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<\/p>\nTampa: \u00a0Elvis Presley once said that a man is one thing and an image is another. I didn\u2019t really know what Elvis meant by saying that until I was invited \u00a0to visit the Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital through a personal call from their CEO Chantal Leconte.<\/p>\n
Tuesday morning \u00a0in Fort Lauderdale Florida, after I parked my car, as I approached the hospital I saw this magnificent building with a statue in the front of Joe DiMaggio in his Yankee uniform with his arm around a little boy. \u00a0It was the most sensitive looking work of art that I have ever seen. \u00a0When I walked inside the hospital Chantal and her entourage were standing there waiting for me.<\/p>\n
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Their camera man started flashing pictures of me as if I was some sort of celebrity. I told Chantal, \u00a0she is treating me like I was a Yankees star and she said, \u201cToday to these kids you are.\u201d We proceeded to take a little tour of this magnificent building and she educated me on what it meant to the community and the poor sick children that are here everyday.<\/p>\n
I asked her why it was important to have me there? She said, \u201cI knew that after listening to you speak at another venue weeks before, I knew that you understood what these kids were going through and that you can truly brighten their day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chantal mentioned to me that it was nice to have someone in the hospital who had actually known Joe DiMaggio. I said to her that I had met DiMaggio on many occasions throughout the years but that I did not really know him.<\/p>\n
Chantal showed me many rare pictures dating back to 1936 right up until and just before he died, and how he truly loved children. I was truly blown away at the magnitude of the pictures. Evidently throughout the years this was one of Joe DiMaggio\u2019s best and kept secrets.<\/p>\n
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This was something that Mr. DiMaggio took very-very serious. With each passing picture that I saw, I started to realize certain things that DiMaggio said to different people over the years and one of them being, you must help children before they get polluted by adults.<\/p>\n
I now find it so profound that things make more sense. She even had a picture of DiMaggio and an African American boy in deep conversation before the boy had surgery. \u00a0In my mind all I could hear was Simon and Garfunkel \u201cWhere Have You Gone Joe DiMaggio, Our Nation Turns It\u2019s lonely Eyes To You.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now every time that I hear different people saying what a crab Joe DiMaggio was I will turn to them and say, \u201cWhat have you ever done for the children of this world?\u201d Because today Joe is a hero to me, not for the 56-game hitting streak but for the hundreds of children that he reached out too and tried to help.<\/p>\n
In 1984, I was lucky enough to work in a movie called \u201cThe Cotton Club\u201d that was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starred Richard Gere. I played a waiter in the club. Richard Gere introduced me to Mr Coppola as George Steinbrenner\u2019s bat boy and from that day on for the next two months, Mr. Coppola treated me not like an extra but like one of the stars.<\/p>\n
He was truly a gentleman to me everyday. Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, and Nicholas Cage all used to stare at me in amazement with the preferential treatment Mr. Coppola gave me over all the other extras on the set.<\/p>\n
When filming ended at the \u201cRap Party\u201d Mr. Coppola came over to me, shook my hand and thanked me for my efforts. I asked out of curiosity, I needed to know as to why he had been so nice to me? His response was, \u201cEven though you may think you are just a bat boy, you are still a Yankee and when I was a little boy I was suffering from a very rare paralysis and a significant Yankee came to the hospital to visit me. He didn\u2019t know me from Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Coppola would say, \u201cI was just one of the sick kids at the hospital and this Yankees visit meant the world to me and for a little while I forgot how sick I really was.\u201d<\/p>\n
I asked Mr. Coppola who was that Yankee? He said, \u201cJoe DiMaggio.\u201d Thirty-three years later, It\u2019s incredible that I am standing in a hospital named after a man that most of the world did not realize had this kind of a beautiful heart. Even though I had seen little samples of what this Yankee great was capable of off the field I never put it together until now.<\/p>\n
Throughout the years I used to see my incredible boss George Steinbrenner do wonderful things and he would always tell me never to tell anyone and this is pretty much the same way that DiMaggio wanted to be able to do the good that he had done.<\/p>\n
Now I understand. As the Boss once told me, if people find out the good I do, that\u2019s their business but that is not the reason for the good that I do. Now I have to believe after my findings that this was part of the reason why the Boss and DiMaggio had such great respect for each other.<\/p>\n
Chantal asked me, \u201cAre you now ready to see the kids?\u201d I responded, \u201cNow more than ever.\u201d I went from room-to-room and presented all the kids with replica championship rings and all of the children loved them. \u00a0She even had me visit the ward that had the children getting ready for surgery. At first I was scared because I did not know how the kids would react but when I handed them their rings it was if they had forgot that they were getting ready to go to surgery.<\/p>\n
One little boy held his fist up with the ring showing and he had a smile in his face as he was being wheeled into surgery. I gave him a thumbs up and he gave me a wink.<\/p>\n
This was truly one of the most beautiful moments of my life. When the visit was over, Chantal thanked me but it was me that was grateful for the awakening of what the great Joe DiMaggio was all about and how courageous our children of the world really are<\/p>\n
The classic line in my animated film \u201cHenry And Me\u201d comes from the mouth of Lou Gehrig, \u201cWe\u2019re Yankees. This is what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Weekends belong to Ray ESPN 1050 Radio 12-2pm Saturday and Sunday. Ray can also be read on Newsmax. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tampa: \u00a0Elvis Presley once said that a man is one thing and an image is another. I didn\u2019t really know what Elvis meant by saying that until I was invited \u00a0to visit the Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital through a personal call from their CEO Chantal Leconte. Tuesday morning \u00a0in Fort Lauderdale Florida, after I parked … <\/p>\n