As for myself, I count myself lucky to know quite a few veterans from wars spanning across the 20th and 21st century (WWII, Vietnam, Korean, Desert Storm, and whatever you want to call the current war).  I grew up listening to one of my dad’s best friends, Tom, tell his stories from Vietnam.   Every time we would go over and visit he would tell my brother and me about a different time he was under attack, or where he drove his tank, or how he received different medals.  He would show us his old uniforms and photographs from a time and place that many veterans would rather not talk about.  Listening to Tom (and my grandfathers and friends I graduated with), I gained a greater respect for those men and women that defend our country. 

This month’s Indians in the Community event was very special to me because I had the opportunity to go to the USO care packaging facility in North Canton along with my fellow co-workers and help take care of the soldiers currently in active duty.  We had a few different jobs when we were there including: rearranging the assembly line to make for easier packaging, counting and sorting DVD’s that will be put into care packages, bagging over 2,000 bags of hand sanitizer and soaps as well as boxing up over 100 care packages that will be sent out to soldiers serving overseas who are from the Northern Ohio area. 

I can usually talk my way through anything but, while my blog writing skills are just amazing beyond belief, I’ve decided its time to introduce a new way for the Cleveland Indians to talk about their off the field accomplishments.  Below is a link to a quick video of our time at the USO facility, including a few interviews with volunteers and the USO project manager, Jeannie Soley.  With film being a visual medium, I hope these videos we produce help shed a little more light on what the Indians do to positively impact the Cleveland community as well as create a stronger connection to our fans. 

Thanks to Dan Mendlik for putting the video together!  Indians in the Community–USO

This year hasn’t been any different. In fact, one particular story stands out to me this week.  It all began when one of the campers, Dennis Barriball, tried to catch a pop fly during a game on the second day of the tournament.  In what appears to be a random freak accident, as Dennis was catching the ball his achilles decided it didn’t want to stay intact anymore.  Dennis fell like a shanty in a snowstorm and, after being checked out by our trainers, was diagnosed with a blown out achilles.

For most people, this would be the end of Fantasy Camp.  The inability to walk makes it tough to play any baseball games.  Dennis thought differently and decided the next day that he could at least bat for his team (in Fantasy Camp they allow pinch runners to start at homeplate and run to first as soon as the ball is hit).

Rumors of his stupidity heroics made it to the major league side of the complex where Cleveland Indians pitcher Vinnie Pestano tweeted about it.  Here at the Indians, we like to Connect our fans to the players so we asked Vinnie if he cared to meet Dennis.  Without hesitation, Vinnie said he would love to and the rest is history. 

Many other great stories happened this week, but this was the one that sticks out the most.  An average guy comes to Arizona to live out his fantasy of playing baseball just like the pros.  He gets to be managed and taught by former players that he grew up idolizing.  He gets to use the same facilities that the current Tribe players use and if this isn’t enough, he not only ends up catching the attention of pro ball players, but he gets to meet them too!  If that isn’t Creating memories and Connecting generations, I don’t know what is!

Thank you to Vinnie for being a stand up guy and to Dennis Barriball for, well, just being a guy who can stand up on a blown achillies!

I hope you picked up on the sarcasm because I was laying it on pretty thick.  Are you kidding me? I love this!  Cleveland Indians Fantasy Camp is going on this week down in Goodyear, Arizona and so far it is a blast!  The camp is open to anyone (male or female) ages 30 years old and up.  You can be 85 and still participate if you are able to!  People come from all over the country to take part in this camp and basically live the life of a major league ball player (minus the ginormous salary, of course).  The campers get to stay at a 5-star hotel, have breakfast and lunch at the Indians complex, be drafted onto teams which are managed by former Indians players, play in a tournament style set of games and have a championship game in the main ballpark.

The most important part about this camp is that all of the money raised here goes to Cleveland Indians Charities (CIC).  Every night there is always a Kangaroo Kourt, where our judge and former Indians pitcher, Gary Bell, will fine the campers for doing things incorrectly or just downright stupid.  Any money raised from the fines also goes to Cleveland Indians Charities.  You should actually  want to get fined because you know your money is going to a good cause.

So that is where I’m at this week celebrating my 5 year anniversary at this ball club.  I may post one or two more updates on the week for my die-hard fans out there–which I’m calling the Sherman Screwballs.  I will at least keep you posted on who wins the championship and how much money we end up raising.  As always, thanks to Dan Mendlik for the picture (and future pictures from this week).

