Results tagged ‘ Chris Dickerson ’
Former Yank Dickerson hurts old club
The streak of the Yankees winning games in which they score first came to an end Tuesday night because the Orioles scored last. Nate McLouth’s home run off a 1-1 pitch from Vidal Nuno, the Yankees’ sixth pitcher of the game, was the difference in a 3-2, 10-inning decision. The Yanks had been 19-0 in games when they got on the scoreboard first, which they did again Tuesday night but this time they couldn’t pull it off.
For the second straight night, a Yankees starting pitcher gave up two leads. Monday night it was CC Sabathia in a game the Yanks won also in 10 innings. Tuesday night it was Phil Hughes, once again haunted by the long ball. The culprit was former teammate Chris Dickerson, who touched Hughes for solo blasts in the third inning (climaxing a 10-pitch at-bat) that made the score 1-1 and in the fifth that made it 2-2.
Dickerson hit only three home runs in 64 at-bats for the Yankees in short stretches with the club in 2011 and 2012. He played center field Tuesday night to give Adam Jones a half-night off as the designated hitter and had a 3-for-4 game to raise his 2013 batting average to .371 with three homers and eight RBI.
If not for Dickerson, it would have been a splendid start for Hughes, who was coming off an embarrassing, two-thirds of an inning outing last week against Seattle at Yankee Stadium in which he was clocked for seven earned runs and six hits. The righthander rebounded with a solid, six-inning effort in which he yielded five hits with two walks and five strikeouts. Hughes could not get Dickerson out, which cost him. Phil has given up 10 home runs in 47 1/3 innings.
Travis Hafner drove in both runs for the Yankees with singles that scored teammates who had led off innings with doubles, Brett Gardner in the first and Vernon Wells in the fourth. Orioles starter Miguel Gonzalez proved nearly untouchable after Hafner’s second run-scoring hit as the righthander retired 11 straight batters until David Adams singled with two down in the seventh. Nick Markakis’ diving catch of a liner to right-center by Jayson Nix ended the inning.
Adams was the Yankees’ only base runner after the fourth inning as the Orioles set down 21 of the Yankees’ last 22 batters. Tommy Hunter pitched two scoreless innings for Baltimore, and Jim Johnson added a shutout 10th. Johnson, who had blown his three previous save opportunities, including Monday night, ended up the winning pitcher.
The Yanks’ bullpen was strong, too. Boone Logan, Shawn Kelley, David Robertson and Preston Claiborne followed Hughes with three scoreless innings combined to stretch the pen’s shutout streak on the road to 29 2/3 innings over the past 11 away games, which ended in the 10th. Robertson was particularly impressive by striking out the side in the eighth.
Nuno, the lefthander who won his first major-league start eight days earlier, was recalled from Triple A Scranton to sub for the disabled Andy Pettitte in the rotation, lost his scheduled start to Sunday’s rainout and was plenty fresh to come out of the bullpen. He probably still is. After all, he threw merely three pitches.
CC & fellow lefties make things right in Minnesota
Yankees fans can stop worrying about CC Sabathia. There were times this season that concern was raised about the lefthander, especially when elbow issues placed him on the disabled list twice. Sabathia is peaking at the right time, however, as the Yankees close in on qualifying for a playoff berth.
Sabathia had his second straight eight-inning start Wednesday at Minneapolis as the Yankees rebounded from a hard loss the night before for an 8-2 victory. It was CC’s first winning decision in six starts since Aug. 24. His fastball rarely got above 91 miles per hour, but his hard-breaking slider was a huge weapon. Go ask Joe Mauer, who struck out three times on nine pitches and also grounded out in four at-bats against Sabathia.
Over his past two starts, Sabathia has pitched 16 innings and allowed two earned runs (1.13 ERA) and nine hits with three walks and 21 strikeouts. That is the performance line of an ace, which the Yankees need CC to be.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi stacked up a mostly left-handed lineup against Twins starter Samuel Deduno, a righthander, only to see lefthander Brian Duensing enter the game in the second when Deduno had to be pulled because of left eye irritation. It mattered little to the Yanks’ lefty batters. They clobbered Duenisng for five hits and six runs in the third inning.
