New York Yankees: A Day To Remember

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 will go down in history as one of the most moving, proudest days in the history of baseball.

 After the April 16, 2007, shootings at Virginia Tech University, New York Yankees' owner, George Steinbrenner, donated $1 million to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund, and promised that during Spring Training 2008, the Yankees would play an exhibition game against the school's baseball team on a scheduled off day.

Eleven months and two days later, Steinbrenner fulfilled that promise when his team made their way onto the Blacksburg Campus.

The team gathered around a memorial in which there were 32 stones, one for each victim of the shootings, as they paid their respects to those innocent students. Manager Joe Girardi held back tears as he became overwhelmed as the realness of the tragedy set in.

 "It's just a real reminder of how precious life is and how fortunate we are to have our health and be able to do what we do," said the new skipper on this day where emotions ran wild.

The Bombers signed autographs for VT players and fans alike as 5,000 filled English Field. Members of the team came into contact with people who had been directly affected by last year's events.

There was even one occurence in which Yankees' captain, Derek Jeter, was approached by a young woman, a fan of his, whose fiancee had been one of last year's casualties. Derek took a photo with the woman in front of a monument that the school's student body had erected in honor of her deceased significant other.

"She did smile, so it's a good story," Jeter said later. He went on to compare the events to September 11, also stating that he didn't know exactly how this game helped, but that seeing these students smiling and enjoying themselves was definitely a positive.

On a very emotional, exhausting day, filled with tragic stories and heart-warming memories that will last a lifetime, Joe Girardi's words may have summed up the feelings of the team and students best:

 "What I take from it is you should give your best every day, because you never know about tomorrow. When you're trying to do something like winning a championship, this should move you to do whatever you can. You never know what will happen tomorrow."