Finally Making Good on My Promise

Back around last year’s MLB trade deadline, I wrote this post all but denouncing the Cubs for making what I believed to be a terrible trade. I thought that the integrity of the team was compromised for very little discernible benefit and expressed my disdain for the “win by any means necessary” attitude that seemed contradictory to their public statements before or since.

In that post I made a promise.  I said that I would donate money to a charity that supported and assisted abused women.  For each save Aroldis Chapman would earn for the Cubs, I would donate $25.  For any post-season save, those would be $50.

I tried to do some research and found what I hope is a reputable organization.  I decided my donation would go to Connections for Abused Women and Children – http://www.cawc.org/donate/

Overall, since joining the team, he accumulated 16 regular season saves.  At $25 each = $400.

Then you have 4 post season saves – $50 each = $200

I decided that I would also throw in an extra $150 for the joy I felt when he blew that save in game 7.  My biggest fear with him joining the team was that he would earn the final out of the World Series and forever be memorialized and be deemed a Chicago hero by many.  Mike Montgomery came in and induced the ground ball and your normal Cubs poster boys of Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo essentially share that moment that will be replayed for the rest of our days.

So, that totals $750.  Not a large sum of money in the grand scheme of things, but I hope it does help.

I devoted a portion of that original post to the idea that character matters.  The rest of the Cubs seemed like they had a very palpable chemistry and were well-liked, and vocal and active in their communities with charity and helping people.  They’ve been great teammates to each other.

I’ve realized that I haven’t been a very good “teammate” in the worldly sense.  I tend to be very selfish and self-serving in my actions.  I want to change that.  We’re in this country together.  It’s not enough to just bitch and moan about things that are going wrong.  Since I have the capacity to try to make a little bit of a difference, then perhaps its time I do that.

So, in an effort to be a better teammate to those around me, I’m going to try to do a monthly charity donation.  This is the first one (months too late, but at least it did finally happen) and I want to try to touch various aspects of society in future installments.  I’ll keep you posted on this journey and if you want to join me on any given month, please let me know before or after.  Maybe we can start a nice little charity team.