Anyway, I’m back now and that is all that matters, really. 

I’m here to share with you the Indians first Indians in the Community of 2012.  Once again we kick started our year of volunteering at the St. Augustine Hunger Center in Cleveland.  We had about 14 members of the Indians Front Office help prepare and serve lunch on January 11.  We did anything from peeling potatoes, to cutting up peppers and onions, to re-stocking their food pantry.  We then worked on the buffet line and served the customers their lunch.  The meal was a pretty square meal including Italian sausage in cooked vegetables, mashed potatoes, salad, green beans, beef soup, bread, and a nice little piece of cake for dessert. 

It was great to share some laughs with the customers of the Hunger Center and some of us even shared some tears–not with the people but more so with the onions as we cut them up (pause for laughter)!   

The Hunger Center opened it’s doors over 30 years ago and is part of the St. Augustine Church.  For those that are wondering, the Hunger Center does not only provide meals, but also addresses other needs of the poor and the homeless such as: food, clothing, emergency funding for rent and utilities, furniture, appliances as well as advocating for those poor seeking medical help.

They are always accepting of donations and, from our experience there, are in definite need of potato peelers, napkins, and plastic silverware to name a few things!

Thank you to all employees who volunteered as well as Dan Mendlik for taking the photos.

I used to wish that I would be a famous TV star.  And, while I never wanted to be on the TV show “Blossom,” I will admit that I may have wished a time or two to be Joey Lawrence.  He  was so cool!  As awesome as he was, I am pretty glad that wish never came true because, other than a great song or two (my blog title is a lyric from one of Joey’s songs), his career and stardom has pretty much shot straight downhill since “Blossom” ended.  I recommend not making a wish on that falling star.

There are some great wishes that are worth making realities.  This past Sunday the Cleveland Indians and the great people at Make A wish and Macy’s helped inspire some kids to dream big.  The immensely popular Macy’s Santa Claus made his first public stop to Cleveland (normally when he delivers presents on Christmas Eve it is more of a secret event).  As part of his stop, he was able to swing by Progressive Field where he met up with Cleveland Indians players Travis Hafner and Josh Judy to hold a private meet and greet with some Make A Wish families at Indians Snow Days. 

The Make A Wish families and Tribe players welcomed Santa and two of his elves (Jingle Bell and Nutmeg) to Progressive Field and had the opportunity to hang out with him, get some autographs and a few photos. They even got to enjoy the Frozen Mile and The Batterhorn (two main features at Indians Snow Days) with Santa before he had to make his way to Macy’s store at Great Northern Mall. For a visual recap, check out the video link below. Special thanks to Amy Michelson and Dan Mendlik for putting the video together.

http://pressbox.mlb.com/pressbox/multimedia/?itemId=20023377

I don’t know why people use the starving kids in Africa as an excuse to not waste food.  What about the starving kids in Canada?   Or even closer…Cleveland, Ohio?!  Does it make us feel better to pretend that only other countries/continents have hunger issues?  A little local fact:  Cleveland Foodbank helped provide over 30 million meals to families in need around the Greater Cleveland area this past year.  As great as that sounds, the need is for 50 million meals!

The Cleveland Indians front office did a fraction of their part this week as part of their “Week of Caring.”  On November

photo courtesy of Dan Mendlik

16, they held their annual food drive outside of Progressive Field.  With a huge help from Progressive Insurance, they were able to collect enough food for close to 7,500 meals!  We even had about 15 Progressive IRV’s stop by the ballpark to drop off over 155 boxes of food.

photo courtesy of Dan Mendlik

The next portion of our “Week of Caring” involved our front office employees swinging by the Cleveland Foodbank to help sort, package, and fix up some meals on the morning of November 18.  Partnering in the community once again were our friends at Progressive Insurance, who took over the afternoon shift after the Indians employees finished the morning shift. 

Our final day of the “Week of Caring” ends with a Thanksgiving Dinner served by members of the Indians executive staff, including Mark Shapiro, Paul Dolan, Chris Antonetti, and many more!  Five local charities were invited to bring 75 people each to attend the dinner at no cost to them.  Delaware North Companies (the food partner with the Cleveland Indians) prepared and donated the food.  The dinner takes place on Sunday, November 20 and is intended to provide a hearty Thanksgiving dinner for those families that may not have been able to afford one.

