The first thing the New York Yankees did upon arriving in Blacksburg yesterday for an exhibition game with the Hokies was visit the memorial for last April’s Virginia Tech Massacre. Marcy Crevonis, a lifetime Yankee fan, left a Derek Jeter jersey shirt next to the memorial of her late fiance. Jeter agreed to take a picture with Crevonis next to the bust, but only if she smiled.

This wasn’t a publicity stunt by any means. The Yankees did everything they do on normal game days, including batting practice and infield. To the Virginia Tech team, the day was about learning and cherishing what baseball was all about. New York didn’t do anything out of the ordinary besides making Blacksburg their home for a day.

Alex Rodriguez has played in the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, All-Star Games and even an ALCS. But yesterday, A-Rod went on to say that the Hokie-Yankee game was the most important of his career. Rodriguez, who sat in the Hookies dugout while not at third base, literally became a member of the VaTech squad. He was just another one of the guys just chatting about baseball in the Hokie Nation.

The Yankees won the seven inning game 11-0, but none of that mattered. It was a day in which people in the Blacksburg community could come out and simply watch America’s pasttime just to enjoy it.

To me, any team could have gone to Blacksburg this spring to pay respect to the fallen. But the fact that such a high profile , high class team like the Yankees did it, speaks volumes. All in all, what the Yankees did yesterday was not just make an appearance, but leave an infinite memory on the Hokie players and community. They did what’s right.

My lasting impression of the massacre was live everyday of your life as if it were your last. I know this is told to you every once and a while, but it’s true. If you don’t live life like it’s your last day, you’re not living life at all.

I think the most special feeling came from Hokie manager Pete Hughes. The skipper said “I look at the Yankees differently after today, and I always will. I grew up my whole life hating the Yankees — I mean, just hating them — and I brought up my kids with that mentality. Now, I’ll look at them differently.”

Yesterday the Washington Nationals honored the victims of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech on Monday. They did so by wearing Virginia Tech hats during their home game against the Atlanta Braves. I feel that this is a fitting way for a baseball team to recognize what is happening just down the road from them.

The Nationals are the closest thing Virginia has to a Major League Baseball team, and for them to show their support like this probably meant a lot to the community. There is nothing that they can do to heal the hurt caused by the attack, but they can show their condolences and their support and that is exactly what they did. What I feel is the best part of this story is that Major League Baseball actually allowed them to do this. It shows that this is an organization that really cares about what is happening in the world outside of their sphere of influence. This stands in direct contrast to the National Football League which tries to prevent any sort of honors that are emblazoned on jerseys.

In the last week Major League Baseball has shown that they are a socially conscious organization and that things that are going on in the world do matter to them. They have a uniform policy, but they are willing to bend it to allow for appropriate tributes, and I think that’s a lesson that everyone should take to heart.

Is this about sports? Not in the slightest. I woke up this morning, a standard Monday morning, bitter about the fact that it was so early and I had to attend class (yes, 9:30 in the morning is early). My concerns about finals, class, and whatever else I have to do today are out the window. It’s one thing to experience a war during your lifetime, and it’s safe to say that most generations of Americans have experienced at least one. It’s a whole different thing when something happens like what happened today on the campus of Virginia Tech.

One man, one lonely man, is responsible for the worst school shooting in the history of the United States. 33 innocent people, who are college students just like the four of us here at Sportable, lost their lives this morning at the hands of what can only be described as cold blooded murder. It’s out of my realm to possibly imagine what may have spurred this, or why something so savage, so inhumane, so grossly disturbing would happen on a college campus. Read the rest of this entry »