Of the Yankees’ 11 hits in the game, nine were by left-handed batters – two apiece by Robinson Cano (two RBI), Raul Ibanez (one run), Chris Dickerson (home run, two RBI) and Ichiro Suzuki (10-game hitting streak) and one by Curtis Granderson (two-run triple). The right-handed hits were by switch hitter Nick Swisher batting righty against Duensing and Chris Stewart. Derek Jeter took a 0-for-4 collar and had his 19-game hitting streak halted, but he walked and scored in the six-run third.
Another left-handed batter, Brett Gardner, returned to the field for the first time since April 17 after coming back from left wrist surgery. He played left field in the ninth inning but did not bat.
It was an important bounce-back victory for the Yankees, who moved two games ahead of the Orioles in the American League East standings. Baltimore was home Wednesday night against the Blue Jays, who will return to Toronto to open a four-game set against the Yankees Thursday night.
Wednesday’s victory was the Yankees’ 90th of the season. It marks the 60th season that they have won that many games. The team with the next highest 90-victory seasons is San Francisco with 41. The Giants, who have won 89 games and are shooting for their 42nd 90-victory season, as a franchise are 18 years older than the Yankees.
Umpire’s blown call stalls Yankees’ comeback
You did not need a high-definition television to see that the Yankees got jobbed Saturday night at Baltimore in a game that could have repercussions down the line. The call by first base umpire Jerry Meals that completed a game-ending double play that hung the Yankees with a 5-4 defeat was so blatantly wrong that it would turn a baseball purist into an avid campaigner for instant replay.
Trailing by two runs entering the ninth inning, the Yankees staged a rally against Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who has had a lights-out season. Ichiro Suzuki and Eric Chavez both singled to left field, and Derek Jeter dumped a beauty of a bunt toward a hesitating Manny Machado, the Birds’ rookie third baseman, that filled the bases with none out.
Nick Swisher, mired in a 0-for-24 slump, grounded into a fielder’s choice but averted a double play as Ichiro scored to make it a one-run game and pinch runner Chris Dickerson moved up to third base.
That brought up Mark Teixeira, who returned to duty after missing 10 games because of a left calf strain (the Yankees were 4-6 in those games). He doubled in his first at-bat and ran at less than full strength throughout the game. A double play was certainly feared if he hit the ball on the ground, which he did to the second baseman, Robert Andino.
But Tex ran full throttle down the line and dived head-first into first base, a maneuver usually frowned on but in this case understandable considering the circumstances and the health of the runner. With the naked eye, Teixeira appeared safe, but Meals rung him up. DP. Game over.
Replays clearly showed that Teixeira’s left hand was on the bag before first baseman Mark Reynolds caught the relay from shortstop J.J. Hardy. Teixeira, already hot from the previous inning on a called third strike by plate umpire Cory Blaser, was furious with Meals’ call, as was first base coach Mick Kelleher, not a regular griper.
Michael Kay on YES overstated the situation by saying the call “cost the Yankees a game.” Well, no. Had Teixeira been ruled safe, which he should have been, Dickerson would have scored, but that would have only tied the game. The Yankees would have had two outs and a runner on first with Alex Rodriguez at the plate, a good situation but no guarantee that they were going to take the lead.
Nevertheless, it was a lousy way for a game to end.
The Yankees were counting on an ace-like performance from CC Sabathia to create distance between them and the Orioles in the American League East standings. The lefthander had the same problem other Yankees pitchers have had against Baltimore, however, in failing to defuse its power.
The Orioles slugged three home runs off Sabathia, who has now yielded 21 dingers, the most he has allowed in any one season. For the third straight start, Sabathia was unable to hold a lead. He was given a 1-0 lead before he took the mound on a Rodriguez sacrifice fly in the top of the first and was up, 2-0, courtesy of an RBI double by Ichiro in the second.
Just as quickly, the edge was gone as Sabathia allowed back-to-back home runs by Reynolds and Lew Ford in the bottom of the second. It was Reynolds’ seventh home run in his past six games against the Yankees. The Orioles took the lead for good on a double by Hardy in the third. Hardy also took CC deep in the sixth, and Ford struck again with an RBI single.
Camden Yards was something of a comfort zone in his career. Entering this season, CC was 10-1 with a 2.73 ERA in 85 2/3 innings there. This season has been a different story. In three starts at the Yards this year, he is 0-2 with a 6.38 ERA. Sabathia did not have his best fastball and hung some sliders in his uneven outing.
