in the ALDS on October 7, 2009. The Yankees swept the Twins in three games to win the divisional series. They won their 40th American League pennant on October 25, defeating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 6 games to advance to the World Series, where they defeated the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies in six games to win their 27th World Series title on November 4. The Yankees finished the regular season with 103 wins and 59 losses. To date, this is the most recent season the Yankees won the World Series, as well as the last season they won the AL Pennant.
Eduardo Michelle Núñez Méndez is a Dominican former professional baseball infielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Minnesota Twins, San Francisco Giants, Boston Red Sox, and the New York Mets. He also played for the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) for one year. Although shortstop is his primary position, Núñez serves as a utility infielder, and played in the outfield for the Yankees as well.
The 2011 New York Yankees season was the 109th season for the New York Yankees franchise. The Yankees began the season at home against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, March 31. The Yankees clinched a playoff berth in the first game of a doubleheader on September 21, and clinched the AL East division title in the second game. The Yankees season ended on October 6 when they lost a deciding Game 5 of the 2011 American League Division Series to the Detroit Tigers 3–2. It was the first time since 2007 that the Yankees lost an elimination game at home.
Since 1976, the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) have maintained a strict appearance policy, specifying that players' hair must not touch their collars and that they may have mustaches but no other facial hair. The policy came from then-franchise owner George Steinbrenner, who believed that regulating his players' appearance would instill a sense of discipline. Steinbrenner began noting which players he believed needed haircuts when he took over the Yankees in 1973, but the policy was not codified until three years later. Steinbrenner's policy remains in place after his death, and has led to a number of dramatic appearance changes for players who come to the Yankees from other teams, such as Oscar Gamble, as well as pushback from players who prefer long hair and beards. In 1991, Don Mattingly was taken out of the Yankees' lineup for a day when he refused to cut his hair.
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