The reason for this email is to tell you about our friends, Ricky and Tracey Stone. Lou and Ricky played together in AAA Portland in ¡04 and also this year in Taiwan. Ricky has had a long career in baseball - 15 years! He has big league time with the Astros, Padres and Reds. You might even know him since it seems like everyone is connected in some weird way in this baseball life! They were the only other foreign family on the team in Taiwan so as you can imagine Tracey and I became fast friends! Our two older boys are the same age as their children. In August, while back home in Ohio, Ricky collapsed and suffered a seizure. An MRI revealed that he had a golf ball sized tumor on his brain. He underwent surgery to remove the tumor on August 22. At his first post-op appointment he was told the tumor is malignant. 10% of the tumor could not be removed because it is too close to the corpus callosum which connects the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Ricky must now undergo chemotherapy and radiation to shrink the remainder of the tumor and eliminate any other cancer cel ls in his body. As if this weren¡t enough for the family to deal with, Ricky does not have insurance. He was covered here in Taiwan by the team. Tracey was to start her teaching job on a Monday and he had his seizure the Thursday before. It is just tragic. Myself and another great friend of the Stones, Alisa Figueroa (Nelson - Mets), are organizing an online silent auction to benefit the family. We are reaching out to all our baseball contacts in hopes of making the auction a huge success! We need help in collecting as many baseball items as we possibly can. We are looking for jerseys, bats, balls, hats, etc. Anything will help! We all know that in this baseball life it is us wives who make things happen! That is why we are using the MLB wives site and all of our contacts to spread the word.

All of the items will come with a Certificate of Authenticity generously donated by Mr. Herman Darvick. He is a Consultant Authenticator for PSA/DNA Authentication Services which is the leading third-party authenticator in the autograph field, especially sports. He is a friend of the Figueroa¢s and we are so grateful that he is willing to help out this cause.

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