One fastball was definitely powerful, the one that struck Nick Markakis in the fifth inning and broke his left hand, which will finish him for the regular season, a major blow for the Orioles.
A-Rod’s 646th career home run, a two-out solo shot off Pedro Strop in the eighth, kept the Yanks close enough to make a late-game run at it, which the blatantly blown call stifled.
“Sometimes I think the umpires just want to go home,” Teixeira said afterward, a comment that could warrant his being fined.
He probably won’t play in today’s series finale as he surely aggravated his physical condition. Manager Joe Girardi was not as fierce in his postgame comments, which was smart. He is well aware that the same umpire who blew it at first base will be working the plate Sunday.
Yanks find different atmosphere at Camden Yards
Orange was the predominant color at Camden Yards for an Orioles-Yankees game Thursday night for what might have been the first time in 15 years. Ever since 1998, the first of 14 straight losing seasons for the Orioles, games against the Yankees in Baltimore provided local fans the opportunity to scalp tickets to willing New Yorkers who traveled to the Chesapeake Bay to see their heroes.
The main attraction was Cal Ripken Jr., who had a statue unveiled in his honor 16 years to the night he broke Lou Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games with No. 2,131 that would eventually grow to 2,632 and earn the “Iron Man” a place alongside the “Iron Horse” in the Hall of Fame. The rest of the night, however, belonged to the upstart 2012 Orioles, who received a standing ovation from Cal and the others in the sellout crowd of 46,298 after a rousing victory over the Yankees that left the teams tied for first place in the American League East.
The Yankees nearly spoiled it all for all those orange shirts when they erased a 6-1 deficit in the eighth inning with a five-spot on the sort of rally they have lacked much of the year. The offense came alive in a game in which the Yankees fell behind, 4-0, in the first inning. Erratic relief work by Pedro Strop, who faced four batters and gave up two walks and two hits to spit up Baltimore’s lead, was welcomed by the Yankees, who got clutch hits from Alex Rodriguez (RBI double), Curtis Granderson (RBI single) and Ichiro Suzuki (a two-run single) and a four-pitch walk to pinch hitter Chris Dickerson to force in a run.
Then it was the Yankees pen’s turn to falter. The Orioles treated David Robertson like a tomato can of a boxer with a 1-2 punch, a solo home run by Adam Jones and a two-run shot by Mark Reynolds. Robertson’s bell was still ringing in the dugout when his replacement, Boone Logan, was slugged for another homer, by Chris Davis.
The 10-6 Baltimore victory was definitely a knockout as the Orioles went yard six times. Reynolds had his third two-homer game against the Yankees in a week’s time. Over his past seven games, Reynolds has batted .423 with eight home runs, 16 RBI and eight runs in 26 at-bats. Six of those jacks have come against Yankees pitchers. This is a guy who was benched at mid-season when he was batting less than .200 and striking out twice a game.
The first of Reynolds’ home runs Thursday night was a solo in the sixth off Joba Chamberlain. The other Orioles’ homers were a big, three-run job by Matt Wieters in the first inning and a solo by Robert Andino in the third, both off David Phelps, who put the Yanks in 4-0 and 6-1 divots. Yet he was taken off the hook by the Yankees’ eighth-inning comeback.
Robertson, whose record fell to 1-6, is 0-2 with a 15.43 ERA in his past three appearances. Both home runs he yielded Thursday night were on two-strike pitches as he failed to put away Jones or Reynolds.
All the runs the Yankees scored in the eighth came after two were out, an encouraging sign, but more and more the fact that they have lived and died by the home run this year is starting to haunt them. The team that leads the majors in home runs is suddenly getting outslugged. Ten games into a 22-game stretch against AL East competition, the Yankees are 3-7 and have been out homered, 22-9. Thursday night was the 25th game in which the Yankees failed to hit a home run, and they are 4-21 in those games.
Camden Yards has always been a place where the Yankees have enjoyed playing with an overall record of 104-57 (.646), but they have to realize that the way the Orioles are playing now it will no longer seem like a home away from home.
Yankees’ lead in AL East is gone
And then there was none.
Games ahead, that is. The Yankees are still in first place in the American League East, but they are no longer alone atop the standings. A 5-2 loss to the Rays Tuesday night coupled with the Orioles’ 12-0 rout at Toronto created a first-place tie in the division between the Yankees and Baltimore. It marked the first time in an 84-day period since June 11 that the Yanks were not all by themselves in first place.
