Results tagged ‘ United Nations ’
HOPE Week: Mohamed Kamara, man among boys
The Yankees hopped downtown Wednesday in the continuance of their 2010 HOPE Week (Helping Others Persevere & Excel) by reaching out to Mohamed Kamara, a Sierra Leone native, civil war survivor and recent high school graduate.
General manager Brian Cashman, Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson, shortstop and captain Derek Jeter, pitcher CC Sabathia and outfielders Curtis Granderson and Marcus Thames took Kamara on a surprise tour of the New York Stock Exchange during the morning bell ringing. The Yankees then escorted Mohamed to City Hall, where the group was to meet with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Following their trip to City Hall, the Yankees accompanied Mohamed to the United Nations to participate in a photo session with His Excellency Shekou M. Touray, Permanent Representative of Sierra Leone to the United Nations, in the Indonesian Lounge. The group took a VIP tour of the General Assembly Hall.
Mohamed Kamara was born in 1992 amid the civil war in his West African homeland of Sierra Leone. Any semblance of a normal childhood was unavailable to him. As the oldest of three brothers and two sisters with an absent father and a mother suddenly ill, Mohamed was forced to become the “man of the house” at age 9, providing for his family by foraging on his own to prevent their starvation.
When the war subsided approximately six years ago, Mohamed, who did not speak English at the time, made the difficult decision to come to the United States to join his aunt and uncle in an impoverished section of the Bronx.
Since arriving here, Mohamed has simultaneously created a life for himself and improved the lives of others.
He graduated in the top quarter of his class at Bronx Leadership Academy High School and earned a partial scholarship to Johnson & Wales University in Rhode Island, where he will work toward a business degree.
The past four years, he has remained the breadwinner for his family in Africa despite being a full-time Bronx high school student, working as a caddie at Montammy Golf Club in Alpine, N.J., which requires him to awake for work at 4 a.m. and spend nearly five hours a day in transit in an effort to send every last possible dollar back to Africa.
Mohamed also displays selflessness in his treatment of his peers. He became a mentor and sounding board for other African students in his school, and he founded the Sierra Leone Gentlemen, which organizes benefits at his local church to raise money for children in his homeland to attend school.
Subway Series tracks
Take a look at the Empire State Building this weekend and you’ll notice the Subway Series is being observed with the edifice’s color scheme. The north and south side of the tower are colored Yankees blue and white, and the east and west side are in Mets blue and orange. The team that wins the series will have its colors displayed on all four sides Monday. I’m betting on blue and white.
New York City is also the home of the United Nations Building, which is pretty appropriate when the Yankees and Mets face each other. Their rosters feature players from more countries than any other teams. The Yankees have players from eight countries – Cuba (Juan Miranda), Dominican Republic (Robinson Cano, Damaso Marte), Korea (Chan Ho Park), Mexico (Ramiro Pena), Panama (Mariano Rivera), Puerto Rico (Javier Vazquez), Venezuela (Francisco Cervelli) and the United States (all others). They are topped only by the Mets, who have players from nine countries – Cuba (Raul Valdes), Panama (Manny Acosta), Mexico (Elmer Dessens, Oliver Perez), Venezuela (Kelvim Escobar, Fernando Nieve, Francisco Rodriguez, Johann Santana, Henry Blanco), Dominican Republic (Jenrry Mejia, Luis Castillo, Jose Reyes, Fernando Tatis), Japan (Ryota Igarashi, Hisanori, Takahashi), Puerto Rico (Alex Cora, Angel Pagan), Canada (Jason Bay) and the U.S. (all others).
My seat in the Citi Field press box is next to Bob Waterman of the Elias Sports Bureau, the statistics organization that is always coming up with gems. The latest is with regard to one of Friday night’s stars for the Yankees, Kevin Russo, whose double in the seventh inning scored both runs of the eventual 2-1 victory.
Russo, who grew up in West Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, about 30 miles east of Flushing, was the first player to drive in all of his team’s runs in his first major-league start since the Montreal Expos’ Shane Andrews in 1995 in a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Elias also noted that no other Yankees player has accomplished the feat in the expansion era that began in 1961. But Archie Moore was the last Yankees player to drive in all his team’s runs in his first big-league start in a 2-1 loss Oct. 4, 1964 to the Cleveland Indians.
Curtis Granderson’s path back to the Yankees was to begin Saturday night in Louisville, Ky., where he was to start a rehabilitation assignment for Triple A Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Granderson, disabled since May 2 because of a left groin strain, could be back with the Yankees when they return to the Stadium next weekend. The Yankees won’t know until Monday at the earliest whether Javier Vazquez will be able to make his next start. The pitcher has a bruised right index finger sustained when he was hit trying to bunt in the seventh inning Friday night.
Jack O'Connell
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