After numerous rejections, I finally decided to re-create my resume.  The fact that I was still showing that I lettered in Cross Country and Track in high school, or that I was a medical marvel when it came to academics really didn’t wow any potential employers.  I needed to create a resume that would make those employers think that I knew what I was doing and that it related to what position I was applying for.  “Buzz words” were no longer deemed stupid and a waste of time.  These words helped twist simple job experience tasks into a sophisticated work of resume art.  Drove a van for Amish workers?  Try: Transportation Specialist for Constructional Engineers.  Picked up horse manure?  I prefer: Gathered and disposed of trusty steed remnants.  See how that makes the task seem much more important?  By the way, I grew up in and around Amish Country for those wondering about these odd jobs.  And no, I’m not sure who decided to hire me at the Indians based on my past job experience.

Anyway,  a resume is a very important piece of getting hired for a job.  The past two days, members of the Cleveland Indians front office have been volunteering their time at Glenville High School teaching students how to create their resumes.  Partnering with Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.), the volunteers  work with the students on building successful resumes as well as fielding any questions they may have about the job market.  Y.O.U. provides a resume building software that the students use, saves the resumes on their main server so they can be updated at any time, and presents the students with 10 copies each of their new professional resumes!

Youth Opportunities Unlimited’s mission is to empower youth–disadvantaged youth born into poverty–to succeed in school, in the workplace, and in life.  For more information, visit www.youthopportunities.org

Back to the story at hand…

Chris Perez, an All-Star closer, gave a pitching lesson to a lucky fan who won the lesson from a silent auction.  The auction was part of the annual Indians Wives Association’s Tribe Treasures auction held here at Progressive Field during the season.  The well-informed lot of you who always read my blog will remember the Wives auction as the same place the Justin Masterson head shaving item was sold at.  Chris Perez’s wife auctioned off the opportunity to have Chris teach a 30 minute pitching lesson!

The money raised went to charity (split between Cleveland Indians Charities, Beech Brook and Providence House) and, while I normally try to post pictures, I’m going to attempt to throw a video link up here.   The video was created by our team photographer, Dan Mendlik, and has Chris Perez talking about trying to teach the winner how to throw a curveball (the reasoning behind the first quote of this entry…it’s not funny if I have to explain all of my jokes).  Enjoy! 

Chris Perez Pitching Lesson

It was probably the funniest thing I had ever witnessed while people watching.  She was just standing in line with the big drumstick, gnawing on it like a lion gnaws on a baby gazelle.  Can you picture that?  She didn’t care that the sauce from the giant drumstick was smeared all over her face because she was on vacation and she was enjoying herself.  Standing next to her in line, I felt like my arteries were getting clogged!  To me, that was a whole lot of chicken…

The Cleveland Indians recently partnered with Tyson Foods and Lift Up America for a food drive. Tyson Foods donated over 31,000 pounds of meat (mostly chicken) to help feed local food agencies.  With help from The Cleveland Food Bank, 28 food agencies swung by Progressive Field and picked up their portion of meat.  Prior to the pick up, a press conference was held on Gateway Plaza to announce the news.  Volunteers from the Baldwin-Wallace football team, Cleveland Metro School District as well as Indians outfielder Trevor Crowe, Pitcher Josh Tomlin and 2nd baseman Cord Phelps were on hand to help load the trucks with food.

Josh Tomlin and Cord Phelps help load donated protein into truck

31,000 pounds…now THAT is a whole lot of chicken!

The Indians in partnership with Business Volunteers Unlimited continued the Indians Volunteer Challenge during the 2011 season. The Challenge is an opportunity for area families, citizens and baseball fans to give back to their communities and receive Tribe game tickets. To make life even more exciting (and to back up our reasoning for calling it a volunteer “challenge”), we thought we would reward the person with the most volunteer hours logged the opportunity to throw out a first pitch before an Indians home game. 

We actually had two winners this year.  Richard Schapel of Parma and Brian Dietrich of Avon each logged over 160 hours of community service and were named the Cleveland Indians Volunteers of the Year. They were honored during a pregame presentation last night and Richard Schapel threw out the ceremonial first pitch.  I’m sure we’ll have the challenge next year, so keep an eye out on Indians.com for how to sign up!