In addition, the third-place Rays are merely 1 ½ games out of first. The AL East, which looked like a runaway around the All-Star break, has turned into a dogfight. The Yanks led by as many as 10 games July 18. All of that lead has shredded. They have gone 19-25 since that date while the Orioles have gone 29-15 and the Rays 28-16. That is how leads disappear.
As for disappearing leads, that has happened to the Yankees in the three consecutive games they have lost. They couldn’t hang on to 2-0 and 3-1 leads in losing to the Orioles Sunday or to a 3-2 lead Monday and a 2-0 lead Tuesday night to the Rays.
Robinson Cano showed no signs of a lingering hip problem with a two-run home run in the first inning Tuesday night, but that would be all the offense the Yankees would generate. They had five hits the rest of the way. Their best chance to tag on runs was in the third against winning pitcher Alex Cobb when Derek Jeter singled and Curtis Granderson walked with none out, but Cano struck out and Nick Swisher grounded into a double play.
Freddy Garcia hit the fifth-inning wall for his third straight start. He gave up back-to-back home runs to Desmond Jennings and B.J. Upton that inning which created the final score. Garcia let Tampa Bay back in the game right away in the first inning on an RBI double by Upton. Evan Longoria shot the Rays into the lead with a two-run homer in the third.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi keeps saying that the team is not panicking, but his body language betrays him. The skipper went full-metal ballistic in the fourth inning against plate umpire Tony Randazzo and was ejected for arguing balls-and-strikes after Chris Dickerson was called out on strikes to end the inning.
Girardi did not want to discuss the matter after the game. There really wasn’t much to be said about anything in this game.
Yanks hope for boost from A-Rod
It is admittedly hard to stay optimistic about the Yankees after this past homestand in which they lost four of six games and had their lead in the American League East dwindle to two games over the Orioles, who were 8-3 winners Sunday and have beaten the Yankees six times in nine games this year at Yankee Stadium.
Baltimore certainly did not look like a team that will fade this month. Granted, the Orioles did hand the Yankees Saturday’s game, but they came back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 Sunday on the strength of two home runs by Mark Reynolds for four of the five runs that Phil Hughes gave up over five-plus innings.
The long ball has plagued Hughes all season, although Sunday was the first time in seven starts that he gave up more than one. Hughes has been taken deep 32 times this season.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi wore out a path from the dugout to the mound as he used eight pitchers in the game, including five in the eighth inning alone when the Orioles pulled away. Get used to this. With rosters expanded in September, managers have many more pitching options.
At issue for the Yankees has been a somewhat stagnant offense. They scored 22 runs during the homestand, which was an average of less than four runs (3.7) per game. After Mark Teixeira was sidelined because of a left calf strain, the Yankees’ cleanup hitters were Steve Pearce, Andruw Jones, Curtis Granderson and Eric Chavez. Granderson also got hurt (right hamstring tendinitis) and did not play Sunday.
In Granderson’s place was the lone bright spot for the Yankees Sunday. September callup Chris Dickerson hit a two-run home run, walked, scored two runs and made a sensational catch to rob Adam Jones of a potential home run in the seventh inning.
The Yankees are 2-4 after the first portion of a 22-game stretch against divisional foes, and they embark on their longest trip of the year, a 10-game, 11-day trek to St. Petersburg, Fla., Baltimore and Boston that starts with a Labor Day matinee game at Tropicana Field where the Yanks have lost five of six games this season.
Teixeira and Granderson may be kept off the Trop’s artificial surface, but Girardi said he was planning on getting Alex Rodriguez back into the lineup, although the manager did not specify third base or designated hitter. The main position for A-Rod with Girardi is hitter. The Yankees could use a lineup boost.
In the 36 games Rodriguez spent on the disabled list, his replacements at third base (Chavez, Jayson Nix and Casey McGehee) combined to bat .303 with six doubles, seven home runs, 16 RBI and a .508 slugging percentage in 132 at-bats. Not bad. However, over the past 16 games, Yankees third basemen hit .193 with one extra-base hit, a double, and one RBI in 57 at-bats. Not good.
The Yankees played .500 ball (18-18) in Rodriguez’s absence. They are going to have to do better to fight off the challenge of the Orioles and the Rays, who are 3 ½ games out.
