The full article first appeared at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/sports/baseball/16yankees.html?ref=sports.

Jack Curry, July 15, 2009, New York Times

Full Lineup of Charity Work by Yankees (excerpt)

Jason Zillo wrote “Hope Week” on the bulletin board in his office at the old Yankee Stadium last November. Zillo, the Yankees’ media relations director, did not know if the week would ever happen, but he wanted a daily reminder. He wanted his staff to see the reminder, too.

Eight months later, the reminder is now written on Zillo’s bulletin board at the new Stadium. But it is also in numerous other places. It is on news releases, memos, notebooks and T-shirts. It has been mentioned at dozens of meetings. It will finally become a reality Monday.

Professional sports teams have a long history of charitable work. Ailing children are allowed to watch batting practice. Players are asked to read to elementary-school students or to visit patients in hospitals. These are the types of things that the Yankees and the Mets routinely perform throughout long, draining seasons.

But now, in a season in which the Yankees have been repeatedly criticized over the ticket prices in their new stadium and in which there is continued grumbling about park land that was confiscated so the new stadium could be built, Zillo is trying to take the Yankees’ charitable actions to a more ambitious, and creative, level.