Yanks give ‘King Felix’ a royal pain
The Yankees got tired of Felix Hernandez pushing them around the past few years and shoved him out of Monday night’s 9-3 victory over the Mariners after six innings. “King Felix” was little more than a pawn this time against the Yankees, who finally broke out of a trip-long slump.
Even though they won Sunday at Anaheim, the Yankees’ victory was due largely to an error, not clutch hitting. The Yankees’ first run Monday night was on an infield out, which extended their streak of hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position to 13 over five games.
That ended with a 3-for-3 performance under those conditions in the third inning when they hung a five-spot on Hernandez, who has not been as dominant against the Yankees this year as in the past. In four starts against the Yankees over the 2009 and ’10 seasons, Hernandez was 4-0 with a 0.51 ERA. This year in three starts against them, he is 1-1 with a 4.95 ERA.
The Yankees banged him around for six runs and nine hits in six innings. The assault included long home runs by Mark Teixeira and Chris Dickerson. They then went to work on the Seattle bullpen with a three-run seventh begun by rookie catcher Austin Romine’s first major-league hit, a single to right.
The Yankees eventually filled the bases and watched Robinson Cano clean them with his second double of the game. That improved Cano’s record with the bags drunk this year to .471 with 2 doubles, 1 triple, 3 home runs and 27 RBI in 17 at-bats. Cheers!
I have said in recent weeks that Cano is every bit a Most Valuable Player Award candidate as teammate Curtis Granderson, and the second baseman continues to prove it. Granderson, whose two-run home run Sunday was his only hit in 13 at-bats in the Anaheim swing, seemed to be working out of a slump with two hits.
Phil Hughes also broke out of a three-start slump (0-1, 8.79 ERA) with six strong innings in which he allowed one run, five hits and three walks with three strikeouts. He’ll get another start, too, since manager Joe Girardi is sticking with the six-man rotation for at least one more turn and very likely for the remainder of the regular season.
The Yankees turned a pair of double plays in the infield, Brett Gardner made his seemingly daily great running catch in left field and Nick Swisher playing first base pulled off some good scoops as if he were at the position the entire year.
All this work combined to push the Yankees’ lead in the American League East to four games over the Red Sox, who were not scheduled and lost yet another half-game in the AL wild card standings to the Rays, who won their fifth straight game and trail Boston by only three games. There is a race going on in this division after all.
Catch as catch can for Yanks rookies
Yankees fans will get plenty of opportunities to see the franchise’s top catching prospects the remainder of the regular season. Jesus Montero and Austin Romine will get plenty of playing time because of injuries to the team’s other catchers.
While it was good news in New York that an MRI on Francisco Cervelli was negative, he still has a concussion, his third in three years, a malady that is treated far more seriously in baseball than it used to be. Montero and Romine will be needed in Cervelli’s backup role to the regular catcher, Russell Martin, who is also hurting with two bruised thumbs.
Romine made his first major-league start Monday night at Seattle. He is considered the better of the two rookies defensively. Montero has opened eyes with his hitting (.308, 3 home runs, 6 RBI in 26 at-bats) and is a post-season candidate as a designated hitter against left-handed pitching. Montero made his first major-league start Sunday at Anaheim and was replaced behind the plate in the seventh by Romine. It was the first time in Yankees history that two players each made his first career appearance at catcher in the same game and the first for any team since the Red Sox’ Gary Allenson and Mike O’Berry did it April 8, 1979 at Cleveland.
Nick Swisher, nursing an ailing left elbow, was back in the lineup at first base as Mark Teixeira assumed DH duties. Chris Dickerson was in Swisher’s normal spot in right field and helped the Yankees manufacture a run off Felix Hernandez in the second inning. Dickerson singled to right to send Brett Gardner, who led off with a single, to third base from where he scored on an infield out by Derek Jeter.
Crowds at Safeco Field who love to torment Alex Rodriguez for his leaving town to sign with the Rangers as a free agent after the 2000 season won’t get that chance this trip. Still bothered by a nagging left thumb injury, A-Rod is unlikely to play in this series and is hopeful to get back in the lineup by the time the Yankees move on to Toronto.
Spare parts have their uses
One of the elements of doubleheaders, either the regular kind or the separate-admission variety such as the Yankees and Orioles played Saturday at Yankee Stadium, is that lineups can look quite unusual. For a manager, the task is to split up the duty so as not to tax players, especially the regulars who play every day and in particular those well on the north side of 30.
When I was a kid and doubleheaders were a regular part of the major league schedule, I used to like reading the boxscores of second games of doubleheaders and see the sometime bizarre batting orders that featured fifth infielders, fourth outfielders and third-string catchers getting rare starts.
I thought of that Saturday when I saw Joe Girardi’s lineup for the afternoon game. It had no Curtis Granderson or Derek Jeter. It had Eduardo Nunez in the 2-hole, reserve infielder Eric Chavez at third base and down at the bottom were spare outfielder Chris Dickerson and backup catcher Francisco Cervelli.
The reasons were simple. Granderson has been a workhorse all year, so Joe thought it best to let him sit out a game. Jeter is 37, which is reason enough to take a game off. Mark Texeira got to stay out of the sun at first base and switched roles with designated hitter Jorge Posada. Catchers usually split doubleheader duty, so Russell Martin was slated for the night game.
I do recall as a youngster watching a Yankees-Senators doubleheader on TV from Washington, D.C., on a steamy mid-August Sunday when Yogi Berra and Elston Howard were both nursing leg injuries. That forced manager Casey Stengel to use third-string catcher Johnny Blanchard for both games, and the second one went 14 innings! Players didn’t change jerseys during games in those days, so by the time extra innings began in the second game Blanchard’s shirt was so wet and dirty that a viewer could not detect his number, which was 38.
But if anyone thought the odd lineup Saturday was incapable of putting together a winning effort, they were sadly mistaken. While regular right fielder Nick Swisher had a big game with a two-run home run, a double and a single, much of the damage in the Yankees’ 8-3 victory was done by the spare parts.
Dickerson, who has been back and forth from Triple A three times and made only his fifth start in 41 games, had two hits, scored a run, drove in a run and stole a base. Cervelli had a double, a single, a run and an RBI and did a fine job behind the plate handling winning pitcher Bartolo Colon, who threw 105 pitches in five innings. Chavez singled twice, scored two runs and made a dazzling catch in foul ground in the seventh inning.
Posada also flashed some nice leather on a foul ball. The one blip on the screen was Nunez, who was 0-for-5 with three strikeouts and committed a throwing error.
Corey Wade and Boone Logan pitched efficiently in relief, which allowed Girardi to have David Robertson, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera available for the night game.
With the starting time of Friday night’s game having been pushed back one hour and 49 minutes due to a rain delay, it meant that the Yankees would play four games in a 41-hour time frame. That is a tough row to hoe for any club. Saturday’s first game was a good example of how each member of the roster must step up for a team to be successful.
“The bottom of the order did a lot of damage,” Girardi noted. “Those contributions are important because it can’t always come from the guys in the middle.”
HOPE Week goes to Broadway
The Yankees led off HOPE Week Monday by celebrating Daniel Trush and Daniel’s Music Foundation (DMF). Yankees players Russell Martin, Nick Swisher, Francisco Cervelli, Hector Noesi and Chris Dickerson surprised the honorees at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre prior to their Broadway debut.
The players rehearsed with DMF singers and musicians and then took to the stage as part of the performance. The Yankees invited the group back to the Stadium to sing the national anthem and attend that night’s game against Seattle.
The Yankees were joined by former Yankees center fielder and Latin Grammy Award nominee Bernie Williams, Broadway cast members from Anything Goes, Book of Mormon, Catch Me If You Can, Million Dollar Quartet and Wonderland along with other special guests, who will all lend their talents to the performance.
In March 1997, one of five undiagnosed arterial brain aneurysms struck Daniel Trush, then 12 years old. He fell into a 30-day coma and remained hospitalized for 341 days. Music became an important part of Daniel’s healing process. Ken Trush, his father, sang to Daniel in the hospital and kept music constantly playing on a bedside stereo.
His family established DMF in February 2006. The not-for-profit organization provides free music instruction to individuals with disabilities in the five boroughs of New York City. Programs are open to the widest range of individuals possible without limitations on age, disability or talent.
“Daniel could have been a victim,” Ken said. “He could have been a cheerleader, giving motivational speeches about how far he has come. But that Knute Rockne stuff only goes so far. He works with our students every day. He gives those with disabilities a forum where they can prosper and be the people they were meant to be.”
Jack O'Connell
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